June 18, 2018 | WeWork, the shared workspace giant, co-founded by Israeli Adam Neumann, is set to bring its Creator Awards to Jerusalem on Wednesday, June 20. The event will honor entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, and organizations and will also mark the opening of the company’s first location in the city. “Israel is a constant source of inspiration, talent and growth for our company,” Neumann, who is also CEO of the co-working space network said in a previous statement. “As we prepare to open our first WeWork location in Jerusalem later this year, we want to infuse the Creator Awards with the city’s unique spirit and energy: it’s the perfect place to invite creators from all backgrounds, all industries, and all walks of life to come together to celebrate innovation and new ideas.” Finalists in three categories will be presenting Wednesday night. The Angelcy, an independent band of six musicians that creates, arranges, and records music together, is a finalist in the performing arts category. In the non-profit category, finalists include Yotsrot – Turning The Tables, a group helping women in prostitution change their lives through a special progam, Hand In Hand, a growing network of Jewish-Arab schools and communities, and Amutat Kaima, which uses working on the farm as an “employment for education” model for dropout youth. Six companies are finalists in the business venture category including Emerj, an internal app for organizations where employees can seek advice for mentoring or job shadowing discreetly, Bibliotech, an online Arabic education platform, Duet Writing, a unique pencil/writing system, Tethys, a watertech breakthrough that enables low cost desalination water treatment powered by solar energy, MonitHer, the first breast health monitoring system, and SensPD, a device/method to detect autism at a very early developmental stage.
The event will feature an opening performance by 2018 Eurovision song contest winner Netta Barzilai as well as a performance by popular Israeli group Aviv Geffen & The Mistakes. There will also be two master classes. The first will feature world-renowned mentalist Lior Suchard who has performed for Kim Kardashian and James Corden. The second will be a master class on the future of cities with an exclusive fireside chat between Neumann and Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat.
The Creator Awards will also feature a job fair and a pop-up market for one-of-a-kind jewelry, cards, and home decor from local designers and artists.
WeWork hosted the Creator Awards in Tel Aviv last October, with prizes for 20 Israeli startups and organizations, and an appearance by Neumann, who spoke of Israel as special nation,” filled with “an energy” that has helped it earn the “Startup Nation” title. WeWork is holding a number of Creator Awards in cities across the world this year including San Francisco, New York, Seoul, Sao Paolo, London, and Berlin.