I chatted with Oded Turgeman and David Israel from the Operating Room last week in Los Angeles. The Operating Room is a production company set in Hollywood, a few miles away from the corner courtyard where we hung out in for the day at the Luxe Hotel. They recently opened up an office in Tel Aviv to explore the untapped innovation and talent in Israel. Their goal is to bring over some Israel programs and films in the near future – have a listen.

I had the pleasure of chatting with and listening to Or Matias on piano at this year’s Israel Conference. Listen to his story and his music.

Vered Levy Ron, CEO of Snapily, an Israel-based company, spoke to me this past week at the Israel Conference in Los Angeles. Snapily prints customized photo gifts
with 3D and Flip-book style effects.

In a few simple steps, anyone can create LivingPrints, which Snapily converts into greeting cards, scrapbook pages, business cards, personal fun cards, invitations, thank you cards, and notebooks. Their software is based on interlacing images so they fit under a substrate called Lenticular, which is a type of plastic that is produced with many small lenses.

Check out TuneWiki, a cool music site, which I learned about at last week’s Israel Conference. The below video gives you a taste of what you can do using TuneWiki….I only wish it was a little easier to find out what they do on their website since they don’t even have an About Us section. Click play to learn more.

Sharona Justman and Isabel Maxwell sit with me at the end of The Israel Conference, now in its second year. The event was once again a hit, not only from a content perspective but also from the discussions you had in between sessions in the courtyard of the Luxe Hotel along LA’s West Hollywood Boulevard. There were also compelling demos and show-and-tells from companies that participated as sponsors or attendees.

Energetic, vibrant, and full of intellectual discussions & insightful innovation, The Israel Conference is an undiscovered gem that is a must attend if you are interested in the areas of technology, entertainment, innovation, sustainability, biotech and healthcare. Below, Sharona and Isabel explain and recap some of the highlights from this year’s event.

Heather Harde of TechCrunch gives an inspiring introduction at The Israel Conference audience highlighting Israeli technology innovation and how an Israeli start-up won one of their recent awards. On the panel discussing innovation includes Harde, Sequoia’s Randy Ditzler, and Moshe Lichtman, Head of R&D for Microsoft Israel. Yossi Vardi moderates.

Answers.com’s Bob Rosenschein talks to this year’s Israel Conference audience. He talks about his 25+ years in Israel, starting his Company, and the uniqueness of Israel as a start-up nation, a country full of innovators and leaders. He also shows us the latest from Answers.com, which includes mobile support and the ability to tweet your questions directly from Twitter.

Brad Kava, co-owner of the Santa Cruz Blues Festival talks about this year’s Blues Festival which is being held this weekend at Aptos Village Park.

The event drew more than 2,000 people today who threw down blankets and beach chairs and took in New Orleans style pork and ribs, draft beer and music from the likes of Ben Harper & Relentless7, Taj Mahal, Joseph Arthur, Eric Lindell and Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk. Sunday is sold out but those lucky enough to have purchased a ticket in advance will be able to take in Buddy Guy, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band, Eric Burdon & The Animals, and Coco Montoya Was (Not Was).

Lauren Goode reports on the Willow Garage PR2 graduation ceremony and celebration this past week in Menlo Park, CA.

ABC’s KGO Channel 7 News covered the news of Willow Garage’s robot graduation and party this week.