What do you get when you put hundreds of hackers in an exposition center? Cybertech 2023 in Tel Aviv, of course. At the annual event, cybersecurity companies old and new display their wares to those who speak in code.

This year’s Cybertech event, held at Expo Tel Aviv (commonly called the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds) from Monday through Wednesday this week, was particularly robust, with participating companies from Italy, Singapore, Japan, Panama, Kenya, Nigeria, and Canada, to name just a few of the 80 countries. More than 150 startups took part and, of course, where startups and other companies are dealing with hacking, there are investors and businesses from a wide range of sectors.

Eighth- and ninth-graders from the Yitzhak Shamir High School in Tel Aviv surveyed the Expo Hall in wonder, marveling at the plethora of businesses.

“You can really see cybersecurity approaches from differing points of view,” pointed out one ninth-grader.

“And the marketing!” said another, staring at a booth that had a punching bag registering the strength of each blow and offering participants the opportunity to win a bottle of whiskey. 

The students were brought to the event by Or-Tal Kiriati, who teaches them English and entrepreneurship. A former entrepreneur herself, Kiriati works with ea
ch child to develop his or her ideas and learn lessons even from failure.
“That is not something usually taught in school—failure, but it is a lesson for every budding entrepreneur,” she explained.

In one of the many lectures delivered at the event, Prof. Rafael Malach, who teaches neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, said very young people demonstrate the source of creativity.
“When children play,” he explained, “they frequently make mistakes. They fail. And it doesn’t matter. Creativity is fostered by the freedom of being able to be wrong if the system tolerates it. Creativity is the ability to want things, imagine things, to dream.”