This last week at PresenTense was laid back and fun.  We are working on our business "logic models" and on prototyping our ventures.  To help us understand the inputs, outputs and outcomes of our projects, we took a field trip last week to Tel Aviv to meet with some of the big venture capital firms in Herzilia and ended the day with a trip to Project Better Place, Israel's totally electric, zero emission car company that is set to launch on the market in 2011.  It definitely was the highlight of our day, and especially neat to test drive the cars and hear about their philosophy and vision.

On Sunday, I went to Beit Shean, Cleveland's sister city with Partnership 2000 to spend July 4th with the Cleveland Birthright trip that is currently in Israel.  We hung out at a pub on one of the Kibbutzim in the Beit Shean area and met with the participants.  On Monday we all volunteered at the Beit Shean community center, helping them mulch and landscape their community garden.  In the afternoon we got to relax in Emek Hama'ayanot next to the river where Birthright participated in "mattress rafting" which is exactly what it sounds like- floating on foam mattresses.

Tonight the PresenTense community got a very cool opportunity to attend the ROI networking dinner.  ROI is another entrepreneurial program sponsored by the Schusterman Foundation that brings people together from all over the world for a very short period of time for intense networking opportunities.  The event was at the JVP Media Center in Jerusalem and I had the chance to meet with a couple people that I hope will be very helpful in guiding the Minyan and Beit Midrash to fruition.  The evening was capped off by a concert by Koby Oz, formerly of the band Tipex, but who is now involved in a project called Psalms for the Perplexed.  All in all, it was a great evening, and it's been busy everywhere!

Three weeks left, and things are starting to really come together!