Multinational development centers in Israel will hold their second Weekathon less than a year after their first meeting. Seven multinationals centers will attend the Weekathon, compared with the eight centers that attended last June's meeting. The participants are the centers of Citi, Ebay, General Electric, General Motors, Microsoft, Red Hat, and 3M. Red Hat's development center in Ra'anana will host the event.
The forum of multinationals development centers in Israel at the Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI) is organizing the event, where developers at the companies will work together with the intention of collaborating on the development of future products.- something that is impossible in the US for example. Each development center will send 3-5 software engineers to the Weekathon, where they will be cut off from their usual work environment and work in groups to develop new ideas.
The participating companies will allocate resources for the program, such as GM's Volt electric car with advanced communications systems, or Microsoft's Kinect and 3D cameras.
Forum co-chairman Cadence Israel CEO Erez Tzur and Microsoft Israel Development Center general manager Yoram Yaacovi said, "In Israel, there is a rare confluence of more than 250 multinational development centers, which concentrate the highest level of innovation and capabilities. We believe that cooperation between the centers can herald good tidings in technology from Israel. Besides, the success of last year's Weekathon created great interest among foreign companies, which are considering adopting the model."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 12, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014