So far, so good.

Around 4pm I make my way back home to the marina in Herzeliya. I’m in zomet hakfar hayarok, on the phone, the light already turned green, when an Indian guy comes running to me, middle of the junction, with suitcases and malle’ paklaoot and puts a sign to my window that says “can you take me to better place?”. I open the window of my rental to ask if he means the visitors center and people behind me already beep cause I’m blocking traffic so I let him in the passenger seat with all his stuff and my car now looks like an Indian bus from the movies.

[Thought: my description of the bus reminds me of the awful campaign to re-brand Israel running in the local media these days - the one with the camels.]

On the way to drop him off in glilot gas station (where he can grab a taxi – traffic was crazy and I was heading the other way…) he tells me this whole story of how he’s been studying the company for more than a year, that it’s his dream, that he’s an MBA student from Bangalore or something, and yada yada…

Inbal gave me this info postcard of the center so I give the place a call to say there’s an Indian guy with suitcases on the way and I give the postcard to him. End of story.

Then it hits me! Isn’t that the weirdest shit ever??? Think of it, in any other context, an Indian guy, running to your car with suitcases, asking you to take him to a better place, would sound totally whack and most people wouldn’t let him in. Most people probably didn’t. Let’s assume, with the PR they’ve been getting lately, and the vicinity, that more people now know what Better Place is. But the visitors center only opened a week ago. Yesterday, I too had no idea where the place was and it was totally out of my focus. But today, of all days, when I’m open to ‘Better Place experiences’ – with the visit and all, this guy who just landed from  India ‘falls’ on my car, like the coke bottle from ‘kulam naflu al harosh’, so that I can take him to Better Place and give the center a call to ’soften’ his pop visit.

Coincidence? As I said here before, I DON’T THINK SO!

The visit by the way, was very impressive. You should go there even if it’s just for the lesson in marketing. It’s like nothing we know here in Israel. The ride was, well, just like any other vehicle only very silent and smooth. And it’s overall a very cool car. When we pulled back in I said, “WOW, this is the future!” and Raanan, an obviously highly trained “switcher” (which is the Better Place word for the guy that takes you on the test drive) replied: “No, it’s the present”.

Am I switched? Yes.

And as for my Indian friend, well… we exchanged cards, and I hope he does well. Actually, I have no doubt he will.

And following are some pics I took of the visit today, and Shai Agassi’s talk about Better Place at TED2009 – because like any marketer, I can’t pass on an opportunity to embed a TEDTalk in context…

The full and most updated information about the event can always be found in the TEDxTelAviv official website. You can also follow TEDxTelAviv updates via RSS or Twitter (if you tweet, please use #TEDxTelAviv).

George Carlin’s Views on Aging when he was 102:

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

‘How old are you?’ ‘I’m four and a half!’ You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key.

You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

‘How old are you?’ ‘I’m gonna be 16!’ You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life … . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re Just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You GET INTO your 80’s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30 ; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t end there Into the 90s, you start going backwards; ‘I JUST WAS 92.’

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. ‘I’m 100 and a half!’

Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay ‘them’.

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!

Condense was formed in 2005 by Koby Moshe Wallace & Amos Aharoni.In the next year to come they gathered with Gilad Ariel and started working on their first album.

Condense album produced by Tom Nichols, who is an ASCAP award-winning songwriter and producer based in London & NY. During the last few years Tom has been part of nearly 40 million records sold with the likes of: All Saints – ‘Black Coffee’ (Number 1 UK single), Kylie Minogue – ‘Fever’ & ‘Burning Up’, Sugababes – ‘Undignified’, Lindsay Lohan – ‘To Know Your Name’ and many more.

Condense Album was recorded in Israel and Mixed in L.A by Brian Paturalski (a Grammy award winner for Outkast, Aerosmith, Britney Spears and more). All samplers & programming in the album were done by Pete Gordeno from Depeche Mode, Tim Baxter from the Gorillaz and Ohad Bolotin.

Finalists will get to pitch at the national pitching Competition and stand to win a prize of $20,000.

This honest and truly funny talk by Guy Kawasaki about Art of The Start will help you prepare your pitch while you learn how many people it takes to change a light bulb at Microsoft and Apple.

Note that the contest is open to both individuals and teams, and at least one member must be listed IDC student or grad.

Moshe Safdie’s a triple citizen of Canada, Israel and the United States, three places where the bulk of his buildings can be found: in Canada, the National Gallery in Ottawa, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Vancouver public library. For Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, he designed the Children’s Memorial and the Memorial to the Deportees; he’s also built airport terminals in Tel Aviv. In the US, he designed the elegant and understated Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Masachusetts, and under construction now is the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas, set to open in 2010.

I couldn’t stop watching it.

You can get the full DVD in Blue Ray Quality from Amazon.

1. Don’t let go!
2. Hesitation is bad
3. Have a plan
4. The move is the end
5. Know how to rest
6. Fear sucks
7. Opposites are good
8. Strength != Power
9. Know how to let go

Matthew Childs is VP of Strategic Planning for FKQ Advertising and Marketing. He is a lifelong rock climber and climbing guide.