Yesterday, I was very excited to attend a seminar in Tel Aviv on the adtech industry in Israel. Here was an excellent opportunity to learn more about native advertising and the contribution of the Holy Land start ups to the global community in the field of video.

From the pre networking, it was obvious that the place was full of people and company reps with great talents, directing live content in ways thought impossible just a few years ago. And yet, much of the talk and the discussion forced me to slip into my role of business coach and mentor. Here’s why

1. After a brief intro from the hosts, the first speaker was forced to halt in mid track after 45 seconds. The microphone failed. The fault was quickly fixed. However, once back on his feet, our maestro promptly said that he would not repeat himself, “because it was not that important.”      You mean that I and hundreds others are about to sit here and waste our time on you listening to you? Amazing kick off!
2. There then followed a panel discussion. OK. But nobody introduced the participants and what gave them the right to be on stage in the first place. So, initially, their comments came over very disjointed.
3. Few of the speakers throughout the evening appeared to appreciate or even consider the make up of the audience. You could tell, just by looking around and counting those in the audience playing with their mobiles during the presentations.
4. And then there were the pitchesrom the start ups, each given just a few minutes to state why their technology is so ‘wow’. I watched as at least two presenters spent half their time explaining what they are not. What a waste of an opportunity.

And in contrast? Over the past few days, clients of mine have made pitches for funding.

• The founder of a start up originally complained to me that he could not explain what he does in less than two minutes. That came down to 15 seconds. They have since received the first level of approval.
• In parallel, a Jerusalem company has created a one page executive summary that sets out concisely their progress over the years and the proposed business model. No need at this stage for a 20 page business plan. They are hopeful to receive an injection of cash to fund future development.

To be honest, one pitch did catch my eye. Within 30 seconds I had understood what is so special about VocalReferences, as laid out by cofounder David Wenner.

I ended up leaving the conference early. Before doing so, I looked around the audience. I wondered how many investors and business accelerators were present in the room and how under whelmed they had been left. A golden opportunity for many so sadly underused.