The path that changed Israel from an agricultural economy into a world leader in high-tech industry is the focus of an international conference at Dartmouth on Tuesday, Nov. 11, titled “How Emerging Economies Grow Entrepreneurs: The Case of Israel.”

The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, the Tuck School of Business, and the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel, are cosponsoring the one-day conference, which will bring together Israeli venture capitalists, representatives from leading Israeli high-tech companies, and scholars from Israel and the United States.

”The development of Israel, once a sclerotic, agriculture-based economy, into a high-tech superstar in roughly one generation is one of the fascinating economic stories of our time,“ says Daniel Benjamin, the Norman E. McCulloch Jr. Director of the Dickey Center.

”Plenty of people have drawn attention to Israel’s success, but it’s important to ask whether there are applicable lessons here for other countries,“ Benjamin says.

The conference runs from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Georgiopoulos classroom at Tuck’s Raether Hall. During the morning, panels on ”Ambitions: The Case of Three Companies“ and ”Mentors“ will consider entrepreneurship ”from the ground up.” The afternoon sessions will focus on entrepreneurship “from the top down,” and will include a panel discussion of global networks. There will be a closing keynote conversation with Eitan Wertheimer, one of Israel’s most successful entrepreneurs.

“Israel is on the leading edge of developing medical, mobile, IT, and medical technologies with worldwide impact. IDC Herzliya is a microcosm and at the same time an integral part of the thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem in Israel,“ says Liat Aaronson, executive director of the Zell Entrepreneurship Program at IDC Herzliya.

”On behalf Of IDC Herzliya, I wish to thank Dartmouth for sponsoring this conference in order to foster brainstorming between the entrepreneurial minds of Israel and the business savvy of the United States for the betterment of the world,” says Aaronson.

Founded in 1994, IDC Herzliya is Israel’s first private institution of higher education and one of Israel’s leading social science colleges. The Zell Entrepreneurship Program at the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship allows IDC undergraduates in their final year of study to experience entrepreneurship hands on.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information and a detailed agenda, see the Dickey Center’s website.