Silicon Wadi: A Visit to GarageGeeks in Israel (Video)

Earlier this summer, I went to Israel to check out the tech scene, which is thriving and vibrant.

So much so, that several Silicon Valley companies have been eyeing and buying several start-ups there of late.

That includes Face.com, the facial recognition start-up which was scooped up by Facebook earlier this summer for $60 million. In addition, recent reports correctly have the social networking giant in talks with GPS navigation app maker Waze, which is widely considered to be Israel’s hottest start-up.

I found that out when I went to visit and give a little talk at GarageGeeks, in the Holon Industrial Zone near Tel Aviv, at the invitation of Israel’s entrepreneur godfather Yossi Vardi.

GarageGeeks describes itself as a “not-profit physical and virtual space for innovative and creative people to introduce, network, expose, create, brainstorm, innovate and build.”

In other words, a nerd crash pad, Israeli-style. Which is to say, it’s universal to all geeks who love to hack away in electronics, software, mechanical, art, design, music and gaming.

Here’s a video I made while there, as well as a video of me (by Ayelet Noff) doing word association on Internet players and companies — such as Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and more — with Vardi: