How the first Networking Club by CardBook event took place in Tel Aviv

250+ people and an evening that set a new standard for networking events

On 29 July, the first Networking Club by CardBook Ecosystem took place at Panthera in Tel Aviv — an evening that was conceived from the outset not as just another networking event with business cards, but as new format where the right people find one another not through presentations, but through conversation.

And it worked. More than 250 people gathered in a single room — founders of major companies, investors, C-level executives, diplomats, business owners and industry leaders. And, more importantly than the numbers, partnerships that began as chance conversations that evening were already turning into real projects by the very next day.

Why was this evening really needed?

The idea that the CardBook team built into the format from the very beginning is simple, yet rarely put into practice: to bring together, in one place, a diverse yet high-calibre audience and not to disrupt their interactions with presentations, slides or the handing out of business cards. The real value of the evening lay not in the number of people in the room, but in the density of opportunities per square metre: right next to one another were an investor looking for a project and a founder in need of funding; an entrepreneur who had been searching for years for a way into a new market, and a partner who could just open up that very opportunity.

That is precisely why the evening was structured around conversation rather than a programme of presentations. The interview format, a lively dialogue with the audience, and a minimum of ‘formalities’ — everything was designed so that someone who came on their own would leave that evening with several genuine contacts, rather than a pile of business cards that no one would ever look at again.

The opening and initial activities with participants

The evening was hosted by Inbal Ann Bouskila — a well-known journalist and media specialist, founder of the Inbal Ann Influence Platform, and an interviewer for The Jerusalem Post.

Within the first few minutes, she turned the room from an audience into a participant: asking entrepreneurs, investors, and diplomats to raise their hands — and in that moment, it became physically visible just how strong and opportunity-rich the crowd really was.

Organisers

The evening was opened by the co-founders of CardBook Ecosystem — Elli Glaybman (CEO), Alex Lyhovez (Head of Business Growth), and Alena Morozov (Director of Technical Product). They presented the Connect platform and conveyed to the audience the central theme of the evening — the mission around which the entire event was structured: to create a new culture of networking.

The on-stage discussion centred on simple yet precise questions: what networking means to each of them personally, how it has changed their lives, what opportunities they are currently seeking, and what advice they would give to those who want to build a high-quality network of contacts.

Connect: the economy of trust and warm introductions

The highlight of the programme is the presentation of Connect platform, which solves a problem familiar to everyone.

Connect is a platform featuring a networking concierge that helps entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders find the right people, receive verified, warm introductions and build meaningful relationships.

A cold approach starts from scratch and requires you to prove that you can be trusted right from the first message. A warm introduction starts with a head start in terms of trust, and in this case, this happens through an introduction within the platform. Connect doesn’t just expand your network; it builds a network of warm introductions around you, turning a one-off encounter at a social event into lasting business relationships – and does so far more quickly and easily than if you were to seek out the right connections on your own.

Connect was presented not as a by-product, but as a practical solution to the very problem that the whole evening had been designed to address — the gap between ‘meeting an interesting person’ and ‘actually staying in touch’.

Partners who set the standard

The choice of "Panthera" as the venue was no coincidence. Our meeting with Galit Ben Simhon, the owner of location, made it clear that this space had long since ceased to be merely a co-working space; over the years, it had become a home for entrepreneurs and growing businesses, and that is precisely why the evening had such a warm atmosphere.

A particular source of pride for the first Networking Club was its line-up of partners. Among those who joined us for the evening were TBC Bank and ACRO, two major players, each a significant name in their respective industries: TBC — an international banking group with a presence and client base in Israel, represented at the event by Eli Enoch (Senior Vice President, Wealth Management), ACRO – a publicly listed property development group whose projects are shaping the face of Tel Aviv, represented by Alexey Kovalenko (Co-Founder of BOOST Capital, Attorney-at-Law). Their presence at the inaugural event was a great honour for the organisers.

We're also grateful to all the sponsors and partners who came out to support the evening: Gena Panich (Smartexe), Micha Rosenblatt (Mellius), Ido Yonesi (Deal Ventures), Shay Bejerano (AGILE), Anna Mirel and Daria Tsyrulnikov (Art Moment). A special thank you to the evening's friends, the social and charitable projects Ella Care and Tikva2Go.

The team behind the scenes

Some of the CardBook team weren’t on stage that evening, but they were in touch. Alex Romanyuk and Maria Tomkovich — the project’s co-founders, who were not in Israel at the time — provided organisational support for the event online.

Without this work, unseen by the guests, the evening — which appeared effortless and seamless from the stage — would not have come together.

Behind the atmosphere in which everything seemed so natural was a team working on several fronts at once: Panthera as the venue, team members assisting the organisers on the ground, and remote coordination from abroad. An event of this scale cannot be organised by a single person or a single team in one location — it relies on all these strands working together simultaneously.

What's next

The first Networking Club ended with a feeling the team and guests summed up in one phrase: "It was wow!" Conversations that started out as casual were already turning into working meetings by the next day. That, in CardBook's view, is how networking is supposed to work — not as collecting contacts, but as the start of real partnerships.

There's really only one question left: when's the next Networking Club?