Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney says she's finding a host of potential business partners and economic-development opportunities for Central New York during her trip to Israel.

Mahoney is currently attending the Israeli Prime Minister's Conference for Export and International Cooperation in Jerusalem. She left Sunday (Nov. 9) for the eight-day trip.

The hope is to forge relationships with Israeli economic-development officials and companies that could eventually benefit Central New York.

Mahoney says many of the businesses there are simply not aware of what Upstate has to offer.

"We have everything to offer, but I don't think anyone has ever really aggressively presented that to the rest of the world," Mahoney says in a Wednesday (Nov. 12) telephone interview.

That's exactly what Mahoney says she's trying to do in Jerusalem. She has been in regular contact with Empire State Development's representative in Israel and has been meeting as many representatives from Israeli companies as possible.

In addition, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the conference Tuesday night (Nov. 11) and the current prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was set to address the event Wednesday evening.

"The world is becoming a very small place," she says. "We know it's competitive and we want to be at the table so we can tell our story."

Mahoney compared one session she attended Tuesday to "speed dating" with a group of about 400 companies. Businesses and other participants created lists of whom they wanted to meet during the event and then got together for quick talks.

One company Mahoney met with during the event was an Israeli startup preparing to launch a type of faucet that sets water to a desired temperature before the flow turns on. The technology clearly has major potential for water-conservation efforts, and the firm is getting ready to launch it at a business show in Germany in March, Mahoney says.

The firm's owners are looking for a place to manufacture the product, she adds.

"That would be a perfect product for us to manufacture in Central New York," she says. "We heard about where they are in stages of development and what their plans are. We want to follow up with them and make sure they know what we can do for them."

Some of the best potential opportunities for Central New York Mahoney says she's found are of that type - young companies looking for a good place to set up a manufacturing site. For those businesses, Mahoney says she's been talking up the region's work force, its base of colleges and universities, its reasonable cost of living, and good quality of life.

She's also pointing out that Central New York is within driving distance of a marketplace totaling more than 60 million people.

Mahoney says she was also planning to meet during the week with the Israeli developers renovating the Hotel Syracuse into condominiums. The project has been moving more slowly than expected, Mahoney says.

"We're going to sit down with them and find out exactly what the hold-up is," she says. "We want to let the owners know that we want to kick-start the project. We want to find out what we can do to make that happen."

Overall, Mahoney says the Israel trip has been more than worthwhile so far.

"There's a high level of real opportunity for us here," she says. "It is exceeding our expectations."

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