Elephant began as the Yokneam Forum of Technical Writers (פי"ל) to help experienced tech writers find jobs and clients during the hi-tech downturn of 2003. Over the past ten+ years, the Forum has been a completely voluntary effort with top notch speakers volunteering their time, hi-tech companies and the city of Yokneam providing facilities.
Companies throughout Israel turn to "the Elephant" to find the technical writers that best meet their needs. Behind the scenes and between meetings, members stay in contact with job offers and leads, joint projects, and professional assistance.
Elephant meetings and workshops are free, but often space is limited to those who don't register in advance. Meetings always begin with a short round of AA style introductions and announcements to facilitate networking. Workshops are at a high level and those presenting are often challenged by experienced members of the audience.
The annual family picnics provide an opportunity for creating the type of positive professional relationships among competitors that is needed when competing against larger organizations.
The Founder
Svi Ben-Elya is one of Israel's more experienced technical writers with a reputation for innovation and helping companies solve their documentation problems painlessly.
Testimonials — See what others are saying about Svi.
“Svi is a dedicated technical writer. He is a real professional who cares about what he does and has an excellent technical knowledge and the ability to really get into details.”
“(CTO of SaferPoint Ltd.)Mr. Ben-Elya wrote the Administrator Guide and Policy Editor Guide for SrPoint Ltd. His understanding of network security made it easy for me to explain the product. He worked quickly and wrote exactly what our customers, who are experienced network administrators, needed to know. Along the way he even made a few useful recommendations that I used to improve SrPoint. I was very happy with Mr. Ben-Elya and strongly recommend him.”
“Eitan ReuveniSvi is easy to manage. He knows how to manage his time and get along with his coworkers. All of the team leaders found him easy to work with and always ready to help out. The technical documentation was always ready on-time and he worked directly with other department to make sure that his documents were accurate and useful.”
“When Svi first joined the CT Service Innovation team as a technical writer, I was a Product Innovation leader on the team. After each project that we worked on together, Svi conducted an evaluation of what he did right and what he could have improved.
When I later became the Service Innovation Project Manager for ICAP, I was glad that Svi was the technical writer assigned to write most of the IntelliSpace Portal product documents. Svi knew and understood the products. He analyzed the procedures and reorganized them to create a more efficient workflow for Field Service Engineers (FSEs).”
“ David Schor David SchorI hired Svi for a long-term project in 2004-05, in which he wrote the user documentation for two new conferenceing applications. Svi was a stickler for accurate details, for meeting our deadlines, and ensuring that the work met our specifications 100%. I also admire his dedication to the profession of technical communication, which he drives through his Elephant organization, helping to bring awareness and discussion of professional developments, methods, and tools to his fellow documentation professionals.”
“It is always a pleasure working with Svi. He is always calm and smiling, even under pressure. Svi has a good technical understanding and a sense of what questions to ask. He works quickly and if there is something that he is not sure about when I am not available, he points it out in the draft documents, then follows up in person to make sure that nothing gets overlooked. You can tell that he really cares.”
“When I first asked Svi to review and correct my English on an internal document about a new design for the software engine. I didn’t really expect that he would understand as much as he did. Within minutes, he asked questions that helped me reorganize what I wanted to say.
For over 4 years, Svi worked with my team quickly and efficiently, gathering most of the information on his own or in team discussions. His questions were to the point and he understood the technology. So his documents were always clear and accurate.”
“Svi has a broad range of knowledge and technical understanding. For someone who is not an electrical engineer, his understanding of electronics is surprising. His questions are to the point and he understands the details. He knows how to relate to both hardware and software issues, and is easy going. Svi is more than just a technical writer. He is team player and a good person to talk to when trying to troubleshoot a problem. I highly recommend him to anyone that needs a good, professional and responsible technical writer.”