2018 Smart21 Communities Announcement
ICF Names SMART21 for 2018
The Intelligent Community Forum announced the Smart21 Communities of 2018 on October 27, 2017 in New York City. They are in alphabetical order:
- Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- Chiayi City, Taiwan
- Espoo, Finland
- Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- Hudson, Ohio, USA
- Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
- Issy les Moulineaux, France
- Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
- Kinmen County, Taiwan
- Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
- Olds, Alberta, Canada
- Parkland County, Alberta, Canada
- Pickering, Ontario, Canada
- Sarnia-Lambton County, Ontario, Canada
- St. Albert, Alberta, Canada
- Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
- Tainan City, Taiwan
- Taoyuan, Taiwan
- Western Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- York (Regional Municipality of), Ontario, Canada
Selection of this group of cities and counties begins the eight-month process through which ICF will name of them as its 2018 Intelligent Community of the Year in London, England next June. For more, see the official press release.
More than semi-finalists for an international award, the ICF SMART21 cities represent the best models of economic, social and cultural development in the digital age, in the judgment of ICF and its team of independent analysts. The TOP7 Intelligent Communities will be awarded from this list of SMART21 in February 2018 and the Intelligent Community of the Year will be named on June 7, 2018 during an Awards Dinner at the ICF Global Summit in London. (http://www.intelligentcommunity.org/summit_18).
According to the Press Release, ICF Co-Founder Louis Zacharilla said that “This year’s list contains more surprises than we have seen in a long time. Over half of them are Canadian communities that have been working on their programs for years and arrived on the list. We also see Taiwan and Australia continuing to embrace broadband and the ICF Method effectively. While these are diverse places, they all connect this year as places that take the humanization of data seriously. Data has no value unless it is put in the service of a better, more prosperous region, city or town.”
The Smart21 Communities of 2018 include cities and counties from Canada, the United States, Taiwan, Australia, Finland and France. The announcement video may be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owwafUa3E_s . The video is available by request as a high-resolution download.
The 2018 Smart21 Communities were named at the conclusion of the 4th Annual Next Gen Tech Conference in New York City, produced by Silicon Harlem. ICF Co-Founder Louis Zacharilla, who made the Smart21 announcement on behalf of ICF, also moderated a panel discussion featuring international leaders in the Intelligent Community movement. The Smart21 are selected by ICF based on quantitative and qualitative data submitted to the Forum, which are evaluated by a group of Analysts led by former Cisco executive and Westchester County (New York) CIO, Dr. Norman Jacknis. The analysis is based on the six Intelligent Community Indicators, which provide the conceptual framework for understanding the factors that determine a community’s competitiveness in economic, social and cultural terms. The 2018 Awards program focuses on the theme of Humanizing Data, which explores the intersection between big data and open data, and the impacts of a data-driven economy on communities. Click here for more information on the 2018 theme.
According to ICF Canada spokesman, John G. Jung, who is also the Chairman and Co-Founder of ICF, he believes that there is a direct link between activities in Canada though the newly formed ICF Canada and an increase in Canadian submissions and winning communities over the past 2 years. ICF Canada was formed following the June 2015 ICF Summit in Toronto. Through webinars, international missions, an extensive website, speaking engagements across Canada and monthly newsletters, Canadian communities have become more aware of the ICF movement and the opportunities that participation in ICF and ICF Canada can offer communities. They also benefit from the submission which provides a benchmarking opportunity for communities to learn of their strengths as well as gaps among their global competition. The application and awards process is entirely free and if they become part of the SMART21 list, they also become eligible to join the exclusive family of global cities through the ICF Foundation.
Other regions also focus activities around the Intelligent Community movement, such as in Taiwan, where ICF Taiwan works with 14 cities across the island nation and the Global Institute for the Study of the Intelligent Community in Dublin, Ohio has been working to create an “Intelligent Ohio”. In both cases they have had successful results. Taiwan has achieved 4 communities on the SMART21 list this year. The Institute was able to have one of its communities, Hudson, Ohio, land on this year’s SMART21 list. While in Australia, through groups like the Australian Smart City Alliance, which has similar activities in Australia and many Australian communities apply to the ICF Smart21 awards process, 3 communities landed on the SMART21 list in 2018. Congratulations to them all! Today, ICF counts upward to nearly 170 Intelligent Communities around the world as qualified Intelligent Communities.
Welcome the entirely new nine Smart21’s for 2018:
- Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- Espoo, Finland
- Hudson, Ohio, USA
- Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
- Kinmen County, Taiwan
- Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
- Olds, Alberta, Canada
- St. Albert, Alberta, Canada
- York (Regional Municipality of), Ontario, Canada
We wish them much luck as they all advance to being considered for the TOP7 Intelligent Communities award in February 2018. It is these Top7 communities which will be celebrated and for which we build our annual ICF Summit around. These Top7 Communities will be the focus of a much deeper investigation during the 2018 ICF London Summit, as well as having had the visit of one of the ICF Co-Founders who report their on-site findings to the official adjudicators around the world. It is these Top7 communities that other cities will be measured by through the Report Card benchmarking process. Communities wishing to learn more about this benchmarking process, led by ICF Co-Founder, Robert Bell, can request information about both the ICF Report Card and Community Accelerator programs by contacting Michael at michael@intelligentcommunity.org
Want to have a voice in iCommunity.ca, the official newsletter of ICF Canada? Please send your blogs, announcements and other interesting content to John G. Jung at jjung@icf-canada.com
ICF Canada 1310-20 Bay Street Toronto, Ontario M5J 2N8 www.icf-canada.com
Contact: John G. Jung at jjung@icf-canada.com 1-647-801-4238 cell
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list