Canada’s 2018 SMART21 waiting for TOP7 Announcement on Feb 8.
An unprecedented number of Canadian communities met ICF’s criteria in 2018 to beat out hundreds of applicants last Fall. ICF Canada wishes all of the Canadian communities on this year’s list much luck as they proceed to the next level known as the TOP7 Intelligent Communities which will be announced from NYC on February 8, 2018. The nearly year long process will end on June 6 in London, England where the Intelligent Community of the Year will be selected at the culmination of a three-day Global Summit, held at the Siemens Crystal in the London Docklands and in Greenwich. The Canadian SMART21 communities in 2018 include:
· Parkland County, Alberta, Canada
· Pickering, Ontario, Canada
· Sarnia-Lambton County, Ontario, Canada
· Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
· St. Albert, Alberta, Canada
· Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
· Western Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada
· Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
· Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
· York (Regional Municipality of), Ontario, Canada
· Olds, Alberta, Canada
The process to select the global list of SMART21, in most cases, included community-wide participation to pull together to respond to the ICF questionnaire, which was submitted in September 2017. The announcement last October of the SMART21 communities set forth another process to further identify the TOP7 Intelligent Communities through examination of more detailed data which ICF’s analysts are currently reviewing. On Feb 8, the winning communities will be globally celebrated as being among the TOP7 “Intelligent Communities” for 2018, a highly regarded and valued global brand. In the weeks between Feb 8 and early May, ICF will perform further analysis as well as site visits to each of these TOP7 communities. The site visits include a focused 48 hours in each of the TOP7 communities to validate their submissions, visit showcased case studies and best practices and meet community members and leaders. The report from the site visit is shared with a global jury that will have already reviewed all of the background documents and applications. The TOP7 Intelligent Communities will be invited to make a presentation and meet with the site visit reporter, usually one of the ICF Co-Founders, on stage in London at the Global Summit to have a conversation about the community and site visit. A deeper dive into each of these communities is also possible through introductions during the matchmaking session, networking opportunities and at their table top stands.
On June 5, the TOP7 communities will be celebrated and awarded their prize at a TOP7 Reception. The following day at the Gala dinner the Intelligent Community of the Year is selected. The winning community will be given bragging rights and access to the brand as the Intelligent Community of the Year, feted globally through the media and promoted by ICF and its global outreach. This earned media is a key benefit, but it is only the beginning. As the winning Intelligent Community of 2018, it’s leadership and mentorship is on-going at the local and at the international level though ICF. However, SMART21 and TOP7 level communities also offer their leadership and share their best practices regionally as well as globally. The ICF brand helps them to promote to investors and talent, retaining, expanding and attracting them to their community. Leveraging the network, the brand, and the office, should be key considerations for every ICF-related Intelligent Community. The award is not the destination. It’s the continuous journey that makes this all worthwhile!
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 [email protected]
ICF Canada 1310-20 Bay Street Toronto, Ontario M5J 2N8 www.icf-canada.com
Contact: John G. Jung at [email protected] 1-647-801-4238 cell
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