Hamilton, Ontario and Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada’s Finalists in the 2018 Intelligent Community Awards Program
On February 7, 2018, the Intelligent Community Forum named the world’s Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2018. In the list of seven cities, Hamilton and Winnipeg were identified having gone, in ICF’s words, “from Smart City to Intelligent Community.” This year’s list includes communities from four nations. In addition to Canada’s two Top7 Intelligent Communities, Taiwan has three, and Australia and Finland with one each. These TOP7 Intelligent Communities will travel to London in June where one will go on to be named the Intelligent Community of the Year, succeeding Melbourne, Australia, the reigning community. The event will take place as the culminating event at the ICF Global Summit from 4-6 June at Siemens’ Crystal Facility and other sites around London. (www.icfsummit.com)
In alphabetical order, the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2018 are:
- Chiayi City, Taiwan
- Espoo, Finland
- Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
- Tainan City, Taiwan
- Taoyuan, Taiwan
- Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The Awards program drives communities to make substantial progress from year to year, so it is not unusual for a community to continue to enter the awards program, such as Winnipeg which has been on the SMART21 list six times from 2011- 2014 and in 2016 and 2018. It has also been on the TOP7 list in 2014, 2016 and this year. As there is no cost to enter and with so many upsides to being recognized including domestic and global earned media; global networking and free participation at the ICF Summit the year of your TOP7 award, it is a coveted award. This is the second time for Hamilton as a SMART21 community, but this is its first year as a TOP7 Community.
As these communities await to receive the site evaluation from one of the ICF Co-Founders, they are being talked about all over the world. ICF Co-Founders have been in Europe making presentations, such as in London, Madrid and Barcelona, undertaking interviews, and writing extensively about the ICF SMART21 and TOP7 this year. They will also be traveling to Asia, India, across North America and to other European sites to promote the ICF movement, and especially the current SMART21 and TOP7 communities. News about these communities are published but also travel virally around the world. ICF Communities have benefitted for years from ICF’s global exposure. Whether it’s been large cities such as Toronto, Seoul or Taipei, or medium sized communities such as Tallinn (Estonia), Ipswich (Australia) and Chiayi (Taiwan) or smaller communities such as Parai (Brazil), Stratford (Canada) and Prospect (Australia), they all have indicated some level of benefits having leveraged their brand as a SMART21 city or TOP7 Intelligent Community. Many have made it to the Intelligent Community of the Year, the pinnacle of success as an Intelligent Community. These communities prepare for this well over a year in advance; are measured against hundreds of data points and qualitative measures, undergo scrutiny through an on-site evaluation and considered by an international jury of peer communities. To raise to the top is a measure of great success. ICF Canada wishes all of the TOP7 much luck, especially its two Canadian TOP7 communities, Hamilton and Winnipeg.
As part of the announcement, ICF released a video announcing the new Top7. See the video at: www.intelligentcommunity.org/top7. A high-resolution download of the video is available by request. The ICF TOP7 Intelligent Communities of 2018 will be featured throughout the ICF Global Summit on 4-6 June in London. Representatives from the Top7 will take part in Economic Development Matchmaking sessions, workshops and roundtables, special conversations detailing their stories, receptions honoring the Top7 and a dinner to name the Intelligent Community of the Year. For more information visit http://www.icfsummit.com/
To view the profiles for this year’s 2018 TOP7 Intelligent Communities, see the ICF’s Website.
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
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