How to Kickstart your Smart Community Journey

On February 15, a set of ICF Canada Webinars took place over the course of a full day in British Columbia, hosted by the B.C. Government with the theme – “Smart Communities: How BC communities can leverage the Smart Revolution”. The first webinar essentially covered a range of topics to help communities, especially rural and small towns in B. C. that have been challenged with how to get started on their smart community journey, to think about all of the things they need to do to get started, especially getting started with organizing broadband in their communities. The second Webinar that day was ICF Canada’s third Smart Cities Challenge discussion. In this nation-wide Webinar, ICF Canada showcased examples of B.C. communities involved in engaging their community members to participate in the Smart Cities Challenge. The day-long virtual event was sold out. There seems to be much demand for communities interested in learning how to kickstart their smart community efforts.

Susan Stanford, Executive Lead, Telecommunications Office, Ministry of Citizens’ Services, Victoria, BC co-moderated the Webinar with ICF Canada’s John Jung. The keynote speaker for the Webinar was Dr. Roberto Gallardo, Assistant Director of the Purdue Center for Regional Development and a Purdue Extension Community & Regional Economics Specialist. Dr. Gallardo’s presentation focused on the reasons for many challenges in communities and the disruptive solutions taking place in communities, especially some of the rural communities he has worked with over the past decade, impacting local & regional community economic development. ICF’s Robert Bell led a master class on how to kick-start your Smart Community. Several live case studies were introduced including the following presenters:

• Mitch Thomson, Executive Director of the Olds Institute in Olds, Alberta;
• Andrea Wilkey, Executive Director, Community Futures Central Kootenay. In Nelson, B.C.
• Emilie de Rosenroll, CEO, South Island Prosperity, Greater Victoria, B.C.
• Brenda Andersson, CFO, Village of Granisle, B.C.

In addition to a stimulating discussion among the panelists on how they are developing their smart communities and the benefits of doing so, ICF took a poll from among the more than 120 Webinar participants on various subjects related to the concept of developing their smart community. To view the complete February 15 Webinar, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6CjtLvU36k

Later that day the following panelists joined ICF Canada’s John Jung in the third nation-wide Smart Cities Challenge Webinar:

• Jenny Tremblay and Alexander Long, Infrastructure Canada with the Smart Cities Challenge Team in Ottawa
• Darin Recchi, Thoughtexchange, West Kootenays, in Nelson, B.C.
• Rob Entwistle, CIO, City of Kelowna, B.C.
• Emilie de Rosenroll, CEO, South Island Prosperity Project in Victoria, B.C.

To hear the third ICF Canada Smart Cities Challenge Webinar from February 15, please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjuiMqkVycI

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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