Montreal to say Au Revoir at the 2017 ICF Summit in NYC
On June 8 at the Gala Awards Dinner, Montreal City Councillor, Harout Chitilian will be standing at the podium gazing at the anxious eyes of many of the people representing their TOP7 communities in the audience. He was one of them last year in Columbus, Ohio where ICF held its last Summit. Wondering, would they be called to become the 2016 Intelligent Community of the Year? With the announcement by ICF Co-Founder Lou Zachailla, Montreal’s vast team rushed to the podium to celebrate their victory. Montreal won with many examples from their community that showcased broadband excellence, but also exemplary success in culture, innovation, education and other initiatives. This year at the Summit, Harout will note their advancements as an Intelligent Community and tell us more about their journey as the Intelligent Community of the Year for 2016.
But there is much more before we get to this point in the proceedings.
Oh, and by the way, this is much more than just a conference!
Every year, the Intelligent Community Forum hosts a Summit bringing together thought leaders from around the world to talk about smart city infrastructure as well as Intelligent Community applications, strategies and case studies of successful implementation. Through its SMART21 process it benchmarks communities world-wide and by the time the SMART21 cities have been selected as TOP7 Intelligent Communities, we are seeing among the best global examples, based on ICF’s criteria, for that year. As a further examination, the co-founders visit each of the TOP7 communities and their reports and the application documents are then shared with the global jury. The selection process leading to the Intelligent Community of the Year is nearly a year-long process. In the meantime, the communities join a fantastic journey of receiving earned media locally and around the world. It’s been often cited that the communities that participate and attain the Smart21 and Top7 recognition over several years have become globally recognized through the earned media that these communities receive from the ICF Awards process.
Sometimes the journey is better than the destination. Intelligent Communities of the Year receive the highest honors for the year and then ICF looks to them for other forms of leadership at the global level. They would not be able to compete again for SMART21 and TOP7 honors. Perhaps in the future, with a large number of Intelligent Communities of the Year, ICF may look to benchmarking them as well. During June 7 and 8 we will meet the TOP7 cities in New York to dive deep into discussions with their senior municipal executives, CIOs and technology experts about what makes each of their communities so successful. In earlier editions of this newsletter, we focused in on Grey County (April 2017) and Edmonton (March2017). In this edition, we will take a snapshot look at each of the other finalists. But the best way to experience them, is to meet them face to face at the Economic Development Day Matchmaking Session (June 6), as well as hear them present live onstage during the Summit Top7 Conversations (June 7 and 8). Celebrate with them on June 7 at the TOP7 Reception and find out who among them will receive the title of Intelligent Community of the Year at the Gala Awards Dinner event on June 8. For more information and to register for this year’s summit, go to: http://www.intelligentcommunity.org/summit_17
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
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Contact: John G. Jung at jjung@icf-canada.com 1-647-801-4238 cell
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