New Intelligent Community Forum Institute Established in New Brunswick to Serve Atlantic Canada
A Press Release announcing the world’s third ICF Institute has been issued. This newest ICF Institute will be housed as part of the New Brunswick Community College in Fredericton, New Brunswick, a Smart21 city and Top7 recognized Intelligent Community (from 2006-2022): https://www.intelligentcommunity.org/fredericton_new_brunswick . This exciting announcement raises Fredericton’s prominence as a recognized smart city and Intelligent Community, a significant model for Atlantic Canada and the country as well as an important location to showcase its best practices and smart city solutions in Canada. Learn more by reading the entirety of the press release:
(February 15/2024) / New York City & Fredericton, NB, Canada – The Intelligent Community Forum announced today a significant new partnership in Canada with the formation of the Forum’s third global Institute. New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) has been licensed to operate an institute for the study of the Intelligent Community at its campus in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. The new institute joins ICF Institutes in the United States and Taiwan to contribute to the acceleration of regional economic and community growth and spread the Intelligent Community model through workshops, consulting, research and events.
“Establishing the ICF Canada Institute (Atlantic) at NBCC is a natural evolution of our commitment to the application of digital technology for the social and economic development of our home region,” said Dr. Simon Potter, the director of NBCC’s College Office of Research Enterprise, the host of the new institute. “The Institute will provide a highly visible stage for the global promotion of Intelligent Community innovations developed in our region, along with extensive international networking opportunities which will in return bring the best global innovations and Intelligent Community thinking into Atlantic Canada.”
A podcast with Dr. Simon Potter will appear on February 21, 2024 on the ICF Website. Look for it here : www.intelligentcommunity.org/podcast
An Economic Strategy for the Digital Century
The work of the Institutes is based on the Community Accelerator Strategy, developed by ICF through two decades of work with more 200 cities and regions around the world. The Strategy recognizes that the explosive innovations of our Digital Century have created radical change in the economies of cities and regions. Those changes have brought unprecedented growth to a lucky few, while undercutting the economies of the rest, shrinking individual opportunity and deepening inequality. Yet digital technology has also built the foundations of an Everywhere Economy in which almost any city or region can prosper if its leaders know how. The Community Accelerator Strategy gives them a flexible framework for building an inclusive, innovative and growing economy and cultivating the strong social connection and rich culture it can support. It is this combination that creates a great place to live, build a career, start a business, begin a family and give a better future to the next generation.
“The ICF Canada national organization welcomes the new Institute as a partner in progress for our nation,” said John Jung, who heads ICF Canada. “Canada is home to the world’s largest cluster of Intelligent Communities, and the work of the Institute will be of significant value to them all.”
The Year Ahead
In its inaugural year, the ICF Canada Institute (Atlantic) will take advantage of existing ICF programs including Intelligent Community Certification, Community Accelerator training and Community Assessment. It will develop programs and projects specific to its region with a particular focus on accessibility technologies and their application to underserved communities across the country.
About New Brunswick Community College
New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) is a community college with campuses in Moncton, Miramichi, Fredericton, Saint John, St. Andrews and Woodstock across the province of New Brunswick. It offers more than 90 programs across 18 industrial sectors to students, who learn in a dynamic environment through hands-on training, state-of-the-art equipment and real-world experiences that prepare them to step into the workplace with expertise and confidence. More at https://nbcc.ca. The ICF Canada Institute (Atlantic) will be hosted by NBCC in the provincial capital city of Fredericton, itself a frequent recipient of ICF recognition. Via a combination of smart strategy, hard-working private entrepreneurship and cooperative public investment in information and communications technology, Fredericton has completely transformed its economy over the past fifteen years. Now more than 70% of New Brunswick’s knowledge industries call Fredericton home and, on a per capita basis, the city hosts the largest engineering cluster in North America.
About the Intelligent Community Forum
Starting in 2000 with a research project comparing cities in various nations, the Intelligent Community Forum (www.intelligentcommunity.org) created a unique, data-driven approach to development that puts citizens first while tapping the enormous economic and social potential of technology. In a world dominated by digital, ICF’s mission is to help communities create innovative, sustainable, inclusive and growing economies, whether they are large or small, in urban clusters or rural places. ICF believes that digital connectivity and technology create the opportunity for almost every community to develop a dynamic local economy and the social and cultural strengths that go with it – giving them all a chance to be great places to live, work, learn, grow, raise a family and prepare a sustainable path for the next generation.
The Forum sponsors Institutes in North America and Taiwan dedicated to the study of the movement, and national organizations in Canada and Taiwan, both home to many Intelligent Communities. In 2012 ICF was invited to participate at the Nobel Peace Prize conference in Oslo and in 2014, its model and work were recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which, according to the American government, was “aimed at creating a more flexible and responsive system of workforce development to meet the needs of employers looking to fill 21st century jobs.” More at www.intelligentcommunity.org.
Contacts:
Dr. Simon Potter
New Brunswick Community College
Matthew Owen, Executive Director
Intelligent Community Forum
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@intelligentcommunity.org
ICF Canada 1310-20 Bay Street Toronto, Ontario M5J 2N8 www.icf-canada.com
Contact: John G. Jung at jjung@intelligentcommunity.org 1-647-801-4238 cell
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