SMART21Sarnia- Lambton Reports from the ICF Global Institute’s Workshop in Dublin, Ohio

Blog by Chris Gould, Chief Operations Officer at Bluewater Regional Networks Inc.

A few weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of attending my second ICF Institute event in Dublin, Ohio with a small delegation from Sarnia-Lambton, Ontario. Whenever I am lucky enough to represent Sarnia-Lambton at events, and whenever anyone will listen to me….I tell everyone how honoured we are to be counted among the Smart21 by the ICF for 3 straight years. To see our small community’s name on that list with the likes of larger centres like Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Columbus, and New York is very humbling.

Dublin, Ohio along with their thought leaders at ICF events always remind me that regardless of a community’s size, you can have a very big impact. And now, at the centre of Ohio’s ‘Smart State’ initiative, Dublin is even more of an example of just that. The ICF Institute events in Dublin, always start with opening remarks from City Manager, Dana McDaniel. Dana never misses the mark when describing the six pillars as indicators of an intelligent community. The pillars are, Broadband, Knowledge Workforce, Innovation, Digital Equality, Sustainability and Advocacy. At this event, Dana, made special mention of the momentum of Canadian communities over the last several years. He also gave a special nod to those of us representing Sarnia-Lambton. Again, we are honoured. Also at this event, keynote speaker Peter Kageyama, author of the book “For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places” opened his presentation with the picture of a smiling face and the statement, “cities simply fixing their potholes do not make people feel like this!”.

That picture and those words rang very true to me. In Sarnia-Lambton, we face aging infrastructure issues while the community tries diligently to become more digitally minded. We work to deploy the technologies, sometimes costly, designed to enrich the quality of life for our citizens. Peter reminded us that the reason we were all in attendance that day was because we, in fact, love our communities. Everyone agreed. Peter went on to explain that loving your city and promoting what makes it unique and special doesn’t have to be capital intensive. Peter’s engaging presentation described projects like the “Mice on Main” in Greenville, SC, the promotion “It’s Good to Be Here” in New Orleans, LA, and the “Rainworks” initiative in Seattle, WA. All of these are rather inexpensive but powerful tools for the project leaders/change champions in those communities. I would encourage all who love their city and who understand the difficulty that change can bring to read about these projects. When you have local leaders who support from the top down, these small projects work from the bottom up to make great things happen in the middle. Thank you to Dana and Dublin – ICF Institute team for coordinating yet another thought-provoking experience for all in attendance that day.