Development program to improve competitiveness, solve social problems and enrich quality of life
The Community Accelerator program provides your city or region with a set of development tools to improve competitiveness, deepen social inclusion and enhance your ability to adapt in today's fast-moving Broadband Economy. Based on years of research by the Forum, the Community Accelerator:
- Educates your community on the factors that will determine its economic future and social health
- Engages and energizes the key stakeholders in the community development process to take leadership roles in creating progress
- Provides metric analysis that identifies where you stand today and offers specific guidance on where to focus efforts in the future
The Community Accelerator is not a consulting service. It does not assess feasibility or develop requests for proposal. Instead, it delivers education and analysis that you can use to plan and execute your future as an Intelligent Community, and a global context for action based on the actual practices of cities and regions around the globe.
Accelerator Services
The Community Accelerator offers four integrated services to accelerate community development through a combination of short-term action and long-term strategy.
| Keynote |
 The Keynote provides stakeholders with an introductory education on the Intelligent Community movement and the benefits your community can gain by starting on the path to becoming an Intelligent Community. It outlines the core concepts, tells the story of communities that have faced similar challenges and provides Q&A interaction with the audience. |
| Master Class |
 The Master Class is a focused day-long workshop for the governmental, institutional and business leaders of the community. It offers education to give the champions of change in your community a common understanding. It provides facilitation that spurs near-term action to improve the community in visible and measurable ways. These near-term achievements demonstrate the value of the effort and motivate more citizens and organizations to support progress. The Master Class is available as a full-day onsite program including local meetings and social events, and a half-day Virtual Master Class delivered online. |
| Community Mentoring |
 The Master Class is a beginning, not an end. To help you harvest its potential, ICF provides a mentoring service that maintains momentum and provides expert guidance on overcoming the inevitable obstacles in your way. Once every 90 days for the duration of the Mentoring engagement, ICF conducts a diagnostic by web conference. The quarterly conference includes the community’s government team and the community champions who have involved themselves in the work. The first diagnostic meetings focus on establishing project plans and objectives, while succeeding web conferences offer a disciplined check-in on results. The ICF consultant acts as a virtual member of your team – one with unique expertise and experience in Intelligent Community development. The consultant also links you to community leaders from ICF’s network of Intelligent Communities, selected for their experience with the specific challenges facing your community. Their mentorship makes a major contribution to your success. |
| Community Metrics |
 How ready is your community to turn broadband into economic and social value? The Accelerator Metrics provides an analysis of community readiness and performance based on more than 40 data points related to ICF’s Intelligent Community Indicators. The majority of the information comes from national and state/provincial data, with supplemental information provided by local government. ICF analyzes the data and provides written report detailing the community’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and obstacles, and identifies areas where the community can most effectively focus its efforts to make sustainable progress, based on the experience of more than 125 Intelligent Communities around the world. |
For additional information or for a brochure outlining the Community Accelerator Program, fill out the form below, contact ICF by email or contact ICF by telephone at +1 646-291-6166 x102.