(June 14, 2022 – New York City, NY, USA & Binh Duong, Vietnam) – On June 21, 2022, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) and Binh Duong province will jointly present the 2022 Top7 Intelligent Communities Conference & Announcement: After the Pandemic: How Digital Innovation Drives Growth in Our Communities. The day-long conference features live and online events in Binh Duong, culminating in the announcement of the Top7 Communities of 2022. ICF co-founder Louis Zacharilla will be at the live event to deliver the keynote address on the current state and evolution of the Intelligent Community.

The Top7 Communities are chosen from among the Smart21 Communities of 2022 to be finalists in the yearly Intelligent Community Awards. In October 2022, one of these seven communities will be named the Intelligent Community of the Year at ICF’s Global Summit. The city of Binh Duong was one of the Top7 Communities of 2021 and is a Smart21 Community again this year.

“Binh Duong Smart City is a great example of applying the ICF strategic framework in an emerging economy,” said co-founder Robert Bell. “Despite the constraints of COVID, they have kept moving forward with the support of experts from ICF’s 2011 Intelligent Community of the Year, Eindhoven, Netherlands. This conference will give the world a chance to catch up with an exciting model for development that aims to create inclusive prosperity and a sustainable path to growth.”

Registration is open at https://micebinhduong.com/event-registration. This event is free to attend, but registration is required.

More about the Conference
The COVID-19 pandemic brought devastation to communities across the globe. It left behind personal loss, economic disruption, unemployment and overwhelmed healthcare systems. Fortunately, most communities are now reopening and economies are starting to recover.
Over these past 2 years, digital technology and innovation have proven to be the most important drivers for recovery and social and economic progress, even under unprecedented conditions. Digital communications provided people with means to work from home or follow online classes, and e-commerce and other digital services accelerated, including online access to medical care. In short, the true potential of digitalization, technology and Intelligent Communities was revealed to the world.
The province of Binh Duong (Vietnam) has embraced the concept of innovation-driven economic transformation and digitalization since 2016, when it started its ambitious Binh Duong Smart City program. Supported and inspired by the 2011 ICF Intelligent Community of the Year, Eindhoven in The Netherlands, Binh Duong started an impressive journey of Intelligent socio-economic development.

More about the ICF Intelligent Community Awards Program
Candidates are evaluated based on six Factors that make up the ICF Method, which provides a framework for understanding how communities can build inclusive prosperity and grow social and cultural strength amid the disruptions of the digital age. This framework also guides ICF’s consulting and coaching practice for communities.
Nominations are being accepted now for 2023, and communities are invited to download the questionnaire from www.intelligentcommunity.org/index_questionnaire. By submitting it, they will receive a free Snapshot Report comparing their readiness and performance on six critical Success factors to ICF’s global data set of communities. The deadline to submit a nomination for consideration in the 2023 Awards Program is January 23, 2023. There is no cost to submit a questionnaire and receive the Snapshot Report.

About Binh Duong, Vietnam
In the heart of Vietnam’s southeastern Binh Duong Province is a brand new city in development. Binh Duong Smart City is being created by the Smart City Office, Becamex, the state agency overseeing the project, the academic and entrepreneurial sector and the Standing and the Peoples’ Committees of the government all working in concert to design a modern, environmentally friendly city that will someday be home to one million Vietnamese. The new city already includes Eastern International University, a world-class academic institution, as well as six industrial parks and the region’s first accelerator. Binh Duong Smart City has worked tirelessly, assisted by ideas such as the “triple helix” collaboration method from ICF alumnus Eindhoven, the 2011 Intelligent Community of the Year, to transform a traditionally agrarian, low-population area into a core of Vietnam’s Southern Key Economic Zone. Read More

About the Intelligent Community Forum
The Intelligent Community Forum (www.intelligentcommunity.org), headquartered in New York, is a global network of 185 cities, metro regions and counties with a think tank at its heart and a mission to make everyone’s “hometown” at great place. ICF studies and promotes the best practices of the world's Intelligent Communities as they adapt to the new demands and seize the opportunities presented by broadband and digital technology. To help cities and regions build prosperous economies, solve social problems and enrich local cultures, the Intelligent Community Forum conducts research, hosts events around the globe, publishes books, and produces its high-profile annual international awards program. The Forum sponsors research Institutes in North America 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 was 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.” For more information, go to www.intelligentcommunity.org/icf_membership. For more details on the Intelligent Community Forum’s recent publications and programs, www.intelligentcommunity.org.

Intelligent Community Forum Contacts
Matthew Owen, Director of Operations, Intelligent Community Forum
Phone: 001-646-291-6166 x105
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @Newcommunities

Victoria Krisman, Communications Manager, Intelligent Community Forum
Email: [email protected]