New Delhi hosts Canada-India Business Council and World Town Planning Day and Jung highlights the keys to building an Intelligent Community

New Delhi, India – November 4, 2012 – The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) studies the world’s cities to discover and then share the strategies used to create an Intelligent Community. At the Canada-India Business Forum Jung will lead a discussion on boosting the skills of India's workforce. Jung travels the globe outlining the steps needed to future-proof a city for the new broadband-based economy and how those steps lead to significant economic benefits. “A workforce that has the skills needed for the broadband economy is a key element for any community that wants to build its economy and is one of the techniques we have seen used over and over in successful communities around the world,” says Jung.

Jung uses 12 cities to highlight each of the ICF’s 12 steps to success. In 2011 Jaipur, Rajasthan in India was chosen one of the Smart21 communities. In just 10 years Jaipur rose from nowhere to become one of the top contenders to draw high technology companies to the community. Jaipur applied many of the techniques that have worked elsewhere including creating an atmosphere where entrepreneurs can flourish. “I am in India to help foster Intelligent Communities, to help them recognize and respond to the impact of broadband. The ICF provides the benchmarks that a community must focus on especially the core criteria of broadband, a knowledge based workforce, digital inclusion, innovation plus marketing and advocacy,” says Jung. The ICF measures whether a community has the heart and the head to succeed.

“80 per cent of GDP growth has been shown to come from the introduction of new technology and Intelligent Communities need to work on the complete package and include everything from quality of life to culture, education and innovation. We help cities to do that,” says Jung.

All the world’s communities are challenged to deal with the new economy where jobs, investment and knowledge increasingly depend on advances in communications. ICF identifies and explains the new economy, conducts research into best practices, and celebrates the best of the world's Intelligent Communities through its annual awards program.

The three co-founders of ICF, John Jung, Louis Zacharilla and Robert Bell have also co-authored a new book just released in October of this year called Seizing our Destiny. It is a profile and extensive analysis of the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2012 and the lessons they provide to other communities.

About Intelligent Community Forum

The Intelligent Community Forum is a New York-based think tank that studies the economic and social development of the 21st Century community. In the 21st Century community, connectivity is changing the definition and experience of communities: threatening established ways of life while also offering powerful new tools to build prosperous, inclusive economies. The Intelligent Community Forum seeks to share the best practices and success of the world's Intelligent Communities in adapting to the demands of what it calls “the Broadband Economy” by conducting research, hosting events, publishing books and newsletters and producing an international awards program. ICF’s publications include Broadband Economies (2008), Future Cities (2009) Seizing our Destiny (2012) and an annual report on the year’s Top Seven Intelligent Communities. For more information, www.intelligentcommunity.org.

Intelligent Community Forum Contacts

John Jung
Co-Founder Intelligent Community Forum
Cell Phone: 011-1-519-575-6672
Email: [email protected]

Paul Brent
Senior Communications Specialist
market2world communications inc.
Phone: 011-1-613-256-3939
Email: [email protected]