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Summit Program
October 25
On the first day of the ICF Global Summit, attendees will split into one of two tracks for a day-long workshop on either engaging with indigenous peoples or sustainability on ICF's first ever Charrette Day.
What you will take away from a charrette at the ICF Summit?
The charrettes offer attendees a chance to share their expertise and discover new ideas they can use. Most importantly, they create the opportunity to build the kind of personal relationships that only arise from working together. The charrette audience will meet in two different locations, each moderated by charrette leaders, to keep the number of groups to a reasonable size.
How do registrants sign up for a charrette?
Charrette participation is included in standard Summit registration.
All Summit attendees will receive a poll prior to the event asking their preference as to which charrette workshop they wish to attend. Requests to attend a particular charrette will be honored in the order they are received. If the poll is not completed, attendees will be assigned a particular charrette.
Each charrette is a separate, fully day program, and attendees will reconvene together in the evening at the Top7 Reception. If you have any questions about registering for a particular charrette, email Matthew Owen at [email protected]
OPTION 1
From Cultural Revival to Economic Opportunity: Broadband for the Eskasoni Nation
Location: Hogan Lovells (390 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10017)
Time: 10:00am - 4:00pm
The Eskasoni Nation is a band government of the Mi'kmaq First Nations, located in Unama'ki, Nova Scotia, Canada. Most of its nearly 5,000 members live on the Eskasoni reservation. For all its natural beauty, the reservation faces the challenges common to indigenous communities in industrial nations: marginalization, limited employment opportunities, educational deficiencies and cultural erosion. In response, the Nation has partnered with Rogers Communication to deploy a fiber-to-the-premise network on the reservation as the first step in a cultural and economic development drive.
In this charrette, attendees will hear from Eskasoni leaders and Rogers executives about the goals, progress and results of the project, and learn about the challenges and opportunities faced by the Nation. With guidance from experienced charrette leaders, they will then collaborate on developing and presenting feasible concepts for using the network to expand economic opportunity, create employment and new enterprises, and support a better life for the Eskasoni people.
9:30 - Registration
10:00 - Welcome and Introduction
Speakers include:
- Luigi Ferrara, CEO, Brookfield Sustainability Institute
- Jacob Kessler, Director, Business Development & Account Management, Brookfield Sustainability Institute
- Rob McCann, Founder, Clearcable
- John Jung, co-founder, Intelligent Community Forum
10:15 - Case Study Overview
Attendees will hear from Eskasoni leaders and Rogers executives about the goals, progress and results of the project, and learn about the challenges and opportunities faced by the Nation. Speakers include:
- Chief Leroy Denny, Leader, Eskasoni Nation
10:45 - Potential of Broadband Networks for Growth and Expansion
Broadband network experts describe the business and operating models needed for long-term success, and ways in which broadband can support education, training, business startup and employment growth. Speakers include:
- Mario Camaj, Executive Director, VCTI
- Greg Laverty, Group Executive Economic and Community Development, Sunshine Coast Council
- Rob McCann, Founder, ClearCable (Moderator)
11:15 - Q&A with the Audience
11:30 - Charrette Exercise
Led by Luigi, Jacob and colleagues, the audience will discuss the assets and liabilities of the Eskasoni Nation and brainstorm new opportunities and solutions that become accessible through the broadband network. Charrette leaders will capture ideas and display them during the discussion.
12:30 - Lunch
13:30 (1:30pm) - Charrette Exercise Continues
The group will prioritize ideas raised in the previous exercise, assess the timeline needed to develop them and suggest priorities, and outline a plan of attack, business canvas and working plan.
15:30 (3:30pm) - Charrette Results Review
15:45 (3:45pm) - Feedback from the Eskasoni Nation and Concluding Remarks
- Luigi Ferrara, CEO, Brookfield Sustainability Institute
- Jacob Kessler, Director, Business Development & Account Management, Brookfield Sustainability Institute
- John Jung, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
16:00 (4:00pm) - Charrette Ends
OPTION 2
How Finnish Communities Turn Sustainability into Quality of Life and Economic Value
10:00am to 3:00pm
Location: Consulate General of Finland (605 3rd Ave #35th, New York, NY 10158)
Finland is a highly developed Nordic nation whose northern Arctic region is undergoing some of the most rapid warming on Earth due to climate change. In 2001, the country was one of the top five greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters on a per-capita basis, but Finland has recently set what is probably the world’s most ambitious climate target, aiming to be net zero by 2035 and net negative – absorbing more CO2 than it emits – by 2040. National targets are important, but the work of sustainability happens on the local level, in homes and businesses, logging camps and industrial facilities.
This charrette-style workshop offers a unique opportunity to hear about innovative efforts by cities and regions to contribute to net zero and net negative goals while accelerating citizen engagement and enhancing quality of life – and proving that sustainability goes hand-in-hand with generating new employment and new companies in the booming environmental sector.
10:00 - Welcome and introduction
Speakers include:
- Robert Bell, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
- Lou Zacharilla, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
10:10 - PRESENTATION - Introduction to Finland: Economy, Environment and Culture
- Ambassador Jarma Sareva, Consul General of Finland in New York
10:30 - CASE STUDY - Local Sustainability Programs in Finnish Cities and Regions
Speakers include:
- Tiina Leinonen, Program Manager, Carbon Neutral Actions, City of Tampere, Finland
11:30 - OPEN DISCUSSION
12:00 - Lunch Break
13:00 - PANEL DISCUSSION - Getting to Net Negative
Intelligent Community leaders share challenges, strategies and insights on transitioning communities to not only reduce carbon emissions to the point of neutrality, but to potentially become sustainable enough to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than they produce. Join us to explore the path forward for creating more sustainable, climate-resilient towns, cities, and regions.
Speakers include:
- Michelle Crandall, City Manager, City of Hilliard, Ohio, USA
- Cr Terry Landsberg, Portfolio Councillor for Economy, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
- Dan Taylor, President and CEO, Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership
- Lou Zacharilla, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum (Moderator)
13:45 - PANEL DISCUSSION - The Economic Development Opportunity in Sustainability
Making your community or region a cluster for businesses that will benefit from the demand for environmental sustainability, from alternative energy to emissions control, electrification, greentech, cleantech and carbon removal.
Speakers include:
- Dario Paixão, CEO, Curitiba Agency for Development and Innovation
- Donna Gillespie, CEO, Kingston Economic Development
- Thuy Linh Pham, Director, Becamex Institute of Research and Development
- Robert Bell, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum (Moderator)
14:30 - OPEN DISCUSSION
15:00 - Closing
Evening: The Top7 Reception
On the evening of October 25 at 5:30pm, all attendees from both workshops will converge at the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office at 1 E 42nd Street for The Top7 Reception.
The event will feature speakers from ICF, 2022 Intelligent Community of the Year New Taipei City, and its host, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office.
This exclusive networking event will be an evening of celebration for the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2023, and will provide attendees the change to develop relationships with the full range of attendees from multiple cities and nations.
The Reception ends at 7:30pm, and attendees will then have a free night for dinner and the delights of an autumn evening in New York City.
Speakers include:
- Ambassador James K. J. Lee, Director-General, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York; Head of UN Affairs Task Force in New York (since July 25, 2020)
- Shih-Jie Tang, Chief, Internet Service Section, Information Management Center of New Taipei City Government
- Lou Zacharilla, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
October 26
Plenary
9:00 am – 5:30 pm
Location: The SUNY Global Center (116 E 55th St, New York, NY 10022)
Attendees gather for a series of presentations, panel sessions and extended networking breaks that continue the relationship-building of the day before. The focus of the day is on the opportunities available to small and midsize cities and rural regions – in a Broadband 2.0 economy – to replicate the economic dynamism once available only to big urban centers.
Registration opens at 8:30am. Coffee and refreshments will be available.
9:00 - Welcome and introduction
Speakers include:
- John Jung, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
- Lou Zacharilla, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
9:10 - PRESENTATION - Making the case: the middle of nowhere really is no more
The devastation of the global pandemic had one major positive impact: it drove employers to accelerate the use of digital technology to redesign how and where a substantial portion of all work takes place. Connectivity, cloud services and collaboration tools suddenly became critical infrastructure. That began to unlock the grip of big cities on talent, innovation and growth, making the economy “flatter” and opportunity more available wherever people with the right skills, knowledge and connectivity gather. In this presentation, ICF co-founders make the case for a future very different from the past two decades of accelerating concentration in the biggest cities. Presented by Robert Bell, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
9:30 - PANEL - Success strategies for workforce development and talent retention
What is the “right workforce” for a community? In principle, it is one that meets the needs of today’s employers for quantity and quality – but also one that constantly improves people’s skills and prepares them for the jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities of tomorrow. It is hugely challenging to get right and, in this panel, we hear from the educational and workforce development leaders of communities of different sizes how they are supporting today’s requirements and preparing citizens for tomorrow. Speakers include:
- Lindsay Coolidge, Director, External Relations and Partnerships, Ontario Tech University
- Sarah Corey Hollohan, Chief Executive Officer, Ignite
- Mayor Martin Ritsma, City of Stratford, Ontario, Canada
- Mark Tremayne, Director of Innovation & Extended Learning, Hilliard City School District
- Kirby Dearth, Economic Development Administrator, Dublin, Ohio, USA
10:15 - Networking break
11:00 - PANEL | Designing an economy that attracts investment and grows businesses
If you were designing your community’s economy from the ground up, what would it look like? It would have a mix of small, midsize and large employers ranging from traditional and stable companies to entrepreneurial risk-takers in leading-edge fields. They would be active partners in education, government, culture and recreation, and have access to the talent they need in sufficient numbers. Most companies would have local roots and decision authority instead of being branch operations run by remote managers. And they would form a network of customer-vendor relationships that forge a competitive advantage all can benefit from. In this panel, economic developers describe the opportunities and challenges they face in turning this picture of an ideal economy into reality. Speakers include:
- Cr Terry Landsberg, Portfolio Councillor for Economy, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
- Dan Mathieson, Former Mayor, City of Stratford, ON, Canada
- Dana McDaniel, Partner, Management Advisory Group; Senior Fellow, Intelligent Community Forum
- Peter Portheine, Director, Eindhoven International Project Office; Strategic Advisor, Intelligent Community Forum
- Wendy Dupley, Past President, Economic Developers Association of Canada (Moderator)
11:45 - PRESENTATION - Charrette Recap: From Cultural Revival to Economic Opportunity: Broadband for the Eskasoni Nation
Charrette leaders recap the session from the 25th, including a next-day visualization and evaluation of the ideas developed by the groups during the workshop.
Speakers include:
- Luigi Ferrara, CEO, Brookfield Sustainability Institute
- Jacob Kessler, Director, Business Development & Account Management, Brookfield Sustainability Institute
12:00 - Lunch break and networking opportunity
13:00 (1:00pm) - PANEL - Digital tools for putting the citizen first
The 2022 Intelligent Community of the Year describes its smart-city strategy as using technology to “relieve the burdens of living” for its people. Technology can be powerful or paralyzing, empowering or perplexing, useful or an active nuisance. Local governments have the opportunity and responsibility to deploy technologies that truly put the citizen first while protecting their privacy. In this panel, city leaders reveal the priorities and processes they bring to providing citizens and organizations with digital tools from collaboration software to AI. Speakers include:
- Sumon Acharjee, Chief Information Officer, City of Markham, Ontario, Canada
- Dr. Norman Jacknis, Professor Of Practice, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Northeastern University; Senior Fellow, Intelligent Community Forum
- Kayla Schwoerer, Ph. D., Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration and Policy at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)
- Rob McCann, Founder, Clearcable (Moderator)
13:45 (1:45pm) - DIALOGUE - Urban centers in a distributed economy: managing the impacts
The year 2017 began a period of rising net migration of the most educated workers from high-cost metro areas in the US, a pattern evident across industrialized nations where broadband and digital tools are reliable and affordable. What at first seemed a transitory impact of COVID is increasingly viewed as a lasting change. Speakers address how major cities are working to reimagine and revitalize the urban center for the Digital Decades ahead. Speakers include:
- Adam Grossman Meagher, Senior Vice President, Neighborhood Strategies, Planning Division, New York City Economic Development Corporation
- Paul D. Selver, Partner and Co-chair, Land Use, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
14:30 (2:30pm) - Networking break
15:00 (3:00 pm) - PANEL - CIO Roundtable
Municipal CIOs and private-sector executives discuss and debate the challenges of IT infrastructure, policies and services for the public as digital services become increasingly crucial, vulnerable to attack and crime, and a forum for both collaboration and intimidation. Speakers include:
- Doug McCollough, CIO, City of Dublin, Ohio, USA
- Dr. Tuan Anh Pham, Director, Binh Duong Smart City Office
- Duane Powell, CIO, City of Hilliard, Ohio, USA
- Raimundo Rodulfo, Director of Information Technology and Chief Innovation Officer, City of Coral Gables, Florida, USA
- Moez Chaabouni, Jury Chairman, Intelligent Community Forum (Moderator)
15:45 (3:45pm) - PRESENTATION - Building a Cluster of Central Ohio Communities: the Dublin Institute
The work of the Dublin Institute has led to North America’s second-largest cluster of Intelligent Communities that pursue the Community Accelerator Strategy for economic and community development. Hear from Institute leaders about their past efforts and future goals. Speakers include:
- Kirby Dearth, Institute Co-Leader, Dublin Intelligent Community Institute
- Doug McCullough, Institute Co-Leader, Dublin Intelligent Community Institute
16:00 (4:00pm) - PANEL - How DOES Taiwan Do It? And Why Are Others Inspired by It?
In this presentation and panel discussion, we explore how Taiwan– home to over a dozen Intelligent Communities and most of the world’s chip manufacturing – has built a technology sector on which the world’s digital services depend. This blend of entrepreneurship, hard work, smart policies and an affirming and supportive culture offers lessons for local leaders everywhere about creating an ecosystem that drives progress in spite of geographic, diplomatic and political barriers. Speakers include:
- Maggie Chao, Deputy Division Director, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
- Debra Lam, Founding Executive Director, Partnership for Inclusion Innovation
- Lou Zacharilla, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum (Moderator)
16:30 (4:30pm) - PRESENTATIONS - Success stories from Intelligent Communities
In a rapid-fire series of presentations, officials of Intelligent Communities describe an individual project, its successes and lessons learned, for comment by ICF co-founders and analysts. Speakers include:
- Alison Burgess, Director Communications and Engagement, Durham Region, Ontario, Canada
- Bob Ferguson, Executive Director, Sustainable Living Coalition, Fairfield, Iowa, USA
- Robert Bell, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum (Moderator)
17:30 (5:30pm) - CLOSING
18:30 (6:30pm) - Intelligent Community Awards Dinner
The Green Fig, YOTEL New York, 570 10th Avenue at 42nd Street, Manhattan
The ICF Global Summit closes with the prestigious Intelligent Community Awards Dinner, where one of the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2023 will succeed New Taipei City, Taiwan, as the 2023 Intelligent Community of the Year. This event begins with a Networking Reception sponsored by the ICF Canada Delegation, followed by a sit-down dinner with presentations from ICF and other thought leaders in the Intelligent Community movement.
Speakers include:
- Peter Portheine, Director, Eindhoven International Project Office; Strategic Advisor, Intelligent Community Forum
- Shih-Jie Tang, Chief, Internet Service Section, Information Management Center of New Taipei City Government
- John Jung, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
- Lou Zacharilla, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
Previous Intelligent Community Awards Dinners (2016, 2018)
More speakers to be announced soon.