Danville
Starting in 1950, the collapse of employment in textile manufacturing and tobacco processing nearly drove Danville, Virginia into the ground. But in the 21st Century, out-migration yielded to new businesses and new residents, leading Site Selection magazine to twice name it one of the top 10 “micropolitan cities” in America. It took hard work, good luck and one more thing: the Community Accelerator Strategy.
Learn more
Learn from Danville and 21 other communities in Accelerate Your Economic Development, a discount bundle of courses in the Community Accelerator online training program. Danville is profiled in the course on Innovation: Building an Ecosystem for Growth. Produced in partnership with Economic Development Australia and the Economic Developers Association of Canada.
How did Danville do it? ICF tells the story in an online profile - one of hundreds on our site that take you inside technology-centric development of communities that builds inclusive prosperity, strengthens societies and enriches local culture.
Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.
Greater Geelong
In the 1970s, an oil crisis and rising wave of globalization led national government to drop tariff barriers to stimulate growth. For Greater Geelong, the shock was tremendous. Its manufacturing sector collapsed, beginning an economic decline that went on for decades. But by 2023, the city’s gross regional product (GRP), at A$19.6 billion, was the third fastest growing among large regional areas, with employment expanding at double the rate of population growth.
Learn more
Learn from Greater Geelong and 9 other communities in Developing a Stronger Community, a discount bundle of courses in the Community Accelerator online training program. Greater Geelong is profiled in the course on Engaging the Community in Positive Change. Produced in partnership with Economic Development Australia and the Economic Developers Association of Canada.
How did Greater Geelong do it? ICF tells the story in an online profile - one of hundreds on our site that takes you inside technology-centric development of communities that builds inclusive prosperity, strengthens societies and enriches local culture.
Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.
In 2000, the city of Columbus faced an uncertain future. Like most of Ohio, it was part of the “Rust Belt,” describing a manufacturing economy that had been decimated by globalization. It had plenty of strengths as the state capital, home of two major universities and the world’s largest private research institute. This enabled the city to outperform other Ohio cities – but only by remaining stagnant economically while they were declining.
Determined to make the city’s many assets live up to their potential, Columbus attacked its challenges on multiple fronts. It led formation of the Columbus Partnership, a collaboration among government, education, business and institutions. The Central Ohio Compact among educational institutions began working to remove the barriers keeping residents from higher education. Another partnership, Tech Columbus, provided support and seed funding for entrepreneurship.
From 2000 to 2017, Columbus added almost 400,000 people to its population and nearly 164,000 new jobs to the region. The region has attracted data centers, a new Intel semiconductor plant and the largest solar manufacturing facility in central Ohio. The city is home to one of the Midwest’s largest venture capital funds and a workforce in which 36 percent have a higher education degree. With rust firmly in its past, Columbus is now working hard to manage the challenges that come with economic success.
Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.
Until the early 20th Century, Dundee had been a flourishing city known for trading, whaling, textiles, food manufacturing and shipbuilding. The rise of global competition, however, led to large-scale plant closures that threw thousands out of work and caused major out-migration, trumpeted by national headlines about a city in terminal decline.
By the 1990s, city leadership had had enough. They formed a partnership of government, universities, business and community groups to chart a path forward. Its first moves were traditional: rebuilding the city center and developing tourist and leisure facilities. Employment kept falling– but there were signs of early growth in new sectors like software, animation, computer games, film and television.
Dundee’s universities were driving it, but the Partnership quickly put its shoulder to the wheel. It attracted investment, launched marketing programs and developed business incubators and accelerators. Attention also went to existing companies, which received training to improve their e-readiness. By 2007, life sciences and digital media were employing nearly 7,000 people and generating hundreds of millions in new revenues.
Learn from the story of Dundee and much more in the Community Accelerator online training course, Engaging the Community in Positive Change. One hour of your time will pay big dividends in your work.
Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.
A century ago, Chattanooga was a center of industry and innovation. The Coca Cola Bottling Companies were born there, and the city prospered from growth in heavy industry including metal foundries. But by the 1970s, heavy industry began to shrink dramatically in the face of global competition, leaving the city with high unemployment, an under-skilled workforce and a legacy of polluted air.
Then the electric company owned by the city began investing in fiber optics to improve its own operations. As part of the build-out, it introduced low-cost, high-performance broadband to business and residents. When it launched 1 gig service in 2010, city government responded by creating America’s first Gig City brand as an “open for business” sign for innovators. Meanwhile the city spurred collaboration among the educators and foundations to upskill residents and create a digital workforce and institutions to serve them. By 2017, Chattanooga had become one of the country’s 25 fastest growing cities.
Learn from the story of Chattanooga and much more in the Community Accelerator online training course, Innovation: Building an Ecosystem for Growth. One hour of your time will pay big dividends in your work.
Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.
The Sunshine Coast, a sprawling municipality in eastern Australia, was once known principally for sunshine, scenery and a climate that made it a destination for tourists and retirees. Not content with this fragile economic base, local leaders led development of a 20-year growth strategy focusing on high-value, knowledge-based industries including professional services, advanced manufacturing and high tech.
This ambitious transition was based on strong and effective leadership from business and continuing collaboration with employers, nonprofits and educators. Economic development focused on supporting existing businesses with an innovation edge and attracting new ones. Education was revamped to target local career opportunities for an increasingly skilled workforce.
The city successfully lobbied for broadband investment from Australia's NBN Network and invested in an international submarine cable landing at a new greenfield city center. Step by step, leveraging local investment and the talents of its people, the city built an innovation ecosystem from scratch, became a high-tech destination without losing the attractions that support tourism and quality of life.
Learn from Sunshine Coast’s economic development leader and many others in the Community Accelerator Spotlight course: Turning Digital Bits Into Real Coin. Thirty minutes of your time will pay big dividends in your work.
Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.
Phillips, the lighting and technology giant, made Eindhoven the center of its operations for over a century. Then the company relocated to Amsterdam, eliminating 10,000 jobs but leaving its R&D facilities running.
Responding to crisis, the city joined with other municipalities, universities and companies to fund a public-private partnership to develop projects boosting the region’s competitiveness in life technologies, automotive, high-tech systems, design, food and nutrition. Its open-innovation approach was so successful that Forbes magazine named Eindhoven the most inventive city in the world in 2013.
Learn from the story of Eindhoven and much more in the Community Accelerator online training course, Innovation: Building an Ecosystem for Growth. One hour of your time will pay big dividends in your work.
Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.
The city of Stratford, Ontario was known in Canada as that “quaint little town 90 minutes outside of Toronto.” Its economy was based on agriculture, tourism and light manufacturing with repeated cycles of growth and decline, leading nowhere.
Then, under a new mayor, Stratford made strategic investments in digital infrastructure and services. Creative deal-making led the city to attract first one, then another data center. Neither was a major employer by itself – but the density of digital assets laid the foundation for Stratford to persuade two banks to move their IT staff from high-priced real estate in Toronto to this attractive community with good schools, strong social bonds and rich cultural offerings.
Learn more
Learn from Statford and 21 other communities in Accelerate Your Economic Development, a discount bundle of courses in the Community Accelerator online training program. Stratford is profiled in the course on Innovation: Building an Ecosystem for Growth. Produced in partnership with Economic Development Australia and the Economic Developers Association of Canada.
How did Stratford do it? ICF tells the story in an online profile - one of hundreds on our site that take you inside technology-centric development of communities that builds inclusive prosperity, strengthens societies and enriches local culture.
Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.
The city of Taichung in central Taiwan is a county-sized municipality that is home to nearly three million people. Its urban cluster hosts a major seaport and service economy, while its rural areas are agricultural and industrial. Aside from the seaport, the backbone of its industrial economy consists of 1,500 precision machinery makers and tens of thousands of SME suppliers.
Precision manufacturing offered growth potential in an advanced economy like that of Taiwan. The question was how to unleash it – and city government hit on a unique solution. By sharing the costs of software licensing, Taichung's government enabled manufacturers to bid and win jobs with major corporations that were previously out of reach. They also reduced their own purchasing costs while gaining a competitive edge on smaller vendors in other cities.
Learn more
Learn from Taichung and 21 other communities in Accelerating Your Economic Development, a discount bundle of courses in the Community Accelerator online training program. Taichung is profiled in the course on Connectivity: Foundation of Digital Opportunity. 
How did Taichung do it? ICF tells the story in an online profile - one of hundreds on our site that takes you inside technology-centric development of communities that builds inclusive prosperity, strengthens societies and enriches local culture.
Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.
Fredericton is capital of the maritime province of New Brunswick. In the Sixties and Seventies, as other sources of growth faded, public-sector employment powered its economy. Then crisis came when the Canadian government, running large deficits, pushed public costs down onto the provinces. By the 1990s, Fredericton was saddled with a government that was too large and a shrinking private sector too anemic to support it.
Local government responded with a series of plans and partnerships aiming to build a new economy based on its unique human and economic assets. They sought to tap the power of the city’s universities, the region’s telecom firms, real estate developers, a public utility and small group of software investors. The city and a university developed a Knowledge Park innovation district and new courses of study that engaged students in local companies and entrepreneurship. In the 10 years from 2010 to 2020, this city of 65,000 people created 12,000 new jobs, 75% of them in technology, and developed the largest engineering cluster in North America.
Learn from the story of Fredericton and other small-to-midsize communities around the world in the Innovation course of the Economic Developers Bundle of Community Accelerator online training courses. A few hours of your time will pay big dividends in your work.
Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.