Rob van Gijzel

The best description I have ever heard about ICF as an ideas-driving think tank for enabling Digital Age policy for cities and towns was from Rob van Gijzel, the former mayor of Eindhoven, The Netherlands and the ICF Foundation’s first chairman. He called us, “The method of transformational decision making for cities.”

And we are. Or at least “a method” for this. We are also a group that inspired communities to believe that, yes, they can.

The world has cooperated with the ICF vision. Thanks to broadband and satellite telecommunications the world became flat. Like the sound of a rail train’s whistle, people heard something familiar and it allowed them to rethink the proposition of the small and the midsized city especially. It dawned on them that “the middle of nowhere” was no longer their domain. They had places with a history and assets that could be transformed.

These cities and towns have begun to determine the course of the global economy because of how they have moved from using smart technology to become Intelligent places. This year’s Smart21 is laden with them, from Vietnam to Ohio to India.

One of the pillars of the success of the Brainport region is cooperation. Cooperation in chains between networks of suppliers and OEMs and cooperation in the multi helix to create the optimal conditions for successful companies and groundbreaking innovations. And yet, at the start of the future study of Brainport Eindhoven, the participants indicated that even more cooperation was needed, both within the region and with parties outside of it. Cooperation is crucial for the development of future generations of applications and systems. Because even more than now, everything will be connected with everything by 2038.

In September 2016, Eindhoven had a first: the launch of the very first CBS Urban Data Centre (UDC). The collaboration with Statistics Netherlands (CBS) is in keeping with Eindhoven’s ambition to develop into a smart society, which is a city that uses the power of technology and design for its inhabitants in the best possible way. Now, two years later, it is time to look back together with the municipality and with CBS to see what has been accomplished so far.

A new flexible public transport service is now available in Eindhoven-Zuid, Waalre and Veldhoven. Hermes launched its “on-call” Bravoflex service.

Travellers can book a seat on a mini-bus using an app. The special bus picks up passengers at a selected bus stop. Passengers are then driven to their selected bus stop.

A new European photonics project has kicked off in Eindhoven this week. The R&D costs that are involved in developing photonic chips are high, 12 12 partners from northwestern Europe are creating an open access pilot line that will drastically reduce costs and time for the pilot production of new products. The facility is meant for shared use by European SMEs. The 14 million euro project (OIP4NWE) is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and led by the Eindhoven University of Technology. The production facility that is going to be built is expected to create a thousand new companies and thousands of jobs. It should be fully operational in 2022.

In recent years, we have seamlessly progressed towards connected-communities. As such, an ever-increasing wave of new smart products is meshing into our lives. Welcome to the new era of Smart Society.

Eindhoven’s High Tech Campus (HTC) currently holds the top spot on Innovation in Europe. As a matter of fact, HTC is quickly becoming the driving force on several key technologies in the global arena.

It may be a small Dutch city, but it’s home to a powerful roster of major global automotive companies; it’s also strong economically, thanks in part to the pan-industry, cross-discipline Brainport initiative. As a result, Eindhoven has secured its place in the future mobility race.

The city’s culture of sustainability, innovation and industry-academia collaboration have helped to attract global companies to invest, and the Dutch government’s active involvement, coupled with its ambition to cut emissions and make the country globally competitive, have created the ideal home for developments in smart mobility.

Barcelona is one of the world’s leading examples of Smart City developments. And that is even more so during the annual Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC), from 12 to 15 November in that city. “It is the meeting place for companies, entrepreneurs, start-ups, cities and knowledge and research centres involved in smart cities”, says Johann Beelen, who is helping to enthuse a Dutch delegation for the conference on behalf of Brainport Development. This year this delegation will be led by the Eindhoven mayor John Jorritsma.

“Our goal is to present the offer and the added value of Dutch organisations and companies within the Smart City sector as concretely as possible”, says Johann Beelen. This is done along six different tracks:

A recent influx of expat professionals into the Meerhoven district of Eindhoven has resulted in the area’s rechristening as Expathoven.

The Dutch city of Eindhoven is bidding to be the Netherlands’ most international city due to a massive influx of expat tech professionals, most of whom have settled in the Meerhoven district. The vast majority of the 11 thousand residents in the area are highly skilled expats who’ve arrived to take up jobs in ultra-high tech companies such as leaders in the semiconductor sector NXP and ASML. The area has now been dubbed ‘Expathoven’ by local residents.

The Dutch government has signed an agreement with the province of North Brabant on the further development of 'Brainport Eindhoven', the industry and research hub in the province. This covers investments in improving the infrastructure and investment climate in the area, including efforts to attract talent to the region.