Annual Awards Program to culminate in October 2021 with the announcement of the 2021 Intelligent Community of the Year

(September 21, 2020 – New York City) – While preparing to announce its Intelligent Community of the Year for 2020 in October, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) has opened nominations for the next cycle of its prestigious international awards program for cities and regions.

The Awards Program, which is run by the New York-based think-tank, will name its 22nd Intelligent Community of the Year at the 2021 ICF Global Summit in October 2021. The 2020 cycle, currently in progress, will conclude on October 29 at this year’s virtual ICF Global Summit.

Announcement to be part of a 2.5-day conference, “From Surviving to Thriving” using the ICF Method

(New York, NY, USA; Maple Ridge, BC, Canada and the Township of Langley, BC, Canada – September 10, 2020) – The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) today named Maple Ridge and the Township of Langley in British Columbia, Canada as co-hosts of the February 2021 ICF Smart21 Conference: From Surviving to Thriving using the ICF Method. The Smart21 Communities announcement will take place as part of a 2.5-day conference from February 21-23, 2021.

“Mommy, I can’t breathe!!” he shouted. It was more a petulant shriek than a genuine plea for help.

The mother of the 8-year old boy jostled him in that motherly way, pulled him toward her and adjusted his small mask as they continued walking along the CVS parking lot to the store. He had her attention. Mission accomplished.

2020 is the year when we started to really look at one another in our communities and found new heroes and beauty within our chaos. And broadband boosted the conversations. Attribution: “Zoe” by Yung Jake, Courtesy of Tripoli Gallery, Long Island

One year ago, those words had a way different context when they met your ears. While someone claiming lack of breath was never, medically, a good thing, it was never the trigger phrase for a cascade of events that have put cities and citizens in a dizzying spin of traumas. What we witness (mainly from our devices) are seismic cracks in the status quo, a form of grief and, as if we need proof that nothing is born without pain, genuine awakenings.

It is in this climate that we begin this year’s Top7 Site Visits around the world.

Zoom.

As a magic word, it puts “Shazam!” to shame.

Zoom. It is the only most visible of the many powerful broadband applications that are helping us get through COVID19. It stands for the transformation of broadband, almost overnight, from “nice to have” into “essential infrastructure,” as the pandemic spreads across nations and industries and keeps forcing changes in the way we live.

DUBLIN, Ohio, Aug. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the world continues to navigate through the worst global health crisis in a century and people ponder their own health and how to take charge of it, IGS Energy is embracing its role and responsibility to help create a healthier planet.

To help lead the fight against climate change, the Ohio-based energy company today announced its goal of becoming a completely carbon-neutral energy provider by 2040. The company's first major step in doing so is to provide 100% renewable electricity and carbon-neutral natural gas to all new residential consumers beginning today.

MONTRÉAL, Aug. 20, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - SwiftCTRL Technologies Canada Inc., an employee-owned affiliate of New York-based Proptech company, SwiftCTRL Inc. ("SwiftCTRL"), is establishing its first engineering office and research and development centre in Montréal. The newly opened centre will mostly focus on the development of the company's commercial office access control and visitor management interfaces to allow property owners and enterprises to efficiently and safely provision building entry in a post-Covid world.

Chip Kruger, Chief Executive Officer of SwiftCTRL, is making his second investment in Montréal to capitalize on the city's know-how and the unparalleled advantages it has to offer. Chip's previous company, Waltz, a venture-backed mobile access control company, had a Montréal subsidiary in 2016, before being acquired in 2019.

FREDERICTON – Starting August 31, entrepreneurs will have a co-working space in the downtown core that will provide support to early-stage entrepreneurs and startups.
“The Nest” is a collaboration between Planet Hatch and The Cap and will provide entrepreneurs with a working space, business counselling, funding, programs, and events.

“Even in a small town like Fredericton, there can be a barrier of proximity or geographical location,” said Adam Peabody, director of Planet Hatch.

“And so, what we had been told by some [entrepreneurs is] … that they had hoped that we would be able to provide a home for them as well and most of them are in the downtown business district.”

Many communities are by now familiar with the annual selection and awards process of ICF. Selecting the Smart21, then the Top7 and ultimately the most Intelligent Community of the Year occurs in several phases and in many ways. There are rigorous quantitative evaluations conducted by an outside consultancy, field trips, a review by an independent panel of leading experts/academic researchers and a vote by a larger group of experts.

Although communities like to focus on the #1 spot, the biggest distinctions are not between the #1 and the others in the Top7, but between the Smart21 and the Top7. An especially important part of the selection of the Top7 from the Smart21 is an independent panel’s assessment of the projects and initiatives that justify a community’s claim to being Intelligent.

With 5G services kicking off in Taiwan in July 2020, cloud applications and IoT innovations are rapidly rolling out. NTPC-AWS Joint Innovation Center founded by New Taipei City Government, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and FCC Partners Inc held its third Demo Day: The Innovators 3 on July 15, with Chee Ching, general manager, FarEasTone (FET) Telecom, delivering a speech shedding light on 5G opportunities, and Unblock Analysis winning The Startup with Most Investment-Potential award for its innovative cloud system Know Your Transaction (KYT).

Unblock Analysis said its KYT checks details of every online transaction conducted all over the world using artificial intelligence (AI), providing comprehensive services encompassing everything from basic name verification to client risk identification. It traces blockchain and cryptocurrency transactions to counter against money laundering. Nicknamed "Sherlock Holmes of the digital world," Unblock Analysis will represent Taiwan to participate in the establishment of standards for anti-money laundering at the 2020 G20 Summit.

Maroochydore, Wednesday 22 July 2020: A better connected South-East Queensland (SEQ) has arrived.

OneQode, Australia’s first carrier to deploy equipment and commence operations out of the Sunshine Coast Cable Landing Station (CLS), is now ready to launch its digital services from the Sunshine Coast direct to its Brisbane CBD Points of Presence (Equinix BR1 & NextDC B2). With the lowest latency path to East Asia from Brisbane, this network is set to provide unparalleled speed to all Queenslanders – ushering in a new era of internet connectivity.