I frequently lead online webinars and workshops. Like most things in life, they’re both good and bad. They lack the human touch that, in-person, can lead to real relationships – but they also let us share a much broader range of knowledge and opinion than we are likely to find in a face-to-face meeting in one place.

Not everyone who registers for these events shows up. That's their privilege. But recently, I came across something new. A couple of people showed up – kind of – by having an AI note-taker application log in, listen and summarize what it heard for later reading.

Each year, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) Awards Program offers a series of high-profile events to inspire and connect leaders from across the globe. Mark your calendars for these key conferences in the 2025 Awards cycle, each hosted in an Intelligent Community renowned for its forward-thinking initiatives and unique contributions to the global Intelligent Community movement.

(New York City – November 18, 2024) – The Intelligent Community Forum announced today the Full Certification of Durham Region, Ontario, Canada as an Intelligent Community with policies, programs and projects that create inclusive prosperity, a vibrant society and rich local culture. These combine to make this region of eight municipalities made up of cities, towns and townships, a highly desirable location for innovative businesses, institutions and people.

Meeting ICF’s Certification standard provides objective validation that a community has high-quality connectivity, effective workforce development, a business innovation ecosystem and meaningful community engagement, digital inclusion and sustainability programs in place. These qualities combine to support the growth of innovative businesses, meet their talent needs and provide inclusive prosperity and a high quality of life.

The Intelligent Community Forum Names its First Brazilian City for Development Excellence

(November 4, 2024 – New York City, NY, USA & Barcelona, Spain) – For the first time in its 25-year history, the Intelligent Community Forum honored a Brazilian city with its top award today when it named Curitiba as the 2024 Intelligent Community of the Year. Curitiba, located in the state of Paraná, had been previously named a Smart21 Community eight times and to the prestigious list of Top7 four times since 2021. The announcement was made during the annual Intelligent Community Awards Dinner at Can Travi Nou in Barcelona, the culminating event of this year’s ICF Global Summit conference. (www.icfsummit.com) The Intelligent Community Awards Dinner was sponsored by Becamex IDC.

(New York City - October 22, 2024) – The Intelligent Community Forum announced today the Full Certification of Hilliard, Ohio, USA, providing objective validation of policies, programs and accomplishments that create inclusive prosperity, a vibrant society and rich local culture. These combine to make this growing suburban city, located in the Columbus metropolitan region, a highly desirable location for innovative businesses, institutions and people.

Hilliard is the first city in the United States to be Certified as an Intelligent Community. It is also a two-time Top7 Intelligent Community and currently a finalist in the 2024 Intelligent Community Awards.

The City of Columbus, through its Sustainable Columbus office, was awarded $778,900 from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, a funding opportunity from the Office of State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The City of Columbus is one of the more than 2,700 eligible states, territories, local governments, and Tribes to receive a portion of the more than $430 million in formula funding that will help meet the unique energy needs in communities that serve more than 250 million Americans.

Sustainable Columbus will utilize the funding to partner with the Human Service Chamber (HSC) to provide commercial building energy audits and technical assistance to area nonprofit organizations. This collaboration supports Columbus Climate Action Plan goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while keeping equity and environmental justice at the center. These values are shared by HSC and this new program, administered by the HSC, will facilitate energy and cost-saving measures, allowing participating nonprofits to redirect more of their budget toward their core mission of serving Columbus’ opportunity neighborhoods and climate vulnerable communities.

Smart City Success Stories: Launches, Collaborations and Events. Published by the City of Coral Gables Innovation & Technology Department (CGIT).

The City of Coral Gables promotes the development of a smart city ecosystem that fosters innovation and economic growth by bringing together through technology People; Businesses, Organizations; Things, and Systems. By leveraging strategic planning and innovation, the City’s digital transformation and smart initiatives benefit the citizens with continuous improvement of customer service and quality of life. Our smart city roadmap is defined by the components of transparency, value creation; open data and analytics; actionable information, efficiencies; citizen engagement, mobility, accessibility; crowdsourcing; inclusion, and collaboration. The success stories, launches, collaborations, and events below are part of our continuous and exciting journey to become a smarter city.

On September 25, Mr. Nguyen Van Loi, member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly’s Delegation, received Mr. John Jung, co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), on the occasion of the ICF delegation attending the announcement ceremony of the Binh Duong Provincial Planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050. The reception also had Mr. Nguyen Loc Ha, Standing Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; and leaders of relevant departments and branches.

O fundador do Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), John Jung, está em Curitiba para a avaliação da cidade antes da eleição da comunidade mais inteligente do mundo. A capital paranaense é uma das sete finalistas ao prêmio, que será entregue em novembro em Barcelona, durante o ICF Global Summit. Assaí, no interior do estado, também concorre ao título em 2024. As duas cidades paranaenses são as únicas da América Latina na lista deste ano.

Brick House Blue is joining Hilliard's TruePointe development.

The local coworking company, which is also set to open a New Albany location in December, recently signed a lease for about 15,000 square feet at the Trueman Boulevard site.

It will join Advanced Drainage Systems, Home2 Suites by Hilton and Drunch, which have announced plans in recent months to open there. TruePointe, a $200 million mixed-use project that is being developed by Equity, also will have a 360-unit apartment complex.