Every city or region of any size in the world would like to attract technology companies to locate there. The boom times for digitally-driven technologies seem to know no end, and diversifying into tech looks like a sound long-term strategy. But executing the strategy? Not so easy.

One of the world’s better examples comes from the city of Tallinn, capital of Estonia, a country whose journey from post-Soviet devastation to tech leadership and EU membership still astounds. A program called Test in Tallinn, led by innovation expert Mark-Emile Talivere, does what so many communities try to do, and does it very well.

Part of the 2025 ICF Delegation meeting with New Taipei City’s Mayor Hou
 

For the past three years, the Intelligent Community Forum has taken a delegation to attend the annual Smart City Summit & Expo and Net Zero City Expo (SCSE) in Taipei. From a small, largely Canadian delegation in the first year, the past two years have attracted significant numbers of international attendees to be part of ICF’s Delegation to the SCSE and associated site visits. This year, thirty-one delegates from Canada, USA, Brazil, Spain, and the Netherlands joined ICF Canada and ICF Taiwan’s organizers to attend the SCSE and undertake visits to meet the mayors of Taoyuan, New Taipei City, and Yunlin County. In each of these gatherings, in addition to the formalities, the mayors explained why their communities have become among the best smart cities and Intelligent Communities in Taiwan. They noted that they are leading in applying digital communications technologies in health, emergency response, education, traffic control, urban planning, and overall quality of life for their citizens. As the delegation learned over the course of their visit to Taiwan – these communities excel in not only digital connectivity and AIoT applications, they also train knowledge workers and the talent to innovate and become global entrepreneurs. And with innovation, they share their prosperity with all of their citizens who have developed a culture of engagement and respect for sustainability, all key factors of smart cities to evolve into true Intelligent Communities.
 

Final part: Establishing a global brand

With the support of Becamex IDC, Binh Duong province has been developing a smart city and an innovation region. The foundation of this smart city is built upon the Industrial - Service - Urban Complex, with Binh Duong New City as its central core. Becoming a smart city reflects the strong aspiration of generations of leaders and residents in the province to rise and thrive in the new era—the era of growth.

Communities from nine nations over five continents named as semi-finalists in ICF’s annual Intelligent Community of the Year Awards Program

(March 6, 2025 – New York, NY, USA & Hamilton, ON, Canada) – At the conclusion of a conference hosted by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), Artefact Social and the Hamilton Technology Centre, ICF today named the world’s Smart21 Communities of 2025. The announcement was made at a special evening event after the Communities in Transition conference in the host city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

The selection of the Smart21 Communities of the Year begins the semi-finalist phase in ICF’s annual Awards Program. In June, ICF will announce the Top7 Intelligent Communities as finalists in the Awards program at the Top7 Conference & Announcement in Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain. The program will conclude when ICF names the 2025 Intelligent Community of the Year at the ICF Global Summit in Binh Duong, Vietnam in October. One of these twenty-one communities named today will succeed Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, the 2024 Intelligent Community of the Year.

Innovation and creativity serve as a driving force for sustainable development and a key to improving management effectiveness and leadership capacity, particularly in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In Binh Duong, innovative initiatives have led to breakthroughs in economic management and are helping to effectively achieve the goals set by the 11th provincial Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term.

Developing a smart city is not only a strategic initiative for socio-economic advancement but also a goal embraced by the Party Committee, the government, and the people of Binh Duong province. This clear and consistent vision has allowed us to achieve significant breakthroughs in socio-economic growth, transforming Binh Duong into a worth-living city and enhancing its reputation on the international stage.

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.