When Jim Savage walks toward a home with a bag full of groceries in each hand, it's usually his own — but this weekend, the 60-year-old has been showing up in front of houses with a shopping cart full of supplies for strangers who can't zip around Hamilton to buy groceries as more COVID-19 cases pop up around the city.

He is one of the thousands of locals who have joined an online group to help deliver items to those who can't afford them or can't get around the city easily.

Bell Canada is reaching out and touching the City of Hamilton to the tune of about $400 million, the largest digital infrastructure investment in the city's history.

The company announced Jan. 23 it will be investing the money to expand broadband internet access in urban and rural areas of Hamilton.

“I think you will be very impressed with one of our service providers,” Mayor Fred Eisenberger said recently. “It’s a pretty significant investment.”

When someone mentions Hamilton, one of their first thoughts is the Steel City. There's no question that the success of companies like Stelco and Dofasco helped define Hamilton as a steel town for more than a century. Jobs in manufacturing were abundant, and in many cases generational, as the city heavily relied on steel and manufacturing as its main source of employment.

Over the past 20 years however, we've seen a tremendous shift in Hamilton's economy. In fact, the Conference Board of Canada now ranks Hamilton's economy as the most diversified economy in the nation. This means that as a city, Hamilton's economic growth is coming from a broad spectrum of key industry sectors. Steve Jobs once said, "try to do a very few things well," so in addition to the advanced manufacturing we continue to be known for, the City of Hamilton concentrates on a few key sectors to leverage the resources we have to grow Hamilton's economy.

From its launch on Hamilton Harbour in 2005, Biox quietly became one of the world's fastest growing biofuel players with a refinery that turns animal fat and old cooking oil into a clean-burning diesel fuel alternative.

It was founded by an ex-military officer who grew frustrated by the effort to defend petroleum-rich regions of the world.

"I was very disappointed that we were making huge oil-based policy decisions and sending people off to war," said Oakville's Tim Haig. After a battle with leukemia that kept him from returning to the British Army, he got an MBA in London and pursued the renewables market

Rob McCann is the founder of Clearcable Networks and the President of the Hamilton Technology Centre. He has been working with advanced broadband service deployments in mid-market and rural cable and telephone systems since 1998. He is responsible for building and maintaining technical, network, and application intelligence. Rob works closely with several carriers, cable systems, municipalities, and network service providers in Canada, the US, and the Caribbean providing them with the technology, integration, and business practices required to effectively operate voice, video, and data services in the changing broadband service provider industry.

“I teach two things, suffering and the end of suffering.” Buddha

Over the years I have attempted to understand the “inner mysteries” of place. It has always been a core belief of mine that communities succeed or fail, as do sports teams, on what are called the “intangibles.” The unidentifiable or ineffable – call it “chemistry,” as they do in athletics – components. Hard to measure, impossible to see but felt like a breeze when things go along smoothly and like a sledgehammer on the chest cavity when they do not. To borrow a phrase from the American president’s inauguration speech in 2017, a sense of “carnage” seems palpable.

I prefer the word of the ancient wisdom traditions to describe these intangibles: the “soul” of a place.

Hamilton is celebrating its biggest construction year in the city’s history.

“On Sept. 11, 2018, the City of Hamilton has, for the very first time, hit the billion dollar mark as early as September,” said Hamilton chief building official Ed VanderWindt.

On October 25, ICF will be announcing the Smart21 Communities of 2019 during an event taking place in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. ICF co-founder John Jung sits down with Lou Zacharilla to discuss the event, in this week's Intelligent Community podcast. Learn more about the event here.

• John Jung, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
• Louis Zacharilla, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
  
  

          

As we approach the 2018 Smart21 Announcement in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on October 25, 2018, there is an added twist to this event this year, a Community Roundtable. It will be a great opportunity for communities to showcase their cities, towns and regions, but equally important is the fact that these are all Canadian communities, big and small, urban and rural, that had previously been recognized by ICF’s adjudicators as a SMART21, TOP7 or Intelligent Community of the Year. They will each speak to what makes their community smart and intelligent and what some of their key challenges were and what solutions they applied to resolve these challenges. Some may even brag about how this process has helped their community focus their transformation to become smart cities and intelligent communities. And some may even boast about how their use of the brand as a SMART21 city or TOP7 Intelligent Community may have helped them attract investors, jobs and talent to their communities.

Dallas-based seed fund and venture capital retail accelerator RevTech has announced the companies that will participate in this year’s cohort.

RevTech said it selected four companies — two of them from Dallas — that show strong entrepreneurial experience and ability to solve retail’s biggest challenges.

By being chosen for the cohort, the companies will participate in a 12-week program, getting access to RevTech’s mentor network and industry resources.