The 22,000 people of Hudson live in a green stretch of the state of Ohio midway between the cities of Cleveland and Akron. Despite the major industrial disruptions of the last 40 years, the region is relatively prosperous. Its economy rests on a mix of manufacturing (polymers, automotive, fabricated metals, electrical and electronic parts and aerospace) and services (transportation, health, insurance, banking, finance and retail). Such name-brand companies as Goodyear, Bridgestone, FedEx, Lockheed Martin, Allstate Insurance and JP Morgan Chase have headquarters or major facilities there. Click here to read more about Hudson.

In February, the Sunshine Coast was recognised by the global Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) as one to the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2019.

Achieving this award from a pool of hundreds of entries, the Sunshine Coast was the only Australian city named in this year’s Top7 and shares the global spotlight with communities from Canada, Taiwan and the United States of America, including Chicago.

Co-Founder of the ICF, Mr John Jung visited the Sunshine Coast this week as part of the judging process for the 2019 Intelligent Community of the Year.

Smart Infrastructure Solutions for your Intelligent Communities

June 11, 2019, New York City: Mark that in your calendars. Better yet, register to be among those who will be able to benefit from the exclusive all-day economic development program to add real results to your attendance at the 2019 Global Intelligent Communities Forum Summit in New York.

What can you expect at this event?

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.

“There are few things in life that are free. Being recognized as an Intelligent Community may just be one of them.”

That was the beginning of the blog on August 5, 2015 about the benefits that communities can expect by successfully applying to be recognized as a SMART21 Intelligent Community via https://www.intelligentcommunity.org/nominations. I have often been asked what the benefits are from the unique ICF Awards Program and I have referred them to the original blog from August 2015. But three years later, I felt we needed to update the original. Besides, the original listed only 12 benefits. Today, we are listing an amazing Top 20 Reasons.

Part 2 of 2

Why are we here today?

The Intelligent Community Forum, a global think tank headquartered in NYC, was started over two decades ago because the world was changing and as observers and active participants, we wanted to ensure nothing less than the survival of our species, the improvement of the quality of the lives of our citizens, the enhancements necessary to make our communities more livable and to ensure that our children and their children were educated and had access to an equitable opportunity for a lifestyle they deserved when they came onto this earth. We decided long ago that we needed to actively engage ourselves into this discussion and do everything that we could to help to make this happen. So, the burning question for you today is - why are you here today? We believe that you are here today because in your own way you, with your expertise and talent, also want to become more actively engaged in this discussion.

ICF Director of Operations Matthew Owen sits down with ICF Co-Founder John Jung for part 3 in this special series discussing 2018's Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year. This week, Matt and John focus on Espoo, Finland and Tainan City, Taiwan.

	City Center of Oulu - By John Jung

During my recent visit to Oulu, the Capital of Northern Scandinavia and the beginning of the Lapland region of Finland, I visited the Oulu Museum of Art which was hosting an exhibit called “The Hype in the Arctic Silicon Valley”. It was a quiet Saturday afternoon and I had the opportunity to visit the exhibit with Juha Ala-Mursula, who today was the head of BusinessOulu, but at the time of the height of the exhibit’s focus around 2010, he was one of the lead Nokia executives in Oulu that was developing the wireless technologies on display. This was his first visit to the exhibit and like a child at Christmas opening familiar presents, his eyes glistened at the sight of his long-lost friends. “This is the Nokia 6000 Series; I recall my team working on this model and…” and he would be off in another time and place. “…and here is the Nokia E72………” He and his teams would continue to be proud of their accomplishments that raised this city at the southern end of Lapland into a technological force that few communities could boast about in the world.