Melbourne, Australia is a very nice city: that’s an understatement for a place that, seven years running, has been named the world’s Most Livable City by The Economist. (It’s also, as my 10-year-old son has enthusiastically informed me, the birthplace of Kyrie Irving and hometown of Ben Simmons.) I'm here this week for Melbourne Knowledge Week, and the launch of Startup Genome's latest regional report, about the startup ecosystem in Melbourne and the state of Victoria.

If you Google “Melbourne Sydney rivalry”, an option comes up “song”, and a 2015 story pops up from the Leader-Herald Sun website headlined “10 Great Songs About Melbourne.”

As journalist Caitlin Ryan gushed, you couldn’t compose such a list without a song or two from “the great Paul Kelly”.

“We all know Melbourne is better than Sydney, but in this track from 1985, he nails the divide,” Ryan writes. She then quotes “these classic lines” from Kelly’s song From St Kilda to King’s Cross:

Lendlease's emerging Melbourne Quarter precinct in Melbourne's Docklands area bordering the old city grid will be given a sustainability nudge by the federal government's Clean Energy Finance Corporation through a $100 million equity investment.

While Lendlease, in its role as a developer, is pursuing the broader $2.5 billion seven-tower project, its investment arm, the Australian Prime Property Fund Commercial, also has an exposure, taking stakes in two office buildings so far.

Ramco has announced that it is to set up an Asia-Pacific Centre of Excellence for Workforce Innovation in Melbourne, Australia. The aim of the new centre is to attract talent from across Australia to work on innovative technology for HR. Last year Melbourne was crowned Australia’s tech capital by the Australian Business Review, that followed the announcement of a four year plan by the City of Melbourne. The Lord Mayor Robert Doyle AC said: ”Our vision is for Melbourne to be recognised as the number one destination for start-ups and entrepreneurs to ‘start, grow and go global’, across Australia and Asia.”.

Melbourne's not just the world's most liveable city. It's also the happiest, a new survey shows.

A poll of 15,000 people from 32 cities - including Barcelona, Berlin, Tokyo and New York - showed the Victorian capital outranks its competitors for happiness, a Time Out City Life Index said.

The survey looked at anonymous data across seven categories: food and drink, culture, relationships and community, neighbourhoods, affordability, happiness and liveability.

In today’s episode, we’re going to be hearing from Andy Lee, Technology Investment Director with the state of Victoria, Australia. ICF's Lou Zacharilla spoke with Andy at Silicon Harlem’s 4th Annual Next Gen Tech Conference in New York City during a panel discussion also featuring Brad Ferguson from the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, Dr. Jack Chu from the Weatherhead East Asian Instutute, and Rui Barros of WeWork. While we'll be featuring each of them in coming episodes, we started with Andy Lee because much of our discussion surrounds Melbourne, our current reigning Intelligent Community of the Year for 2017. We'll be hearing from him why collaboration really is key in developing an intelligent community.

In Melbourne, an application called “Ask Izzy” provides the homeless with daily, on-demand updates on the locations where food, accommodations and social services may be accessed for free or at huge discounts. The application is well received because it keeps the information it receives from the homeless population strictly personal and confidential through use of smartphones, which over 75% of Melbourne’s homeless population have access to. Access to the Internet is highly affordable since they use the free Wi-Fi available in the central area and access free commercially promoted chargers. Many of their smartphones come through donations and as recycled models that can access the Ask Izzy site. Coupled with this site is another online application called “Go Digi” that helps homeless and unemployed Australians to learn how to use the Internet and develop digital skills, access information, mentors and other resources. In order to rise out of perpetual homelessness and poverty, Go Digi attempts to support the urban poor with options for self-improvement, especially to bridge the digital divide. Through mentorship and encouragement, people can seek opportunities to develop digital skills and identify opportunities for employment and housing, all the while creating a sense of self-worth.

NEW YORK CITY – Melbourne, Australia, won “Intelligent Community of the Year” this week at the at New York-based Intelligent Community Forum’s annual ICF Summit.

The ICF also for the first time called for affordable broadband to be declared a utility for public benefit by cities and official agencies. The prestigious annual award measures communities on six “Intelligent Community Indicators”: Broadband, Knowledge Workforce, Innovation, Digital Equality, Sustainability, Advocacy.

It's official. Melbourne has now been recognised as the world's most intelligent city on top of its long standing crown as the world's most liveable city.

The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), a global think tank based in New York, has awarded Melbourne the 2017 Intelligent Community of the Year at a ceremony in Manhattan.

The ICF is a global network of 160 countries, cities and towns with a think tank at its heart.

(June 8, 2017 – New York City) – The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) today named Melbourne, Victoria, Australia the 2017 Intelligent Community of the Year at a dinner ceremony in the prestigious Landmark on the Park venue in Manhattan. The awards ceremony was the conclusion of the Intelligent Community Forum’s annual Summit.

“Melbourne is famously ‘the world’s most livable city,’ but the question was ‘Are they an Intelligent Community?’” said ICF co-founder Lou Zacharilla. “They answered that question this year. They are redefining the concept of technology, work, and the workspace. They have created a city that functions like an artist’s canvas. They have built an entire system where creativity flourishes, education is harnessed to the workforce, and quality of life has become the city’s greatest competitive advantage. It is a dynamic combination and one the Intelligent Community Forum honors.”

Melbourne was selected as the 2017 Intelligent Community of the Year after a year-long evaluation that included a quantitative analysis of extensive data, site inspections by the Intelligent Community Forum, and votes from an international jury made up of experts from around the world. Communities in the Awards program are evaluated based on six Intelligent Community Indicators, along with a seventh criteria, ICF’s annual theme, The Internet of Cities.