(June 14, 2022 – New York City, NY, USA & Binh Duong, Vietnam) – On June 21, 2022, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) and Binh Duong province will jointly present the 2022 Top7 Intelligent Communities Conference & Announcement: After the Pandemic: How Digital Innovation Drives Growth in Our Communities. The day-long conference features live and online events in Binh Duong, culminating in the announcement of the Top7 Communities of 2022. ICF co-founder Louis Zacharilla will be at the live event to deliver the keynote address on the current state and evolution of the Intelligent Community.

The Top7 Communities are chosen from among the Smart21 Communities of 2022 to be finalists in the yearly Intelligent Community Awards. In October 2022, one of these seven communities will be named the Intelligent Community of the Year at ICF’s Global Summit. The city of Binh Duong was one of the Top7 Communities of 2021 and is a Smart21 Community again this year.

(March 8, 2022 – New York City) – The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) today announced the launch of new online courses in economic and community development for the digital age as part of its Community Accelerator program. The Community Accelerator is a set of online courses that train the champions of change in your city or region in assembling the key building blocks of growth in 2022: affordable and high-quality broadband connectivity, an education system that produces a skilled workforce and innovation in business and government. It offers detailed roadmaps, illustrated with real-world examples, of successful economic strategies, team-building, community engagement, regional partnerships and much more.

Communities from nine nations, including Greece and New Zealand, named this year

(24 February 2022 – Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada & New York, New York, USA) – At the conclusion of a virtual conference co-hosted by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) and Economic Development Winnipeg, ICF today named the world’s Smart21 Communities of 2022. The selection of the annual Smart21 Communities of the Year marks the beginning of the annual nine-month process which will conclude when ICF names the 2022 Intelligent Community of the Year in October at the ICF Summit. Winnipeg was the 2021 Intelligent Community of the Year.

Each of the cities, towns, or regions that appear in the Smart21 have applied the six principles of the ICF Method to begin building inclusive economic prosperity, social health and cultural richness, which together make a community strong and resilient. Most have been working on their programs for several years.

Announcement to be part of a half-day conference, “From Conflict to Community” using the ICF Method

(New York, NY, USA and Winnipeg, MB, Canada – February 3, 2022) – The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) in partnership with Economic Development Winnipeg will co-host a February 24 online conference, From Conflict to Community: How Cities and Regions Can Restore a Culture of Human Connection. The half-day virtual conference also features the announcement of the ICF Smart21 Communities of 2022.

The announcement of the Smart21 Communities starts the 9-month journey towards naming the 2022 Intelligent Community of the Year, the community that best exemplifies the success factors of the ICF Method. Seven of these 21 communities will go on to be named Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year in June, and one will be named Intelligent Community of the Year at the ICF Summit in October. The City of Winnipeg was the 2021 Intelligent Community of the Year.

Annual Awards Program to culminate in October 2022 with the announcement of the 2022 Intelligent Community of the Year

(November 18, 2021 – New York City) – After announcing Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada as the Intelligent Community of the Year this October, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) has opened nominations for the next cycle of its prestigious international awards program for cities and regions.

The Awards Program, which is run by the New York-based think-tank, will name its 24th Intelligent Community of the Year at the 2022 ICF Global Summit in October 2022. The 2022 cycle, currently in progress, will conclude at next year’s ICF Global Summit.

(October 28, 2021 – New York City) – For the first time since 2016, the Intelligent Community Forum honored a Canadian city with its top award today when it named Winnipeg, Manitoba as its 2021 Intelligent Community of the Year. Winnipeg is a veteran of the Intelligent Community Awards program, having been previously named a nine-time Smart21 Community and four-time Top7 Community since first entering the program in 2011.

“Over the past nine years, we have watched Winnipeg evolve in its strategy and the maturity and interconnectedness of its programs,” said co-founder Louis Zacharilla, who led the award ceremony. “Like so many of the Intelligent Communities of the Year, it is a mid-size city proud of the diversity of its people, its economy and its cultures. There is much to learn from their example.”

Communities from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia and Vietnam become finalists for Intelligent Community of the Year to be named at the ICF Summit in October

(New York, USA – 30 June, 2021) – In an announcement today at the conclusion of a virtual conference, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) named the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2021. The 19th annual Top7 list includes cities and counties from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia and Vietnam. One of these seven finalists in the think tank’s annual awards program will be named the Intelligent Community of the Year at the ICF Summit in October, which will once again be a virtual conference as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. (www.intelligentcommunity.org/summit)

In alphabetical order, the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2021 are:

• Binh Duong Smart City, Vietnam
• Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
• Langley Township, British Columbia, Canada
• Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
• Moscow, Russia
• Townsville, Queensland, Australia
• Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

A city focused on environmental sustainability, one of six Factors in the ICF Method defining success for cities and regions in the 21st Century

(New York, USA and Tallinn, Estonia – April 6, 2021) – When Tallinn, Estonia was named the Intelligent Community of the Year in October 2020 by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), one factor in its selection was a commitment to environmental sustainability. In May of that year, Tallinn had been shortlisted by the European Commission as one of four finalists for the 2022 European Green Capital Award. The city followed up these achievements by launching a new brand as a Green Global City.

Communities from eight nations, including Vietnam and the United Kingdom, named this year

(24 February 2021 – Township of Langley, City of Maple Ridge & New York City) – At the conclusion of a virtual conference hosted by the Township of Langley and the City of Maple Ridge in British Columbia, Canada, and in a simultaneous global announcement online from its New York City headquarters, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) today named the world’s Smart21 Communities of 2021.

Selection of this group of regions, cities and towns begins the think tank’s annual nine-month process which will conclude when ICF names the 2021 Intelligent Community of the Year in October 2021 at the ICF Summit. Each has applied the six principles of the ICF Method to begin building inclusive economic prosperity, social health and cultural richness, which together make a community strong and resilient. Most have been working on their programs for several years.

First Baltic Community Ever Named, Succeeds Taoyuan, Taiwan as Number One

(29 October 2020 – New York City) – For the first time in the twenty-one-year history of the award, the Intelligent Community Forum honored an Estonian city with its top award today when it named Tallinn, Estonia as its 2020 Intelligent Community of the Year. Tallinn has been engaged in the Intelligent Community Awards program for over a decade, having been previously named to the list of the ICF’s Top7 Communities six times since 2007.

“Last year we had a community on the other side of the world that had been working on the ICF Method for eleven years and finally was recognized as the Intelligent Community of the Year. This year we have another great city that worked even longer on the process, learned from places like Taoyuan and others and has blown people away with their thoroughness and dynamic qualities. Tallinn is, by anyone’s measure, a place that looks like our future needs to look,” said ICF Co-Founder Louis Zacharilla.