If over 70% of the world’s nine billion people are jammed into mega-cities by 2050, would everyone really want to live in one? ICF seeks to define new role for prosperous rural communities.

Over 50% of the people on earth now live in cities, often at the expense of rural areas, and the UN projects that by 2050 that percentage will increase to over 70% as the global population exceeds nine billion people.* Today, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) announces The Rural Imperative, to call attention to the challenges facing rural communities in the 21st Century, and provide a framework for them to seize their destinies and identify ways to create sustainable, long-term prosperity.

The Intelligent Community Forum is proud to name BlackBerry Founder and Vice Chairman Mike Lazaridis as the Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year for 2013.

The Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year Award is presented to an individual or an organization that has taken a leadership role in promoting broadband technology and applications as an essential and transformative utility in the Digital Age.

Co-author of new “Seizing Our Destiny” book outlines strategies to keep libraries as key information centres in the digital age

Mexico City, Mexico – Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) co-founder Louis Zacharilla is in Mexico City to help draft a future Trend Report to serve as a guidebook for the world’s libraries and the services they need to provide the public. There are an estimated 315,000 public libraries in the world and Zacharilla joins an elite group of global experts to provide the libraries with a vision of the next five years. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) brought the experts together to map out the major emerging trends in contemporary society that will affect access to information and help libraries determine what they need to do to keep their traditional position as centres of information. The IFLA is the global voice of the library and information profession with members in over 150 countries.

Intelligent Community Forum searches the world’s successful communities for solutions to help rebuild American prosperity

New York, NY - February 26, 2013 – As U.S. President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address, “there are communities in this country where no matter how hard you work, it’s virtually impossible to get ahead.” In support of the President’s challenge to “build new ladders of opportunity”, the Intelligent Community Forum is offering five ways U.S. communities can seize their destinies to attract and retain high-value 21st century American jobs.

(New York, NY, February 13, 2013) The Intelligent Community Forum is pleased to announce today that Eindhoven, Netherlands Mayor Rob van Gijzel is the new chairman of the ICF Foundation effective immediately. Mayor van Gijzel replaces outgoing inaugural chair Mayor Brenda Halloran, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

John Jung receives award in Toronto from i-CANADA

The Intelligent Community Forum's Chairman and co-founder, John Jung, was honored with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal at the first-ever Canadian Smart Cities Summit.

Co-author of “Seizing Our Destiny” outlines strategies to future-proof communities in the new broadband-based economy

Toronto ON – Smart Cities Summit January 23-24, 2013 – At the first-ever Canadian Smart Cities Summit, Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) Chairman and co-founder John Jung has a key message – companies and jobs go where the talent is. “Cities that have strategies to include talent generation and retention have the most success at attracting investment and new jobs,” says Jung. Jung is the conference kick-off speaker on Wednesday, Jan. 23. He will outline the 12 steps cities must take to future-proof themselves in the broadband-based economy. The Intelligent Community Forum studies the world’s cities to discover and then share the strategies used to create an Intelligent Community.

Honolulu, Hawaii & New York, New York – January 23, 2013 – The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) today named the 2013 Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year. The Top7 list includes three from North America, two from Taiwan and two from Europe. “The Top7 communities of 2013 have made innovation – based on information and communications technology –the cornerstone of their economies and fostered economic growth through high-quality employment, while increasing the quality of life of their citizens,” said Lou Zacharilla, ICF co-founder in announcing the list at the Pacific Telecommunications Council’s annual conference (PTC’13) in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

Co-author of new “Seizing Our Destiny” book outlines strategies to future-proof communities in the new broadband-based economy

Oslo, Norway – 10 December, 2012 –Intelligent Community Forum co-founder Louis Zacharilla is in Oslo to deliver a presentation and moderate a symposium on creating collaborative, successful and open communities. The symposium on Tuesday Dec. 11, entitled Visioning the Open Society Forum, is part of Nobel Week events in Oslo. Zacharilla will discuss the inability of many national governments to respond significantly to the social collapse and economic stress of recent years. However he notes that a growing number of communities have found their way back to economic prosperity after being given up for ‘dead’. “The stakes are extremely high for the smaller communities and cities to get it right and to harvest their natural and embedded “intelligence,” says Zarcharilla.

Stockholm hosts the 21st Annual Global Forum and a theme "Shaping a Digital Future", which is the expertise offered by John Jung and the Intelligent Community Forum

Stockholm, Sweden Global Forum – November 11, 2012 – The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) studies the world’s cities to discover and then share the strategies used to create an Intelligent Community able to cope with the connected Broadband economy. Jung will discuss the platforms communities can use to increase innovation and grow their local economy. Jung travels the globe outlining the steps needed to future-proof a community and those steps lead to significant economic benefits. “Innovation is one of the main building blocks for any community that wants to expand its economy and is one of the techniques we have seen used over and over in successful communities around the world,” says Jung.