Lambton County didn’t win the top honour at Thursday’s Intelligent Community Forum awards in New York City, but Warden Bill Weber says officials are happy to be in the Top7.

The county, which includes the City of Sarnia, has been involved in the international program for several years, earning a place in its Smart 21 list since 2016 before moving recently into the Top7.

Weber joined a delegation from the Intelligent Sarnia-Lambton group this week at the forum’s Global Summit where Taoyuan, Taiwan, was named its 2019 Intelligent Community of the Year.

The Sunshine Coast made history today, putting the spotlight on our innovative, healthy, smart and creative region on the world stage in New York.

Mayor Mark Jamieson joined representatives from around the globe on stage as one of the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2019, as rated by the global Intelligent Community Forum (ICF).

(June 13, 2019 – New York City) – For the first time in six years, the Intelligent Community Forum honored a Taiwanese city with its top award tonight when it named Taoyuan, Taiwan as its 2019 Intelligent Community of the Year. Taoyuan is a well-known veteran of the Intelligent Community Awards program, having been previously named a ten-time Smart21 Community and a four-time Top7 Community since first entering the program in 2009.

“Taoyuan has been one of the highest overall achievers among smart and Intelligent Communities for the past decade,” said ICF co-founder Louis Zacharilla. “They have stayed with it and while most people may not recognize the name Taoyuan City, it is at the same level as Stockholm, Toronto and Melbourne. It is a place where quality of life, job creation and the digital environment’s ability to unleash innovation meet in perfect unison.”

Taoyuan was selected as the 2019 Intelligent Community of the Year after a year-long evaluation that included a quantitative analysis of extensive data, site inspections by an Intelligent Community Forum co-founder and votes from an international jury made up of experts from around the world. Communities in the Awards program are evaluated based on the six Intelligent Community Indictors that make up the ICF Method and in the context of ICF’s annual theme, When Tech Giants Come to Town.

	The Zacharilla collection from previous Intelligent Communities of the Year. Many of these cities will have representatives on the stage on June 13 to honor Espoo’s successor.

I am looking at Espoo, Finland Mayor Jukka Mäkelä in this video and wondering two things about the outgoing Intelligent Community of the Year.

First, I am wondering which of the seven communities now on their way to New York as I write this will succeed his city, which was an improbable and unexpected choice for the award in London last June? Which of them will celebrate their ranking among the Top7 but then walk to the stage alone, surrounded by Espoo and other former Intelligent Communities of the Year, to accept the trophy as Intelligent Community of the Year?

It is a question in the minds of hundreds of people in these seven communities, as well as throughout our worldwide network, site selectors, the media and, most importantly, cities considering using the ICF Method.

Second is a more parochial conceit. I am wondering if I will get a nice blue tie just like Mayor Mäkelä’s.

Sébastien Gagnon, Vice President of Sales & Public Affairs at bciti is a recognized leader in the municipal world in municipal management and intergovernmental relations. He has more than 20 years of experience in intergovernmental relations, and has worked both in the public and private sectors. He has a Master’s Degree in Marketing, a Postgraduate Degree in Commerce and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations.

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.

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Margot James was appointed Minister of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in January 2018. Margot was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from July 2016 to January 2018. She was elected Conservative MP for Stourbridge in May 2010.

Today, we continue our series of episodes recorded at the 2018 ICF Global Summit, which took place in London. This discussion was one with mayors of UK communities about the opportunities, obstacles, and processes of rising local sovereignty in the industrialized world's most centralized economy.

A panel discussion exploring how the "datafication" of business and institutions is creating wholesale change in business economics, practices and employment, and how communities should prepare to respond. Moderated by Roberto Gallardo.

A panel of government, university and technology experts debate the impact, potential and perils of Big Data and Open Data to introduce the theme of the 2018 ICF Summit.