“Our police are more trusted in our republic than our president.”

Here’s a “pop” quiz: name the source of that quote.

Hint: It does not come from an authoritarian leader of a country. Nor does it come from the United States in 2021.

It comes from representatives of the world’s most Intelligent Community: Tallinn, Estonia. It is part of a new podcast series that is my attempt to begin to get to the raw, poignant and seemingly intractable issues our communities continue to grapple with in this Era of COVID.

While many of us have been forced to work from home during the past year, few are likely to say they raised tens of millions for their startup from their bedroom, like Estonian entrepreneur Kaarel Kotkas.

Kotkas is founder and CEO of identity verification startup Veriff, which recently announced that it raised €58 million in a new Series B round led by venture capital firms IVP and Accel, on top of the €14 million it raised last year.

"Before the pandemic hit, I was in the UK and US for six months. Now for the past year, I have just been in Estonia and pretty much raised Series B from my bedroom/office in Tallinn," he says.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and the Land Board have unveiled an application that has overlaid three-dimensional building renders over the map of Estonia, allowing people to visualize most buildings in Estonia.

Artu Ellmann, Deputy Director General of the Land Board, said the Geo3D strategic program will be supplemented with further 3D data and additional services. The recently published three-dimensional map is the first of the services.

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.

While most people think of Silicon Valley as the leading tech hub in the world, Estonia is quickly becoming a top player on the world stage for entrepreneurship and technology. Famed for its innovation, Estonia boasts a vast community of over 1,000 startups – famously dubbed the #EstonianMafia on Twitter – including a varied mix of established names such as Skype, to newer innovators such as unicorns including Pipedrive, Transferwise, and Bolt.

With its disruptive startup ecosystem, progressive government policies, and digital nomad education initiatives, it is fast becoming a more attractive alternative to Silicon Valley’s crowded ecosystem.

In this episode of The Intelligent Community, Lou Zacharilla speaks with Tallinn City Council Chairman Tiit Terik about his reaction to Tallinn being named the 2020 Intelligent Community of the Year.

The Estonian capital, Tallinn, succeeds Taoyuan in Taiwan as the “number one intelligent community”.

The “intelligent community” title is handed over annually by the New York-based Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) – a global network of 180 cities, metro regions and counties, with a think tank at its heart. The think tank studies and promotes the best practices of the world’s “intelligent communities” as “they adapt to the new demands” and “seize the opportunities presented by broadband and digital technology”.

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.

The autonomous bus revolution has arrived. Urban mobility is changing the lives of commuters and the face of five European smart city streets. An autonomous public transit service has already started its testing and will complete tests in real conditions in five European countries under a European Union initiative, part of the Horizon 2020 EU Research and Innovation Programme, between April and October 2020.

The autonomous vehicles will be tested in real-life traffic conditions with all the shuttle bus solutions offering an all-inclusive service for autonomous last-mile transport.

The e-Governance Conference which holds in Estonia is an annual gathering which focuses on and aims at international digital development cooperation in all its entirety. Since 2015, the e-Governance Conference has been organised by the e-Governance Academy (eGA) in partnership with the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The 2020 edition of the e-Governance Conference is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish Government, the U-LEAD with Europe program, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the City of Tallinn, Intel, Google and Microsoft.