ICF’s Global Summit will take place October 21-23 in Dublin, Ohio, USA, with the Intelligent Community of the Year announcement on October 22

(New York, NY, USA and Dublin, OH, USA – April 2, 2020) – In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ICF and its host city of Dublin, Ohio, USA have rescheduled the Global Summit from its original June dates to October 21-23, 2020.

Rescheduling the Summit will also push back the awarding of the Intelligent Community of the Year to October 22. ICF is taking this opportunity to revamp its future awards program schedule as well. The deadline for nominations for the 2021 cycle will move to January 7, 2021, with the Smart21 (semi-finalist) announcement scheduled for February.

Nominations are being accepted now for 2021, and communities are invited to download the questionnaire from www.intelligentcommunity.org/index_questionnaire. By submitting it, they will receive a free Snapshot report comparing their readiness and performance to ICF’s global data set.

“While the exact course of the pandemic is unknowable, expert opinion holds that, by the autumn, the risks of the virus will have sharply receded and the world’s health systems will be in a much better position to protect us from them,” said ICF co-founder Robert Bell. “We also hope the delays in our Awards Program allow both this year’s Top7 Intelligent Communities and next year’s aspiring Intelligent Communities to spend the next few months focusing on what matters most – guiding their citizens through this incredibly difficult time.”

To help communities manage the COVID-19 pandemic at the local level, ICF has launched a series of videos and blogs, No Place BUT Home, in which we speak with leaders of Intelligent Communities about how they are tackling the fast-evolving COVID-19 threat. The goal of the series is to explore how communities are responding and the online and offline tools they are using in their effort to keep their citizens engaged and informed. Sharing experience and practices will help ICF’s network of community leaders better manage the crisis. Learn more about the series here: www.intelligentcommunity.org/covid19.

More about the ICF Intelligent Community Awards Program
Candidates are evaluated based on seven criteria that make up the ICF Method, which provides a framework for understanding all of the factors that determine a community's competitiveness and point to its success in the digital economy.

The Intelligent Community Forum Awards Program for 2020 concludes in Dublin, Ohio, USA in October during the Intelligent Community Forum’s Global Summit conference, when one of the Top7 Intelligent Communities succeeds Taoyuan, Taiwan as the new Intelligent Community of the Year. For more information or to register for the ICF Summit, click here: http://www.icfsummit.com/

Nominations are accepted by the Intelligent Community Forum throughout the year. The deadline to submit a nomination for consideration in the 2021 Awards Program is January 7, 2021. There is no cost to submit a nomination, and all communities that submit a nomination will receive a free Snapshot Report offering a top-level comparison of their community to the global data set of Intelligent Communities on six critical Factors.

About the Intelligent Community Forum
The Intelligent Community Forum (www.intelligentcommunity.org), headquartered in New York, is a global movement of 180 cities, metro regions and counties with a think tank at its heart and a mission to make everyone’s “hometown” at great place. ICF 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 information and communications technology (ICT). To help cities and regions build prosperous economies, solve social problems and enrich local cultures, the Intelligent Community Forum conducts research, hosts events around the globe, publishes books, and produces its high-profile annual international awards program. The Forum sponsors research Institutes in North America dedicated to the study of the movement, and national organizations in Canada and Taiwan, both home to many Intelligent Communities. In 2012 ICF was invited to participate at the Nobel Peace Prize conference in Oslo and in 2014, its model and work was recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which, according to the American government, was "aimed at creating a more flexible and responsive system of workforce development to meet the needs of employers looking to fill 21st century jobs.” The Forum’s membership is made up of 180 designated Intelligent Communities worldwide. For more information, go to www.intelligentcommunity.org/icf_membership. For more details on the Intelligent Community Forum’s recent publications and programs, www.intelligentcommunity.org.

Intelligent Community Forum Contacts
Matthew Owen
Director of Operations
Intelligent Community Forum
Phone: +1 646-291-6166 (x105)
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @Newcommunities

Victoria Krisman
Communications Manager
Intelligent Community Forum
Email: [email protected]