Intelligent Communities equip their people, employers and institutions to adapt to the amazing, fearsome and accelerating technology changes of this century. Through this work, they create inclusive prosperity, strengthen social bonds and enrich local culture. They become places where people choose to live and companies choose to invest.
Like all cities, counties and regions, Intelligent Communities plan, build and maintain infrastructure. They protect the public, light the streets, make laws and pick up the trash. They support employers and work to attract new ones. They invest in technology that can help them do these things better. But that is not what makes them Intelligent.
Human networks make the difference
What makes Intelligent Communities different is how they do these things. They act through dense networks of relationship among businesses, educational institutions, public-private ventures, citizen groups and the government itself. These networks exist because government and citizens work hard to create them, grow them and sustain them. They know that these invisible networks have as much value to the community as land, water, transportation and the built environment.
By activating the whole community, Intelligent Communities accomplish more and succeed more often. They are technology leaders, because they refuse to miss the upside of tech growth while they actively manage the problems technology change brings to their people. They are able to rise from past crisis because they honor the past without being its captive. Most important of all: they are more willing to try and fail than to avoid trying at all.
Become more Intelligent
The Intelligent Community Forum has devoted more than twenty-five years to understanding and evaluating the best practices of Intelligent Communities. We have distilled the lessons learned in the Community Accelerator Strategy. It offers a flexible framework for pursuing technology innovation as path to economic growth and building a skilled workforce to deliver it, while guiding citizens through the challenges and changes that come with it.
To share this framework, ICF provides services to teach the Strategy, advise on its implementation and evaluate and certify communities as Intelligent.
Membership provides leader-to-leader connections among communities, companies and educators. Conferences bring together elected and appointed leaders, educators, technologists and venture partners to learn, gain inspiration and, through VIP delegations, explore opportunities.
ICF Institutes create centers of excellence that apply the Strategy to the needs of their regions and build collaborative networks of Intelligent Communities facing similar challenges. And our annual Awards offer the chance for international recognition of Intelligent Community achievement.
Ready to learn more? Check out our Intelligent Community Use Cases to see the Accelerator Strategy in action.