Intelligent Community Forum sets date for 2019 SMART21 announcement

One of our favourite times of the year is when the Intelligent Community Forum announces the SMART21 Intelligent Communities. We don’t have to wait much longer because ICF has announced they will reveal the 2019 SMART21 on October 25, 2018.

The SMART21 will be announced at Hamilton City Hall Council Chambers; ICF Canada organized the event with the City of Hamilton, Hamilton Technology Centre, and Clearcable Networks.

In the morning, there’s going to be an ICF board meeting, and then a bus tour of Hamilton’s Innovation Area, which features educational, research, and healthcare facilities. The bus tour is limited to the first 40 registrants, so it may be full already!

After the bus tour, there’s the Intelligent Community Roundtable. Canadian Intelligent Communities will be presenting case studies on how their cities, towns, and regions are embracing and leveraging tech-forward systems to improve the way of life for students, businesses, and families.

There are currently 170 Intelligent Communities part of the ICF global network, and 38 of them are Canadian, including many in Ontario (Hamilton, Kenora, Kingston, Lambton, Ottawa, Pickering, Oshawa, Sarnia-Lambton, Stratford, Sudbury, Toronto, Waterloo, Windsor-Essex, Burlington, Grey County, Niagara Falls, and York Region).

On October 25, we may see more Canadian communities added to the list!

After the SMART21 list is announced, the ICF will shortly after announce the TOP7. Making the SMART21 list is already an achievement because hundreds of communities apply for the title every year. If your community makes it into the TOP7, it’s considered one of the smartest communities in the world. Then there’s the winner of the Intelligent Community of the Year Award. This is the top honour for which all the communities are striving.

Earlier this year, Espoo, Finland won the Intelligent Community of the Year Award. In 2010, Finland made history by declaring 1 Mbps broadband a legal right. Finland is also second in the world for mobile broadband adoption, and it’s the leading country in Europe for ultra-broadband adoption, according to the OECD. More than 50% of households have access to a fixed connection of 100 Mbps.

A few Canadian communities that have won the Intelligent Community of the Year Award include Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, and Calgary.

We’re looking forward to seeing which Canadian communities make the 2019 SMART21 list!