City of Hamilton recognized for a second time as Top7 Intelligent Community

Originally posted at hamilton.ca

The City of Hamilton has been named one of the Top7 Intelligent Communities in the World by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF). This is Hamilton’s second time achieving this honour, having reached the Top7 in 2018 as well.

“This is more evidence of Hamilton’s social and economic transformation in a way that is making us an example to the world. Hamilton’s approach to workforce development, innovation, and digital inclusion, as well as our proven excellence in advanced manufacturing and research, means we are charting new paths to lasting prosperity for our people, businesses, and institutions.”

Fred Eisenberger, Hamilton Mayor

The Top7 represent models of economic and social transformation in the 21st Century. They are not the most advanced technology centers, the most wired cities or the fastest growing economies in the world. Instead, each exemplifies best practices in broadband deployment and use, workforce development, innovation, digital inclusion and advocacy that offer lessons to regions, cities, towns and villages around the world. They are charting new paths to lasting prosperity for their citizens, businesses and institutions.

The other top 7 cities include Adelaide and Sunshine Coast (Australia), Markham (Ontario), Tallinn (Estonia) and Hudson and Westerville (Ohio, USA).

In order to be considered an “Intelligent Community” candidates are evaluated based on Six Intelligent Community Indicators (Connectivity, Knowledge Workforce, Innovation, Digital Inclusion, Community Education & Engagement, Sustainability), which provide the conceptual framework for understanding all factors that determine a community’s competitiveness across these domains.

Each Smart21 Community is invited to complete a detailed questionnaire based on ICF’s Intelligent Community Indicators as well as an annual theme. An international academic team of Analysts reviews the questionnaires, scores each one on dozens of factors, and produces a quantitative ranking of the candidates. The seven highest ranking candidates become ICF’s Top7 Intelligent Communities.

The Intelligent Community Forum is a global network of cities and regions with a think tank at its center. Its mission is to help communities use information and communications technology (ICT) to create inclusive prosperity, tackle social and governance challenges and enrich their quality of life.