Nominations open for the 2020 Intelligent Community Awards

The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) is calling for nominations for its 2020 Intelligent Community of the Year Awards Program.

The program recognises communities that demonstrate best practices in broadband implementation, workforce development, innovation, digital inclusion, sustainability and advocacy, according to ICF.

“In each year’s award cycle, the winning communities are selected using the same analytics process we use to benchmark community progress in our Community Accelerator program,” ICF Co-Founder Robert Bell said.

“That’s based in turn on the ICF Method that has become a development framework for communities in every corner of the globe. When cities and counties submit their data to us, they gain access to a unique range of analysis and recommendations for progress — and if they want it, eligibility for the annual awards, too.”

Nominees can enter the program via a questionnaire on ICF’s website until 23 September 2019. ICF’s analysts will then review the community database and name the Smart21 Communities of 2020 at an event in Rochester, New York, on 22 October.

These communities will become part of ICF’s network of over 180 intelligent communities worldwide and be considered for the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2020 — finalists for the Intelligent Community of the Year Award.

Previous finalists include the Sunshine Coast, which was named one of ICF’s Top7 Intelligent Communities for 2019 for its Speed It Up campaign to improve high-speed internet access.

The 2020 Intelligent Community of the Year will be named in June next year at the ICF Global Summit in Dublin, Ohio.

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