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On Wednesday, January 19, 2011, Windsor and Essex County was recognized as one of the Top 7 most intelligent communities in the world by the Intelligent Community Forum. The Intelligent Community Forum is a think tank that studies the economic and social development of the 21st Century community, based in New York, New York. The ICF seeks to share the best practices of the world's Intelligent Communities in adapting to the demands of the Broadband Economy, in order to help communities everywhere find sustainable renewal and growth.

Each year, the Intelligent Community Forum presents an awards program for Intelligent Communities and the public-sector and private-sector partners who contribute to them. The awards program has two goals: to salute the accomplishments of communities in developing local prosperity and inclusion in the Broadband Economy, and to gather data for ICF's research programs.

When the ICF selects a community to be one of the top intelligent communities of the year, it shines the international spotlight on the region, and demonstrates that we are a community that is thinking forward, and capable of collaborating to advance the well being of residents, businesses and organizations. By being selected one of the awarded communities, Windsor-Essex has the potential to become part of the ICF’s Immersion Lab, which would bring industry leaders from around the globe to our neighbourhood in an effort to promote economic diversification and development.

Windsor and Essex County now advances to the final round of the competition, which will narrow the global field to the Most Intelligent Community in the World for 2011. A panel of external experts in various fields will study the region, with an announcement being made at the Annual Building the Broadband Summit in June 2011. As part of the Top 7, Windsor and Essex County is now eligible to be the focus of the “Immersion Lab” – a program that brings Fortune 500 C-level executives to our region to highlight the opportunities and strengths of our community for consideration for future investment.

Windsor and Essex County was recognized in 2010 and 2011 as one of the 21 Smartest Communities in the World! This activity builds upon the previous successes of the Connecting Windsor-Essex™ Smart Community initiative, which is making our community one of the world’s most connected regions and uniting diverse organizations and individuals to champion the cause of connecting people “at the speed of life.”

WINDSOR AND ESSEX COUNTY RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE
TOP 7 MOST INTELLIGENT COMMUNITIES IN THE WORLD

Thank you to our Contributors!

The success of the Top 7 ICF Site visit would not have been possible without the support of our partners. Thank you to the following for their contributions that were pivotal to the success of the various events.

Platinum Partners

Silver Partners

Bronze Partners

Media Partners

Official Sponsors of the

Celebration of Innovation

Official Sponsors of the

Top 7 Gala Celebration

Official Vehicle Partners

Thank you Windsor-Essex!!!

It was our time to shine and W.E. exceeded all expectations!

Thank you to everyone that made the Top 7 Site Visit such a success. Stay tuned for a new feature, launching mid-May, that highlights the experiences and stories shared with Robert Bell, Co-Founder of the Intelligent Community Forum.

Let’s accept Robert’s challenge and keep moving forward!

Congratulations to Eindhoven, Netherlands
The 2011 Intelligent Community of the Year!

June 3, 2011 - The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) named named Eindhoven, Netherlands as the Intelligent Community of the Year for 2011 at an awards ceremony this afternoon at Steiner Film Studios in Brooklyn, New York. To view the announcement, visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/IntelligentCommunity

Also honoured were the recipients of ICF’s Visionary of the Year Award and ICF’s three Founders Awards. The awards are presented by the independent think tank as part of its annual summit, Building the Broadband Economy, produced in association with the Institute for Technology & Enterprise at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute.

The goal of the awards is to increase awareness of the role that broadband communications and information technologies play in shaping the economic and social development of communities worldwide.

Windsor-Essex continues to celebrate being in the Top 7 this year, and looks forward to leveraging this success moving forward! Although Windsor Essex was not the recipient of this award, our community should continue to take great pride in its Top 7 recognition.

Throughout the ICF's process an international spotlight has been shone upon Windsor Essex and we have clearly
demonstrated our capacity to compete
with any community across the world.
Let's keep the momentum going by
continuing to ask "Why not Windsor Essex?"

Windsor-Essex Sets Sights on
2013 Intelligent Community Bid

The Intelligent Community Forum unveiled their criteria for the 2012 Intelligent Community of the Year competition on Monday, July 4, 2011. This year’s theme is “The Intelligent Community: A Platform for Innovation.”

It has been decided that the best course of action for the Windsor and Essex County region is to focus on a strong submission for the 2013 award cycle.

“The competition for 2011 ended only four short weeks ago for Windsor-Essex,” stated Kristina Verner, Research & Development Officer for the University of Windsor’s Centre for Smart Community Innovation. “As a community, we need to collectively ‘catch our breaths’ and ensure that the next bid that we put forward is as strong as the one we made in 2011. We need to be able to demonstrate significant progress to the ICF jury, and it will be important to allow many of the wonderful initiatives that have recently been announced to come to fruition and begin to demonstrate results. We have set a level of excellence and expectation within the international community, and it is essential that we deliver that same standard in 2013.”

Local Intelligent Community representatives are awaiting the official report from the Intelligent Community Forum on the results from the 2011 cycle. This report will play a critical role moving forward, to ensure that the region builds on its collective strengths and bridges any gaps that may be identified. While the report will not provide a definitive answer of where the community ranked in the Top 7, it will provide a comparative analysis with this year’s winner (Eindhoven, Netherlands), and the results relative to the average of the combined Top 7 scores.

The recent success, and recognition of our community by the Intelligent Community Forum, demonstrates what can be accomplished through a realistic appraisal of strengths and assets, through a willingness to creatively embrace change, and through a process of enlightened collaboration that marshals all of a region’s resource bases and directs them toward a program of jointly recognized objectives.

Additional details regarding the 2013 bid initiative will be released through the local official Intelligent Community competition website: www.windsor-essex.info/icf and via Twitter stream: @cwesmart. There will be several opportunities for the community to become engaged as the process moves forward.