Columbus Region Recognized as Smart21 Intelligent Community of 2012 by the Intelligent Community Forum

The Intelligent Community Forum announced its highly anticipated list of the Smart21 Intelligent Communities of 2012. The Columbus Region is one of the 21 honorees that includes 4 communities from Europe, 10 from North America, 3 from Latin America and 4 from Asia.

”The Smart21 of 2012 are a diverse group which represent the degree to which the intelligent community movement has spread. I am particularly pleased that Mexico and Finland, two very diverse cultures, are represented for the first time. We can also see how perennial communities in the USA, Canada and Taiwan continue to create communities for the 21st Century based on innovation and how communities that few have heard of before have become great places to live,” said ICF Co-founder Louis Zacharilla.

The Smart21 announcement will be followed by the naming of the Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year, selected from among the 21. The Top Seven announcement will be made on 15 January at the annual Pacific Telecommunications Council conference.   One of the Top Seven will be named the winner in New York City on June 8 during ICF’s annual Building the Broadband Economy Summit. The Eindhoven Region in The Netherlands was Intelligent Community of the Year in 2011.

A video announcing the Smart21 and the rationale behind the awards is on ICF’s Web site at www.intelligentcommunity.org.