03 Nov, 2017
Adelaide named as one of the world’s top ‘smart communities’
Adelaide has been named among the world’s top 21 ‘smart communities’ by New York-based international think-tank, the Intelligence Community Forum (ICF).
Adelaide shares its ‘Smart21 Communities of the Year’ nomination with cities and municipalities in Canada, the United States, Taiwan, Australia, Finland and France.
According to the ICF, the Smart21 communities demonstrate the best models of economic, social and cultural development in the digital age. They are chosen based on their performance against six intelligent community indicators: broadband, knowledge workforce, innovation, digital equality, sustainability and advocacy.
From the 21 nominated communities, the ICF will announce a shortlist of the Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year in February 2018. This will be followed by the announcement of the ‘Intelligent Community of the Year’ on 7 June 2018 at an exclusive awards dinner in London.
The Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Martin Haese, says that Adelaide’s nomination is recognition of the city’s achievements to date, and its future aspirations.
‘Adelaide is taking steps towards being the first capital city in Australia to construct a ten-gigabit ‘non-internet’ fibre-optic network that will deliver lightning fast data connections for businesses in the city,’ he said. ‘In addition to this, we’ve launched an economic insights web portal that provides free, real-time city data in easy-to-understand tables and graphs.’
The Lord Mayor said the City of Adelaide would soon be rolling out additional projects and programs as part of its Smart City agenda.
‘Over the coming months, we’ll be making announcements around the expansion of our smart parking and smart lighting trials, as well as implementing an upgrade of the popular Adelaide free Wi-Fi network and smart wayfinding program.’
The Lord Mayor explained that these programs were intended to provide real benefits for Adelaide’s residents, students, visitors and the business community.
‘We have aggressive targets to grow our CBD population and increase the size of existing businesses, as well as attracting new businesses to our city. This kind of international recognition makes Adelaide a very attractive proposition for an individual or business’.
For further information about the Smart21 announcement, visit http://www.intelligentcommunity.org/icf_names_the_smart21_communities_of_2018