The Intelligent Community

The FutureScapes project is the brainchild of Rohit Talwar – a global futurist and founder of Fast Future Research. Rohit works with global business to help them understand and create the future, and is an award winning speaker noted for his provocative content. He advises global firms, industries and governments on how to survive, thrive, spot and manage emerging risks and develop innovative growth strategies in the decade ahead.

Margot James MP was appointed Minister of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in January 2018. Margot was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from July 2016 to January 2018. She was elected Conservative MP for Stourbridge in May 2010.

Today, we continue our series of episodes recorded at the 2018 ICF Global Summit, which took place in London. Our discussion was one with mayors of UK communities about the opportunities, obstacles, and processes of rising local sovereignty in the industrialized world's most centralized economy.

A panel discussion exploring how the "datafication" of business and institutions is creating wholesale change in business economics, practices and employment, and how communities should prepare to respond.  

A panel of government, university and technology experts debate the impact, potential and perils of Big Data and Open Data to introduce the theme of the Summit. Speakers Include: Andrew Carter, CEO, Centre for Cities Roberto Gallardo, Assistant Director, Purdue Center for Regional Development  Dr. Norman Jacknis, Senior Fellow, ICF (Moderator) Michael Mulquin, President, Smart Cities Association; Acting Chair, IEC Smart Cities Systems Committee Liz Zeidler, CEO, Happy Cities

Jim Stifler is the City of Hudson’s Chief Economic Officer. Jim provides strategic oversight to Hudson’s rapidly growing, city - owned, fiber-optic broadband business. Jim’s most gratifying work as Chief Economic Officer has been in conjunction with Hudson’s Chief Innovation Officer by leading the charge to become an Intelligent Community, and to expand and capitalize on the innovation bias Hudson is blessed to have.

Kari Aina Eik is the Secretary General of the OiER – Organization for International Economic Relations, www.oier.pro , an international NGO and multi-stakeholder platform based in Vienna, Austria. Ms. Eik is the Executive Director of the the USC (United Smart Cities) Program www.unitedsmartcities.org (lead by UNECE and OiER) and currently one of the leaders of the U4SSC United for Smart Sustainable Cities focusing on the finance guideline deliverables.

Kari Aina Eik is the Secretary General of the OiER – Organization for International Economic Relations, www.oier.pro , an international NGO and multi-stakeholder platform based in Vienna, Austria. Ms. Eik is the Executive Director of the the USC (United Smart Cities) Program www.unitedsmartcities.org (lead by UNECE and OiER) and currently one of the leaders of the U4SSC United for Smart Sustainable Cities focusing on the finance guideline deliverables.

Ben Pole drives the strategic and operational direction of Economic Development, Smart Digital City, Marketing and Communications, Tourism and Events, and Media staff and resources for Queensland’s fastest growing city. He leads integrated programs for one of Australia’s most successful destination marketing organisations to achieve key market advantage and new market success, with a focus on developing industry leading digital networks, multi-channel content marketing and systematic change management.

Juha Ala Mursula is an experienced Economic Development Director with a demonstrated history of managing large organizations engaged in change in the public sector. With skills in product lifecycle management, embedded and open-source software, innovation management and mobile technologies, he oversees economic development in one of Finland’s leading technology centers. A graduate of the University of Oulu, he holds an MBA in international business from the Helsinki School of Economics.

On June 6, Espoo was named as the 2018 Intelligent Community of the Year. Prior to the Summit, and before knowing his community would be named Intelligent Community of the Year, Mayor Jukka Mäkelä spoke with Lou Zacharilla about Espoo.

Roberto Gallardo is Assistant Director of the Purdue Center for Regional Development and a Purdue Extension Community & Regional Economics Specialist. He holds an electronics engineering undergraduate degree, a master's in economic development, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration. Gallardo has worked with rural communities over the past decade conducting local & regional community economic development, including use of technology for development.

Greg is the Senior Vice President of Economic Development Winnipeg, and he excels at relationship building, facilitating strategic partnerships, coordinating industry and sector initiatives, and forging substantive collaborations between the public and private sectors.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger is currently serving his second four-year term as mayor. Previously he served as a member of Hamilton council, as chair of the Hamilton Port Authority, and as president and chief executive of the Canadian Urban Institute, where he was involved in the development of leading-edge, progressive urban policy.

Dr. Norman Jacknis is currently Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum. His responsibilities include leading ICF’s Rural Imperative, building on the ideas he developed for the US Conference of Mayors on a future-oriented economic growth strategy for cities.