The Intelligent Community

Latest Episodes:

Forget History Class, We Want our Social Media! Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

In this edition of THE INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY: The Soul of the City, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla gives speaks with Dr. Karen Sutherland, SFHEA, Senior Lecturer, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Across Australia, young people under 16 were from social media use after the Government passed the Online Safety Amendment. The law took effect in November 2025. We ask an Australian Intelligent Community how it's going in its early stage and why they thought it was or was not a good idea.

The Buckeye State is an Intelligent State Too! Mar 18, 2026

Show notes

The 2015 Intelligent Community of the Year will celebrate the anniversaries of its award and its hosting of the 2016 ICF Summit this October. Since it was named Intelligent Community of the Year the city of Columbus has built on its prowess as representative of the rise of the American Midwest. The State of Ohio, inspired by the Intelligent Community movement in Columbus has since produced several Intelligent Communities thanks to the ICF Institute, located in nearby Dublin, Ohio. The Institute has been working with communities in Ohio and around the world to share best practices and accelerate development. All of this comes together this year at the Summit. Lou interviews two people who have been instrumental in bringing the Summit program back to Ohio. You will want to attend! In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Interview, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Doug McCollough, Executive Director of The Beta District and Moez Chaabouni, Managing Partner and CEO, Summit Technologies LLC.

The Most Soulful City in Brazil No One Heard of – Until 2024! Feb 18, 2026

Show notes

In this edition of THE INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY: The Soul of the City, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla gives speaks with Dario Paixão, CEO of the Curitiba Agency for Economic Development and Innovation, Curitiba, Brazil. The ICF trilogy of conversations with the three cities that will host this year's Awards announcements and conferences begins in Brazil, where Curitiba's former City Secretary for Economic Development, Innovation, and Artificial Intelligence talks to Lou about the remarkable success and innovations (yes, they really have had fast buses for years!) in the first Brazilian location to be named Intelligent Community of the Year (2024).

Looking for the "Soul" of Your City? Check Your Moral Imagination Feb 04, 2026

Show notes

The 200+ Intelligent Communities in the world are conservative and liberal. Rich and poor. Large, medium and small. They are located in Asia, South America, North America, Europe and Australia. Despite their vast differences culturally they share something which ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla identifies as being core to their energy and success. It is the thing which, in the long run, makes their smart city or Intelligent Community policies successful economically too. They understand reality as it is but are fearless in applying their moral imagination to their experience. What does that look like? Lou gives us his view.

Love & Trash in the Big City Jan 21, 2026

Show notes

In this edition of THE INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY: The Soul of the City, Lou speaks with Rachael Cain, Founder of Pick Up Pigeons, a volunteer club with hundreds of participants who nightly during the week scour the five boroughs of New York City picking up volumes of trash and collecting data. The group was recently named "New Yorker of the Week." Rachael is a New York resident, lawyer and urban planner who works on some of the biggest construction projects in America. She also gets very animated and activated by trash. Where does this passion for her community (and its waste) come from? What does it tell us about people, the built environment, the neighborhood, the city, and the ability to activate communities within our Intelligent Communities?

Auditing a Champion: What ICF Learned from the Intelligent Community of the Year Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

In this edition of THE INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY: The Soul of the City, Lou speaks with Ms. Richmond who was the ICF Site Auditor of the community that was named the new Intelligent Community of the Year in December 2025 (Durham Region, Ontario, Canada). Cynthia Richmond, who was responsible for investigating Durham's activities and reporting to the ICF Jury, has three decades of experience in economic development and prior to retirement helped lead Arlington County, Virginia (USA) to three Top7 finishes, discusses what she saw in Durham Region and why in her view the region deserved its title. Richmond has been involved with ICF since 2008.

A Conversation with 2021 Intelligent Community of the Year: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Dec 10, 2025

Show notes

Winnipeg is the capital of the Canadian province of Manitoba, located in the center of the North American continent. Winnipeg's economy is dominated by agriculture, energy, manufacturing and a growing tech scene. Over the past decade, the city has built a new economic foundation by connecting industry, education and a rising technology sector. Winnipeg's digital transformation began when local business leaders, frustrated by poor broadband service, established the Manitoba Internet Exchange to attract internet service providers and reduce their operating costs. Today, it has seen major investments in greater connectivity by private sector companies including a $400 million investment by Bell MTS for all-fiber connections across Winnipeg. Strong collaborations with universities, community colleges and major employers have created everything from large fabrication labs to digital equipment upgrades and micro-credential workshops that generate new products, new companies, and new jobs. Innovation centers conduct joint research and development projects with global impact across major industries from agriculture and life sciences to transportation and distribution. Digital inclusion begins with the public library system and continues through valuable community programs that use digital technology to provide economic opportunities for Indigenous communities and foster greater understanding. Balancing tradition and ambition, Winnipeg keeps building a high-potential future for its people.

Intelligence Test: How Cities Succeed (Bursa and Hilliard) Nov 25, 2025

Show notes

John Jung and Wendy Dupley discuss the critical and common elements of community intelligence, using two Top7 Communities of 2025: Bursa Metropolitan Municipality (Türkiye) and Hilliard, Ohio (USA) as examples.

Small but Mighty (and very Intelligent) in Big Brazil Nov 12, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of The Intelligent Community, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla has a conversation with Michel Ângelo Bomtempo, mayor of Assaí, Paraná, Brazil. Mayor Bomtempo and a team of young people engage ICF to promote their city. It's fresh and shows why the ICF Awards are so important.

Businessman in the metalworking industry, mayor Bomtempo was elected mayor four times in the city of Assaí, Paraná, Brazil.

In the third term of mayor (2021/2024), through the adoption of a smart cities concept, with a focus on training and retaining talent, the city of Assaí acquired more than 20 awards, ranking among the 7 smartest communities in the world, by ICF, and winning the National Innovation Award, by Sebrae. Assaí proved that small cities can also gain global relevance, being active in large governance bodies such as Johns Hopkins University's Cities of Services and the UN's Cities Coalition for Digital Rights. Mayor Michel Bomtempo is considered one of the great political organizers in Brazil, being a mayor of high importance for the State of Paraná.

Intelligence Test: Thriving Beside the Neighborhood Giant - Durham Region, Ontario, Canada Oct 29, 2025

Show notes

In our new podcast, Intelligence Test, Robert Bell speaks with the inventor of a technology that could harvest the waste heat from factories, power plants and data centers and turn it into electricity, Brendan MacDonald, and Alison Burgess, who runs communications and engagement for the Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. You need to hear from them both because this remarkable advance is not just the product of one brilliant mind – it is the child of a deep and rich ecosystem of innovation that Durham and its partners have built deliberately and methodically. It is one of the reasons that ICF named Durham a Certified Intelligent Community this year.

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