Intelligent Community Forum co-founder to visit Whanganui
Published on 19 April 2016
19 April 2016
Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) co-founder John Jung will visit Whanganui next week to see local businesses and organisations in action and talk with economist Shamubeel Eaqub at a public event on April 26.
ICF has recognised Whanganui as a Smart21 Intelligent Community for the last three years and as a Top7 Intelligent Community in 2016.
Mr Jung is an award-winning urban planner, designer, author and expert in smart cities and intelligent communities. He is the President and CEO of the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance and President of the Calgary Economic Development Authority as well as one of the founding members of ICF.
On April 26-27 Mr Jung will visit a selection of businesses, organisations and educational institutes which were included in Whanganui’s Top7 Intelligent Community application for the work they are doing to develop community and economic prosperity by using broadband technology. He will also speak with economist Shamubeel Eaqub, who has recently been named ‘Communicator of the Year’ by BlacklandPR, at a public talk about how building a strong digital community can address provincial decline.
Chair of the Whanganui Digital Leaders Forum Mayor Annette Main says Mr Jung’s visit is the chance to make sure Whanganui is “practicing what we preach”.
“The reason for Mr Jung’s visit is for him to see the information we provided in our Top7 application come to life. We will show him a diverse range of businesses and organisations who have a digital focus and whose work will help our district thrive into the future. Mr Jung will be able to see how far we have come on our digital journey and we are really excited to have him here.
“We are also looking forward to hearing Mr Jung talk with eeconomist Shamubeel Eaqub, who has already been to Whanganui to address some of the ways we can make our community buoyant, prosperous and relevant into the future. It’s a pleasure to have Mr Eaqub come back to Whanganui to be part of celebrating our success.”
Mr Jung’s public talk ‘Daring to be Digital’ will be held at the War Memorial Hall from 5.30pm to 7.30pm on Tuesday, April 26. Mayor Annette Main and Internet NZ Chief Executive Jordan Carter will also speak.
Following his visit, Mr Jung will write a site report on Whanganui which will be added to our application for the 2016 Intelligent Community of the Year. The award will be decided by a panel of international judges in June 2016.
About the Top7 Intelligent Communities
In February 2016, Whanganui joined Hsinchu City, Taiwan; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany; New Taipei City, Taiwan; Surrey, British Columbia, Canada; and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada as a Top7 Intelligent Community, selected by the Intelligent Community Forum for work on developing community and economic prosperity using broadband technology. Whanganui had been selected as a Smart21 Intelligent Community in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
ICF will choose the 18th Intelligent Community of the Year from the pool of the Top7 at the ICF Summit in Columbus, Ohio, in June.