This week I’m in New York for the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) conference. The ICF is the framework that we have been using in our Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) initiative. It helps communities promote economic development through a five-segment strategy: 1) broadband, 2) innovation, 3) knowledge workers, 4) digital inclusion and 5) market and advocacy.

The big announcement here is the launch of the new Centers of Excellence project. The project is designed to brief nearly 100 Intelligent Community leaders who are part of what ICF calls its “Alumni,” on topics of key importance related to broadband and IT implementation and effective development of local economic and social activities.

Here are some of the other highlights I’ve heard:

The decision makers are key but leadership is a self-directed choice. Today’s realities are leading to trends that focus on striving for self-sufficiently. We’re looking at benchmark and everyone is concerned with the bottom line in terms of costs and impact. With an aging population, health in the revolutionary community has been a driver.

The Mayor of Chattanooga talked about 1 GB Internet. Broadband is a business attractor in their area but it took leadership, community engagement, vision. Chattanooga is an old industry town with rail, river, and a highway hub. Community leadership brought on young people and the project has been successful. They have 20 percent penetration after just a few months. They are not the low cost provider; rather their quality of service drives customer adoption. The network self-sufficiency just with energy management and savings again has been a driver. Big businesses have also been drivers – Unum wants home workers with big bandwidth. BCBS consolidated operations in chat. These goals have required local broadband.

The Dublin Ohio row ordinance resulted in a multiple conduit approach. The result was Dub link. In Dublin, conduit facilitated rapid deployment and competition. They have paid lots of attention to startups and entrepreneurs. They are starting to see emerging work on global trade.

An update from Eindhoven introduced us to a cool updated video around applications. Change has been motivating. They needed to move from a one company town to more diverse economy. Phillips lost 30,000 jobs. New collaboration, bottom up approach. Broadband has brought: 1) open innovation, 2) Research to Knowledge to products, and 3) lots of small companies supporting big companies. BRAINPORT funds innovation. Brainport is an international group that collaboratively attracts brainpower. Also they are working with kids on science and innovation.