I received the following email and wanted to spread the word – especially to Minnesota communities. It’s an invitation to apply to become on the the top Intelligent Communities. It’s an international competition and being named one of the Top 21, Smart 7 or getting top honors is quite an accomplishment…

I wanted to reach out to you all to remind you that nomination forms for the 2014 Awards Program are due by September 23. Through our awards program, we at ICF are able to salute your accomplishments in building prosperous economies, solving social problems, and enriching culture using broadband and information technology.

Many of you are already hard at work on your Intelligent Community Awards nomination forms. Others, however, are unsure if the time is right to nominate their communities. For these communities, we offer tools to assist in this decision. We have a Community Self-Test, a 15-question survey that allows communities a quick look at how they compare to other Intelligent Communities. We have a series of videos with community leaders providing feedback on working with ICF. Finally, we have our Community as Canvas white paper, discussing ICF’s theme for the 2014 awards program.

I hope your take the time to nominate your community for this awards season. Nominations are free, and are a great way to evaluate your community’s progress on its way to becoming an Intelligent Community.

In the past my colleague Bill Coleman has worked with Dakota County; they made the top list a couple years in a row! His advice to other communities – Focus on change stimulated by challenge.

So again I encourage Minnesota communities to participate. It would be fun to see Minnesota dominate the list!