Despite the poor financial circumstances in Greece, a ray of hope and optimism was cast on Friday after the Intelligent Community Forum (IFC), based in NY, recognized the town of Heraklion, Crete among the 21 smartest communities worldwide for 2012.
The prestigious annual IFC award is given to those communities for their development of a broadband system. Based on nominations submitted by communities large and small from around the world, ICF selects 21 finalists with the potential to become one of the Forum’s Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year.
Louis Zacharilla, director of development at ICF announced this year’s list with the smartest 21 communities during an event organized on the occasion in the town of Eindhoven in Holland.
In total, out of the 21 communities, only 4 are located in Europe, while 10 belong to North America, 3 to Latin America and 4 to Asia. What makes the Heralkion distinction so special is that this is the first time the Greek city has been nominated at such a high ranking place.
A committee consisting of ICF executive staff and academic researchers selects the 21 “smart” communities after assessing the legitimacy and completeness of the submissions.
This year’s IFC theme is Intelligent Communities Platform for Innovation. The Smart21 will be invited to complete detailed questionnaires, which will be due in late December. Review of the questionnaires by ICF’s international team of Analysts will lead to selection of the Top Seven Intelligent Communities of 2012, which will be announced in January at the Pacific Telecommunications Council’s annual conference and the the Intelligent Community of the Year will be announced at the Broadband Economy Building in New York City.
The Greek 12-pages nomination report was co-authored by head of telecommunications and IT systems Mr. Mochaniakis and Mr. Agapidis, under the aegis of the Technology Park Artemis Saitakis and the director of the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mr. Katharakis.
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