Columbus Region Named a Smart21 Community of 2012

The Intelligent Community Forum produces an annual listing of the top 21 smart communities in the world, and Columbus Region has appeared on the list for the first time (Dublin, Ohio has been on the list twice prior) alongside other intelligent world centers including Barcelona, Curitiba, Quebec City and New Taipei City.

A snippet from their website about Columbus:

A complex region, Columbus contains urban and rural areas, a wide range of income levels, highly-rated universities and colleges as well as traditional industries, from automotive to logistics, which are undergoing severe stress. Fostering tech startups and attracting innovative employers is crucial to its future, but the region has historically been challenged to commercialize its R&D output. It has also seen its per-capita income erode over the past decade as job creation favored low-skill, low-value occupations. The trend has affected not only family income but the public-sector budgets that depend on income tax revenue as well. The Columbus Region attacked these challenges through partnerships bridging across government, business and university sectors. The first regional economic development plan, Columbus 2020, set a goal of adding 150,000 new net jobs and increasing per-capita income by 30% by 2020. The region’s signature innovation was TechColumbus, a public-private organization that identifies and fosters intellectual property from the region’s leading schools and institutions, incubates new companies, and connects them to seed and venture capital.

More information about the Smart21 Communities of 2012 can be found at www.intelligentcommunity.org.