Waterloo Region - Close to 35 business and community leaders from Waterloo Region are attending the Intelligent Communities Forum (ICF) conference in New York City May 13-15 to promote the region internationally and continue to learn from communities around the world for ways to improve the region’s social, cultural and economic performance.

“CTT is attending by taking a Waterloo Region delegation to reinforce our area’s selection as Intelligent Community of the Year in 2007, when the honour went to Waterloo, and to raise our profile globally,” says John Jung, CEO of Canada’s Technology Triangle Inc and chairman of ICF. “This is an excellent example of how we can do outreach together as an active community interested in building international relationships. This type of face-to-face marketing provides us with international connections to new ideas and talent, and could generate key leads which CTT would then work to convert to new investments for our community.”

The delegation includes participants from the municipalities, University of Waterloo, Conestoga College, Communitech, Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, CIGI, board members of CTT and the general business community. Delegation members are keen to learn best practices including benchmarking against other intelligent communities.

The ICF’s annual Building the Broadband Economy summit will include the announcement of the Intelligent Community of the Year for 2009. This year’s top seven communities include Bristol, Virginia; Eindhoven; Fredericton, New Brunswick; Issy-les-Moulineaux; Moncton, New Brunswick; Stockholm; and Tallinn.

ICF will also launch the new 80 city international alumni, which will be chaired by City of Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran.

For more information, visit the ICF website at www.icfsummit.com.