City Leaders, IT Martini Mark the Selection of Columbus as a Top7 Intelligent Community at Innovation Reception
City Leaders, IT Martini Mark the Selection of Columbus as a Top7 Intelligent Community at Innovation Reception
The reception highlights
Columbus tech innovations, community collaboration as the only U.S. city
selected this year
Columbus, OH (PRWEB) April
02, 2013
City of Columbus officials and IT Martini, a company that
creates nationally recognized events for IT professionals, are partnering to
host The Columbus Innovation Reception on Tuesday, April 2, 2013. The reception
will be held at the Columbus Museum of Art from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will
celebrate Columbus’ selection as a Top7 Intelligent Community by the
Intelligent Community Forum. Columbus is the only U.S. city to be selected for
the Top7 round and is now in the running to become the 2013 Intelligent
Community of the Year.
The reception welcomes Robert Bell, co-founder of the
Intelligent Community Forum, alongside public, business, and community leaders
for the presentation of the Top7 Intelligent Community Award. The collaboration
of leaders across all sectors of the city is what has made the innovation that
has taken place in Columbus possible, said Gary Cavin, director and CIO of the
Department of Technology for the City of Columbus.
“The Top7 selection is very exciting,” Cavin said. “Applying
for the Intelligent Community selection is a very involved process. The time
was really spent creating partnerships and identifying great organizations to
work with. That was the best part - and the longest.”
Columbus’ cutting edge mobile application and investment in
fiber-optic infrastructure to create “the most networked city in the nation” is
just the latest in the city’s long history of tech innovation.
“The City of Columbus is an open and smart community that is
investing in innovative partnerships to create a climate for growth in the tech
sector,” said Council President Andrew J. Ginther. “The Top7 Intelligent Community designation
helps to reaffirm what we already know and spread the word around the world,
that Columbus is the place for IT professionals.”
According to the Intelligent Community Forum, “the Top7
represent models of economic and social transformation in the 21st Century ...
Each exemplifies best practices in broadband deployment and use, workforce
development, innovation, digital inclusion and advocacy that offer lessons to
regions, cities, towns and villages around the world. They are charting new
paths to lasting prosperity for their citizens, businesses and institutions.”
“Columbus has been a hotbed of technology and innovation for
decades, yet it is only in the last ten years that the city has garnered
significant international attention,” said John Bishop, co-founder, CEO and chief
editor of IT Martini. “The talent is here, the assets are here - it was
only a matter of time before the world learned what top companies and
universities already know - Columbus is one of the best communities for tech.”
The Columbus Innovation Reception is free and open to the
public; registration is required. Full details and event registration are
available at www.columbusinnovationreception.com.
About IT Martini:
IT Martini was founded by John Bishop and Aladin Gohar, two
IT professionals who wanted a better IT community. Starting in 2008, they began
hosting conference style events for IT communities across the Midwest. They
also launched IT Martini Weekly, a web newsletter featuring influential IT
leaders sharing their perspectives and engaging IT professionals in the
worldwide IT community. To date, tens of thousands of IT professionals have
connected socially and grown professionally with their IT community through IT
Martini.
About the Intelligent Community Forum:
The Intelligent Community Forum is a think tank that studies
the economic and social development of the 21st Century community. ICF seeks to
share the best practices of the world's Intelligent Communities in adapting to
the demands of the Broadband Economy, in order to help communities everywhere
find sustainable renewal and growth.
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