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Winnipeg: One Smart City

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After four straight years as a smart 21 community, Winnipeg was named Thursday as one of the top seven intelligent communities in the world in a global competition by the Intelligent Community Forum.

And those in the know feel there's no reason our city can't take another giant step when the smartest of them all is sorted out this summer.

Marina James, president/CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg, which spearheaded the 65-page submission, said this year's theme, which asked applicants to consider the power of culture in the emergence of intelligent communities, should give Winnipeg a fighting chance.

"I think we have a lot to show them, so I think we have a great chance to be number one. But we're very, very happy with being top seven in the world and we'll use it to our advantage to attract investment here and visitations. It's still a great honour," James said. "We want to be up there with the best of the best, and this shows we are."

Nearly 400 submissions were considered to whittle the list down to a 'smart 21' who are "developing inclusive prosperity built on a foundation of information and communications technology."

Among the reasons given for Winnipeg surviving the cut were: how the aboriginal communities embrace their cultural tradition of storytelling through modern-day equivalents such as the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and Sisler High School's Digital Voices Project; the Composites Innovation Centre's high-performance composites based on agricultural materials such as hemp and flax which reduce costs for employers such as Boeing and Magellan Aerospace; and how the thriving arts and cultural scene inspired an independent film (Indie Game: The Movie) from Winnipeggers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot which took awards at the Sundance Film Festival and was a New York Times critic's pick.

"Of all the things to be recognized for, I think this serves us well to attract knowledge-based industry to our city," Dave Angus, the president/CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said.

While the designation helps promote Winnipeg globally, Angus noted it's also good for the local community to recognize the advancements that are being made in the field of information and communication technologies.

"Not only is it an honour but it just goes to show that all the hard work done by so many individuals and so many groups is obviously getting us to where we want to be," Mayor Sam Katz said.

Winnipeg is up against two other Ontario cities (Kingston, Toronto), two American centres (Arlington County, Va., Columbus, Ohio) and two cities in Taiwan (Hsinchu City, New Taipei City). The winner will be named in New York in early June after site visits this spring.

kevin.king@sunmedia.ca

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