The Intelligent Community

Hosted by The Intelligent Community Forum

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Episodes

100

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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About the show

In the official podcast from the Intelligent Community Forum, we speak with the movers and shakers in the intelligent community movement around the world. Hear how communities are embracing the 21st century for economic prosperity, enriching their cultures, and improving the quality of lives of their citizens.

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60 recent

September 2, 202650 min

Who Owns the Curb? Robots, Sidewalks & the Soul of the City

What happens when nobody works except the robots? Why did Bill Gates say AI, which is at the heart of robotics, is "our biggest threat?" Even Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei admits we "only understand 3% of how they work." Yet, the promise of AI and robots to address delivery, industrial processing, transportation and even loneliness, our greatest community disease, has pushed them into cities, especially Intelligent Communities. Large cities like Los Angeles and Seoul have hundreds of PMRs (public area mobile robots) on the street. Once confined to college campuses, robotics firms are trying to scale the market commercially. What's the challenge? Unlike bridges or power plants, designed to precise human specifications, AI systems, upon which robots depend, are "grown" from vast databases through processes their own creators cannot interpret. How do urban planners, who view sidewalks as the "new frontier," work with cities dominated by automotive vehicles and roadways? The promise and challenges are enormous. In one of Lou's typically wide-ranging discussions guests move from the technical, to the practical to a discussion about "the soul" of the city and why trust is essential to scaling and living with robots. In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Podcast, Soul of the City ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Bern Gursh , Executive Director, Urban Robotics Foundation & John G. Jung , Co-Founder, ICF.

August 19, 202620 min

The Purpose of Life is to be defeated...

In this Summer reflection podcast of THE INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY: The Soul of the City, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla discusses the purpose of Intelligent Community development, the upcoming Awards event and looks ahead to a future of AI-driven cities and where the boundaries are for humanity.

July 22, 202653 min

Our Most Incredible Intelligent Community Story: the IT Mobilization of Kyiv

Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ICF organized a panel to discuss leadership in times of great challenge and the role a city's IT department can play adapting to a conflict. A lead story in TIME Magazine by reporter Vera Bergengruen stunned us with frontline reporting about how the local government in Kyiv had mobilized and innovated to protect, inform and defend its citizens. It is an Intelligent Community story and amazingly brave journalism in unusual circumstances. The discussion became the most viewed in our series, The INTELLIGENT Community: Soul of the City . We reached out to Ms Bergengruen and she joined this panel. Vera is today a national security reporter at The Wall Street Journal . During the time of this podcast she was with Time magazine, where she covered the intersection of national security, tech and politics and reported cover stories from Ukraine, Argentina and El Salvador. She worked as a national security and investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and her work has won the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi and Dateline Awards and a New York Press Club Award. She was part of the team that worked on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Panama Papers investigation in 2017. Vera is originally from Uruguay and grew up in Chile, Germany, Mexico and Miami.

July 1, 202617 min

ICF's "AMEN" Factor: the Way to the Top

Becoming an Intelligent Community offers four distinct advantages for regions, cities and towns on their way upward. In this unique edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Podcast, Soul of the City , ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla describes the beauty of the "AMEN" stages of the ICF program. The "soul of the city" is found along the way and so is business growth, social trust and a global network of over 220 peers. Not to mention an Award that can change your destiny.

June 17, 202622 min

Tempe, Arizona Keeps Growing & Getting More Intelligent!

Tempe, Arizona is the city everyone likes. With a population of 190,000 it has been growing and prospering for several years. A tourist attraction with its amazing Tempe Town Lake and a university town, with a school nicknamed "The Sun Devils," it is producing significant volumes of global and national research - and retaining its talent. Tempe doesn't seem to need the ICF method or network. But we were wrong. In this interview with former journalist-turned-Communications Director Kris Baxter , we learn why Tempe went on the ICF journey and how they feel about being in the hunt for Top7 status! (Hint: they feel really good!). In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Podcast, Soul of the City ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Kris Baxter , Communication and Marketing Director, Tempe, AZ.

May 27, 202650 min

Voices from the Kitchen: New York's respected restaurant owner cooks a conversation about local sourcing, immigrants and community!

Most New Yorkers and many of the 63 million people who visit New York each year as tourists will connect the words "Cookshop," "Shuka," and "Vic's" as outstanding restaurants and part of a chain owned by Marc Meyer. But Meyer admittedly is more than a cook. His vision of community, food and the people who prepare and serve it drove him to not only engage his workers at a deeper level than most owners, but to write a fascinating book: Voices from the Kitchen: Personal Narratives from New York's Immigrant Restaurant Workers. (Beacon Press). In this episode of "Soul of the City" Meyer talks about this and his commitment to sourcing locally, seasonally and sustainably – and the importance of immigrants to it all! In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Interview , ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Marc Meyer , author, "Voices from the Kitchen."

May 13, 202624 min

The "Town-Gown Knowledge Enterprise." Is it THE Way Back to Economic Stability?

David Staley has been described as an "avant garde scholar." A professor in the departments of History and Design at The Ohio State University in the USA he is the author of several books including Knowledge Towns: Colleges and Universities as Talent Magnets . In 2022 he was named the "Best Freelance Writer" by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists for his Next futures column with Columbus Underground. With the ICF Summit being held in Columbus this October and because of Staley's long relationship with ICF, we invited him to chat with Lou about "the knowledge enterprise" and whether it can be built even in places where this is in university. In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Interview, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Dr. David Staley , Associate Professor of History, The Ohio State University.

May 6, 202625 min

Intelligence Test: Brain Drain to Brain Gain: Kingston, ON, Canada

In this edition of the Intelligence Test podcast, ICF co-founder Robert Bell has a conversation with Bryan Paterson , Mayor, Kingston, ON, Canada and Kelly Rowe , Fellow, Canadian Urban Institute. How can you grow a city's economy if the best and brightest keep leaving town? That was the challenge facing Bryan Paterson when he was elected as mayor of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Kingston is a government town, a university town and a tourist town – but had stagnated for years. Hear the story of its journey to opportunity and growth.

April 29, 202627 min

A Higher Quality of Innovation: Brightlands-Limburg Hosts the Top7 Conference

For most cities and regions the idea of a real circular economy and stable, sustained innovation in every detail of business and life remains a goal to be chased. In the Brightlands-Limburg region of The Netherlands however, a region of 1.1 million people, the goal is being achieved. With multiple "innovation campuses" producing products and services focused on sustainability in areas as diverse as chemical engineering and food (it is home to a company that produces 80,000 beefburgers without killing a single cow!) Brightlands-Limburg has gotten on the radar! It is wonderful place to see, visit and study what a future of Intelligent Communities and collaboration are ushering in to the economy. Lou speaks with two of the people there who are driving this forward in a conversation that will again show what the Dutch have been giving the world for over 400 years! In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Interview, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Ronald Otten , Strategy Advisor and Brand Manager, Brightlands-Limburg and Maurice Olivers , Manager PR & Communications, Brightlands-Limburg.

April 15, 202619 min

ICF FOUNDERS TAKE YOU AROUND THE WORLD!

In this edition of THE INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY: The Soul of the City, Lou speaks with fellow ICF Co-Founder John Jung . In response to requests from ICF podcast listeners the two dive into a robust conversation about the connection between the world's Intelligent Communities, the history of ICF and the world-famous awards program. The two also discuss ICF's ongoing VIP tours and delegations to Asia and in June, Europe. If you want to get "under the hood" about how seemingly average cities become world award winners, this is the conversation for you.

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