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Leaders excited about future opportunities after meeting with the smartest communities in the world

New Brunswick is partnering on economic development and trade with some of the world's brightest communities, as named by a Big Apple think-tank.

As a conference hosted by the Brooklyn-based Intelligent Community Forum on broadband and a competition between seven communities on tech smarts wrapped up late last week, provincial leaders were talking about future opportunities.

The contest - which saw Fredericton and Moncton vying to be named the intelligent community of the year based on moves to use the Internet for economic and social development - has raised the profile of New Brunswick, said Ben Champoux, business development specialist for the City of Moncton.

"In many, many cases in economic development, we were chasing investors, asking them to come to Moncton, saying, 'We're great,' " Champoux said.

"Now many of those investors are going to be coming to us and saying, 'Wow, we're impressed with Moncton. We want to do business with you.'

"It has changed the name of the game in economic development for us."

Bristol, Va.; Eindhoven, Netherlands; Issy-les-Moulineaux, France; Stockholm, Sweden; and Tallinn, Estonia also made it to the top seven out of nearly 400 bids for recognition.

Champoux said throughout the Intelligent Community Forum competition, which started last summer when applications were due, he and his team have connected with forward-thinking regions with which idea-sharing and greater trade are inevitable.

Moncton representatives met last week with leaders from Waterloo, Ont., - the community that won the think-tank's award in 2007 and the home of Blackberry-maker Research in Motion - and Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, a top seven community this year.

The Paris suburb was an industrial zone in the early 20th century only to later suffer de-industrialization.

Now, decades of building a knowledge economy has meant the formation of e-government, cyber-kindergarten for children, a cyber tearooms for older citizens, citizen e-participation in decision-making, a successful business incubator and information communication technology-based real estate projects.

"Before we found out we were both in the top seven, we had already discussed how we could partner and work more together," Champoux said of the French community's backers, whom he met last year in Paris, citing some opportunities:

"Share ideas, partner on some initiatives, learn from each other, participate in each others' forums and conferences to share our knowledge, and best practices and by default, raise the profile of our respective communities."

Linking with intelligent communities is also a chance to scout for top talent, Champoux said.

In 2007, Moncton representatives went on a talent-procurement trip to Seoul, South Korea and visited the Gangnam-gu district, a community which six months later won the New York think-tank's annual smart city competition.

The visit led the South Korean population to "increase drastically" in Moncton, Champoux said.

Last Friday, just before a luncheon where this year's top community - Stockholm - was named, Premier Shawn Graham took a seat on a plush leather-cushioned bench outside the Brooklyn banquet hall with Eindhoven Mayor Rob van Gijzel.

The two chatted about their respective regions and promised to continue the dialogue, which the government has said could lead to increased trade with the Netherlands and investment in New Brunswick.

According to the government, New Brunswick currently exports nearly $542 million to the Netherlands.

"This was certainly a very worthwhile meeting," Graham said in a later statement.

"These are the types of meetings that can grow into something so very important for our province."

The Eindhoven region, among this year's top seven smart communities, has been dubbed "Brainport" for its research and development reputation.

Formerly a rural community, Eindhoven's university, along with its technology companies - which include the electronics firm Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., which goes by the name of Philips Electronics Ltd. (NYSE:PHG) - pushed the region into industrialization in the 20th century.

It is unclear why, specifically, Eindhoven reached out to set up a meeting with New Brunswick.

Brainport director Elies Lemkes-Strave, who also met with Graham in Brooklyn, said her government is interested in how the province has supported its firms during the economic downturn.

"It's to share experiences in this type of crisis," she said, adding that there is an opportunity to "open a two-way direction on innovation" and to develop "new product markets.

"The regions are more or less the same size," she said.

Eindhoven boasts a population of 728,000.

Last year the region made it to the Intelligent Community Forum's top 21 smart communities.

Wim Renders, Brainport project manager, said in 2008 the region's reps started conversations with Waterloo, Ont., which will mean a trade mission to the southern Ontario city later this year.

The European civil servant said his region's "smart car" technology researchers could stand to benefit through work with Waterloo, in the heart of southern Ontario's auto parts manufacturing region.

Eindhoven researchers work with "high-tech materials" and "embedded systems" for the auto parts sector, Renders said.

"We have an ecosystem of open innovation."