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Successful Smart Cities and Communities Projects & Initiatives

Smart Cities catalyze the digital transformation of urban ecosystems to produce systemic environmental, financial, and social outcomes. Smart Cities are, by definition, focused on using emerging technologies and innovation to make cities more livable, and offer new services and economic opportunities.

IDC’s 2025 Smart Cities North America Awards

IDC is seeking applications for successful Smart City and Community projects and initiatives in North American towns, cities, counties, states and provinces. Specifically, we are looking for best practice examples of innovation in partnerships, funding models, community engagement and the use of technology and data in implemented initiatives (pilots or projects) as opposed to ideas or planned initiatives. We are looking for initiatives that use technology to solve challenges in interesting ways, or initiatives that leverage emerging technologies like AI/GenAI.

IDC’s 2025 Smart Cities North America Awards will be presented to the winning Smart Cities and Communities at an awards ceremony at the Smart Cities Connect conference being held in San Antonio, TX April 14 – 16, 2025. To learn more about Smart Cities Connect please visit spring.smartcitiesconnect.org.

The application process only takes about 15 minutes and is free of charge. All fields are mandatory to complete your submission. You may also submit supplemental files. Deadline for completed nomination forms is Friday, January 10, 2025

Nominate Now

Award Categories

With 10 categories, you may select your project to be eligible for more than one category – but not more than three. From each category, three projects will be announced as finalists prior to the selection of the category winner.

NEW FOR 2025 – a Cross Category All-Star Winner!

  1. 1.
    Administration (e.g. Back Office, Digital Legislating, HR)

  2. 2.
    Civic Engagement (e.g City Portals, 311 apps, Service Innovations)

  3. 3.
    Digital Equity and Accessibility (e.g. Public WiFi, Accessibility Services, Translation services)

  4. 4.
    Economic Development, Tourism, Arts, Libraries, Culture, Open Spaces (e.g Event management, Augmented reality tourism)

  5. 5.
    Education (e.g. Smart Campus and Classrooms, Online and Remote Services)

  6. 6.
    Public Health and Social Services (e.g. Addiction Monitoring and Prevention, Predictive Disease Management, Humanitarian Services)

  7. 7.
    Public Safety (e.g. Police, fire and emergency management solutions; real-time Crime Centers, Video Analytics, Next Gen 911, Early Warning Systems, Augmented Reality Simulations, Drones)

  8. 8.
    Sustainable Infrastructure (e.g. Smart Buildings, Smart Water, Smart Lighting, Waste Collection, Environmental Monitoring, Resiliency)

  9. 9.
    Transportation (e.g. Connected, Autonomous, Electric and Shared Vehicles, Public Transit, Parking, Transit Hubs, Traffic Management, Transportation Infrastructure)

  10. 10.
    Urban Planning and Land Use (e.g. Permitting, Licensing, Inspection & Zoning; Digital Twins, Community Resiliency)

Complete the call for nominations form

Nominate Now

IDG Environmental Policy

International Data Group is committed to protecting the environment, the health and safety of our employees, and the community in which we conduct our business. It is our policy to seek continual improvement throughout our business operations to lessen our impact on the local and global environment. We are committed to environmental excellence, pollution prevention and to purchasing products that reduce the use of natural resources.

We fulfill this mission by a commitment to:

  • Encouraging all partners to share in our mission
  • Understanding environmental issues and sharing information with our partners
  • Recognizing that fiscal responsibility is essential to our environmental future
  • Instilling environmental responsibility as a corporate value
  • Developing innovative and flexible solutions to bring about change
  • Using our platforms and position in the IT industry to promote sustainability
  • Minimize air travel to help reduce our impact on the environment
  • Minimize use of materials and energy consumption in our offices
  • Create a working environment that efficiently uses our office space
  • Develop and maintain a hybrid working model that benefits both our employees and business partners
  • Encourage employees to measure, minimize and collaborate on reducing energy consumption at home and in the office
  • Engaging employees and promoting active participation in environmental and sustainability initiatives