Happy New Year to all of you for 2023!

Happy New Year to all you innovators around the world! (By reading this I think it’s a pretty good assumption by your interests, you are an innovator!)

As we enter the new calendar year, we are still waiting the final results of the Innovation Cities™ Index for 2022.

Some of you are asking when!

We usually publish results annually since 2007. And we first promised results in Q3/Q4 2022.

However, in years of volatility, such as Trump/Brexit (2016-2017) and post-Covid 19 (2022-2023), we often find the data does not settle for some time. During Covid-19 itself there were similar but different problems.

Unfortunately for schedules, the data is the data.

Rankings jump around a lot during volatility, thus not representing true or accurate rankings at times. Until we can reduce the volatility.

So we are now beginning to be happy that the results are not bouncing around as much, and are starting to stabilize.

SIDE NOTE - WE ARE ALSO UPDATING ALL SERVERS AND OTHER INFRASTRUCTURE AROUND THE FIRST WEEK OF JANUARY. THOSE ACCESSING THE SITE MAY EXPERIENCE DELAYS OR WEIRD RESULTS UNTIL 4TH JANUARY 2023. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE WHILE WE ADD BACKEND SUPPORT FOR NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT.

Managing data volatility

Such volatility means getting a clear and true picture of which cities are the world’s most innovative takes time. Much longer than usual.

In these years, once volatility can be managed, we often merge 2 years to get a stable result. e.g. 2016-2017.

It takes a while for the model to settle, and many ‘runs’ to bring the model to an consensual equilibrium.

Good news, now new emerging city data is closing in on some clear patterns.

And a final result.

When do we release?

The index will be finalized and released in mid to late January 2023. For all 500 current cities.

Become a paid subscriber (button above) to this Gazette to get updates ahead of the publicly available information. This is useful to urban professionals, and employees of state and city governments among others.

PLUS, for those in specific portfolios not Mayoral affairs - we cover, and have planned to cover, a broad range of targetted portfolio areas. Transport, Sustainability, Roads, Science/STEM, Tourism, Trade, etc.

Paid subscriptions help those seeking a more detailed understanding of city innovation initiatives for themselves. They are a starting point for a deeper understanding, and administratively useful to keep up-to-date.

One single idea from cities globally (we cover truly 500 cties) can save taxpayers a great deal of funds.

More Benefits - Paid Premium and Founding subscribers will receive additional resources on release including data, graphs as well as time to write a press release.

Paid Subscriptions also enable your city to get a media release out ahead of time.

FOUNDING BONUS - Founding Subscribers can also request we cover their niche portfolio - e.g. cycling, liveability, walkability, sustainability, blue economy, start-ups, etc before other portfolios. Our indicators cover all of your areas. Super benefit!!

Cities that are engaged, are encouraged to be paid or founding subscribers of this substack to receive more resources on the Index, and prompt personal attention to your queries.

What do the annual city rankings mean for you?

Every year 2THINKNOW rank the worlds 500 cities for innovation. It was first started in 2007 and expanded to 162 indicators for the last decade. The city ranking its the largest and longest-running of its kind.

Long term measures such as 5 year average show strong performance ahead of the curve.

The indicators covers a word range of portfolios of government and industries of business. They measure a broad range of innovation preconditions.

Your department area/industry is generally included, and we can extract tailored data to benchmark your city on just your functions, against peer cities. Ask us for a Proposal.

The published city ranking deals with innovation across the board.

Whats inside the current rankings?

Exciting stuff.

Let’s say this. The 2022-2023 results will definitely surprise.

Who is up and who is down will surprise.

Who was resilient will surprise.

A few cities that have closed the gap will surprise.

Which cities moved sideways will surprise.

3 Notable 2023 Points

Some cities are what Nassim Taleb calls ‘anti-fragile’ which means they survive come what may. Even Black Swan (unforeseen impacts) events.

One city stands out globally, as steady as a rock strategically. It didn’t come number one globally, but it remained steady in almost every simulation we ran. Amazing. It is ‘super resilient’.

And, finally large cities are generally ‘ back’ after their Covid-fuelled hiatus.

And which Mid-east city has surged forward? Which non-Western cities are now more than equal to their Western counterparts?

All shall soon be answered.

Hard, hard, work this year

We had to run close to 40 model simulations even to get a clear result.

Perhaps not so much at the top of the tree, but the large post-Covid (except China) movements. I say ‘post-Covid’ from the view of public policy, perception and actions in most of the world.

Inflation and conflict (Ukraine among others) are the bogeymen at the moment more than Covid.

A few countries remain stuck in Covid response without an exit, a few borders remain largely closed in part, and not everything is normal.

So, there are still Covid impacts on some indicators.

But, at the end of the day, growth is back. With that, so is innovation.

Areas like the circular economy, cycling, personal mobility, digital skills, robotics, enterprise growth and others remain hotbeds for enabling future innovation.

Seeking alpha…

Innovation is resurgent.

Despite war, inflation, bad monetary policy, and some woeful public health responses.

Innovation only pauses.

Innovation does not stop.

Innovation is always the future in progress.

Results finalized and released in coming weeks.

Keep innovating!™

Image credit https://unsplash.com/@rovenimages_com

Innovation Cities™ Gazette

Innovation Cities™ Index 2022-2023 City…