2011 City Results

The 5th Annual Innovation Cities Index was released today by 2thinknow, classifying city innovation globally. The release includes 4 regional and 2 global indexes for 331 benchmark cities, across 80+ countries.

INDEXES > TOP 100 | AMERICAS | EUROPE | ASIA | EMERGING | GLOBAL

View short Media Release + Read the 2011 FAQ

Please reproduce the index results in articles, blogs and media as per license terms.

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The October edition Innovation Cities Analysis Report on the Index, city trends and building urban innovation economies, is available to order. > New Edition > Report Site > Order!

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For those interested in one city’s performance, data and analyst briefing services are now bundled available via > Innovation Cities Program subscription.

Media Release

This is an extended Media Release, please use as appropriate.

DATE: Tuesday, 18TH October 2011.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – Boston came first again in a field of 331 cities in the Innovation Cities Global Index. This year’s top cities were rounded out by San Francisco Bay Area, Paris, New York and Vienna, as the 5th annual index was released today by analysts from innovation agency 2thinknow. 2thinknow is based in Melbourne, Australia.

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data identified innovation as the key driver of economic recovery from previous recessions and downturns for nations, and 2thinknow’s annual index extends this to cities.

Melbourne came tops over an improved Sydney this year for innovation, in the 5^th Annual Innovation Cities Asia Index.  Tokyo and Shanghai rounded out the top five cities, in the index released today by analysts from innovation agency 2thinknow.

The Innovation Cities Asia Index was one of four regional and two global indexes released in Melbourne, today.

European cities continued to place well globally, often indicating a separation between city and national performance.

Comparing European cities in the global indexes, Germany’s Munich continued climbing up to 7th place globally from 15th. Amid struggling UK cities London improved to 11th from 14th, as Manchester (32nd) rose to Nexus status for the first time. In Europe, Italian and Spanish cities fell further outside the top rankings, with Barcelona (19), Milan (16), Madrid (52) and Torino (80) ranked counter to poor national trends. Other top tier European Nexus cities listed included Amsterdam (6), Lyon (8), Copenhagen (9), Frankfurt (12), Hamburg (13) and Berlin (14).

According to 2thinknow Executive Director, Christopher Hire, “Key cities will perform out of pattern with nations, as nations enter or exit economic malaise, or multi-speed economies.”

In 2011, 331 benchmarked cities were scored on 162 indicators by 2thinknow based on their facility to generate product, process, service and other innovation types across an urban economy. Results are classified into five bands of performance including top-tier Nexus and Hub cities, followed by globally competitive Node cities.

According to 2thinknow, Executive Director, Christopher Hire, the “Innovation Cities Global Index measures cities as innovation economies. We collect and assess data for transport, universities, arts, design, sustainability, economics, start-up facilities, labour, technology and other indicators to measure the opportunity cities offer their citizens.”

The analysts noted that city performance can be faster to turn around than overall national performance. All indexes are available on www.innovation-cities.com

The analysts first named Boston as the second-top global innovation destination in 2007. In 2011, the analysts stated that Boston’s dominant institutions Harvard and MIT, coupled with a strengthening start-up and arts in global networks kept the city number one overall globally across multiple economic segments in the turbulent national economic cycle. In Canada, Nexus city Toronto moved up two places to 10th globally. Montreal joined Seattle and Los Angeles as North American Nexus cities for the first time.

The top 10% of 331 cities were classified as Nexus cities by the analysts. Nexus cities were the analysts best general destinations for innovation, followed by the next 73 Hub cities named as challengers in many sectors of the city economy. The balance of cities were classified as Node cities or in two lower performance bands. According to the analyst’s classification, Node cities are globally competitive for innovation.

In 2011 the Index uniquely foresees stronger U.S. innovation performance over 2 to 5 years, based on mid-size city businesses seeking innovation opportunities in global cities. 2thinknow noted that across the USA, most major U.S. cities were likely to be globally competitive Node or above, by meeting mid-level benchmarks for innovation. The analysts identified Human Infrastructure and Cultural Asset investment as key to stronger U.S. performance.

Hong Kong climbed to 15th globally and first Nexus in Asia, ahead of Australia’s city economies represented by Melbourne and Sydney, at 17th and 20th respectively. A weakened Tokyo moved temporarily down to 22nd place ahead of a steady Shanghai (24) among a record 24% Asian Nexus cities, also including Seoul. China’s economic performance to date was reflected by more Chinese cities than ever in the global Index, and the entry of cities like Wuhan and Chengdu for the first time.

Global Hub cities rising in the analyst rankings this year included Bordeaux, Vancouver, Budapest, Tel Aviv, Orlando and Shenzhen. Well-known cities the analysts discounted significantly this year included St Petersburg, Moscow and Buenos Aires (replaced in South America by São Paulo). Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod technology city and Rostov-na-Donu entered the Index for the first time, as Mumbai became India’s first Hub city. Cape Town this year became the first African Hub city. Adelaide in Australia also became an Asian Hub based on new investment activity.

According to 2thinknow, Executive Director, Christopher Hire, the “Innovation Cities Global Index measures cities as innovation economies. This goes beyond technology or patents alone. 2thinknow analysts also collect data on assess transport, universities, arts, design, sustainability, economics, start-up facilities, labor as well as other factors to measure the opportunities cities offer their citizens. We aim to measure cities economic opportunity not nations.”

In 2011 the 331 cities benchmarked for innovation, up from 289 cities in 2010 and compared with 256 cities in 2009. The top 125 cities were ranked by the analysts based on 21 current global trends, listed in the accompanying Innovation Cities Analysis report. The indicators framework, models and global analysis of trend impact were also outlined in the report. 2thinknow launched the index in 2007 and expanded the index in 2009 to 289 cities.

Each year, the global index and top rankings are released with four regional indexes, that classify and then rank the top cities for North & South America, Europe, Asia and Emerging regions. In 2007 the analysts predicted the Global Financial Crisis as a “September (2008) shock event”, and Indexes predicted London’s fall and foresaw counter-cyclical strong performance of German and French cities overall.

Cities move in the Index over 2 or 3 year periods, and many city classifications have been relatively stable year on year since 2009.

— ENDS—

SPOKESPERSON

Christopher Hire
Executive Director
2thinknow ICP

+61 409 787 960 (Mobile)
+61 3 9935 2927
TIME: Melbourne, Australia (AEST)

Rapid email: media@2thinknow.com

Cities Data

Separately, City Benchmarking Data from the 2thinknow Index is city-level available to order for any 331 benchmark cities (from all regions) for all 162 indicators, or any mix of cities and indicators for city data projects. > Data Site

For single cities this data is bundled with annual reports, at a discount via top-tier subscriptions via Innovation Cities Program subscription.

Africa is ‘different’. Featuring innovation cities in Africa.

We have done a number of interviews for African media sources. From the recent Afribiz article:

As of 2010, Africa had 47 cities with more than a million inhabitants, accounting for 31.6% of total urban population in Africa according to the UN report.  The three largest cities on the continent in 2010 were Cairo (about 11 million), Lagos (10.5 million), and Kinshasa (8.7 million).

Christopher Hire, Executive Director of Innovation at 2ThinkNow in Australia, says innovation is key to making cities what we want them to be socially and economically. Hire and his team have developed the Innovation Cities Program and Index. On the Innovations Cities Emerging Index, there are seven African cities – Cape Town, Casablanca, Johannesburg, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, and Port Louis – listed out of sixteen cities.

> Original article by Lauri Elliott

Africa’s is ‘different’ in terms of time..

Literature often refers to ‘Africa time’, but this also applies to thinking on the continent. From the article:

The key issues or trends that cities need to address successfully (according to 2thinknow) over the next 15 to 80 years are equity, economics, and the environment.

80 years refers to an Africa context in the long term. More is possible in the 15 year time frame in African context.

The objective of Innovation Cities (In an African context) is to improve “social and economic performance of (existing) cities over a period of approximately 15 years accounting for these trends,“ indicates Hire.

This requires more expansion for clarity in a specific context of Africa cities.

African initiatives outside the far North need to consider what can be done over a decade, as well as short-term wins over a year or two. It’s important though that in quickly building hospitals, roads, or infrastructure, Africa doesn’t neglect the maintenance of the 15-30 years, which is the broader point.

So our 2thinknow analysis of African opportunity is more nuanced than the brevity of the article implies.

Africa is very regional, with numerous borders as Chris Patten commented, decided by past diplomats, not by practicality. South, North and Middle are different, and some geo-political analysis would relate to water, resources and land-locked status.

Time frames vary by region, as well as cities. That is the value of the 2thinknow approach and the business opportunity from city benchmarking data on African cities.

2thinknow can assist customers to identify the opportunities and the time frames, that can be implemented on a city / population centre basis. These can vary from short (months) to long-term (years). Opportunities that are overlooked.

Africa is not the West, which the West forgets.

By contrast, more homogeneous Western societies (and indeed capitalist Asia) are moving so fast that each 15 years may take in two cycles of change and growth. Think PC, networks, internet  and mobile internet as innovation technology cycle leaders. But as numerous economists (and the World Bank) have argued, there are numerous pre-existing structures which make this short term results possible. Seoul and Tokyo are a great example of fast time frames, as is Hong Kong.

Much western aid to Africa often ignores the medium term, for the quick short-term infrastructure build.

The 2011 Innovation Cities Emerging Index and Africa.

2thinknow will release the Innovation Cities Index 2011, shortly. This will include more African innovation cities, across North and Durban in the South, is now added to Capetown and Johannesburg.

With more press coverage than ever, and the rise of the innovation economy, it is time for a large explosion of civic innovation.

Hopefully the Index will inspire African cities to “lift their game” with innovation. In the 2thinknow view, the African solution to urban innovation, must in part, come from Africa, not dusty binders on dusty shelves.

Africa among global Innovation Cities.

The Innovation Cities Index 2011 (Global, and 4 regions including Emerging) is undergoing review, and will be published shortly. This is the 5th year of the 2thinknow Index, which attracts unique visitors from 1000s of cities on release, and each year. Previous media coverage raising awareness of innovation, has appeared under Reuters, Boston Globe, NY Times (Opinion), Fox Business, ABC (Australia), and a variety of business and local news including local newspaper dailies.

See it on www.innovation-cities.com

For prompt responses to media enquiries, contact media@2thinknow.com

City Benchmarking Data™ is key industry or community data intelligence on any cities worldwide. Only from 2thinknow.

2thinknow produce the largest independent analyst data-set benchmarking city performance worldwide, with up to 162 indicators of data available to purchase for over 1,600 urban centers in 2011-12.

All data is delivered ‘ready-to-go’, licensed for your organizational use in multiple formats including spreadsheets, graphs and slides.

As seen in the Boston Globe or Reuters through the Innovation Cities™ Program and Index, and purchased by R&D departments, management consultants, multi-national corporations, city governments, chambers, trade boards, mayors, think tanks, tech firms and others worldwide.

Customer City Data Uses

Industry Data by Location
2thinknow have created a number of projects since 2006. Our group since 1999 have created scorecards to measure change performance. Our group created Australia’s first environmental scorecard for retailers at LendLease. In 2010, we revised LBG’s data process for benchmarking major Australian corporations for Corporate Social Responsibility.

Government Policy Data
2thinknow have worked on quick end-to-end projects for government based on design of scorecards and metrics. In 2009 we designed communication dashboards for state government ministers and their advisers to measure change.

Community : Social Innovation Metrics
We design scorecards for various community purposes, and our group has done work for the Anglican Retirement, Catholic Education and various NGOs seeking to embrace change in financial and business arrangements.

City Benchmarking Data™ by 2thinknow: Leading metrics to measure cities.

Resource Site > City Benchmarking Data™

Combine data with other innovation services.

Request data benchmarking as part of business, government and community innovation consulting services. Or do a course in innovation metrics, with a custom version of the Innovation Course™. Combine with other tools from the Innovation Toolkit by 2thinknow.

Innovation in Africa is a possibility, and Cape Town a likely source as a future urban innovation economy.

Cape Town ranked 3rd in the Emerging Cities region of the Innovation Cities Index in 2011, by 2thinknow.

Janine Erasmus, a journalist from South Africa, wrote this excellent summary of the Cape Town situation in an African journal. A PDF is below.

http://www.2thinknow.com/?attachment_id=2356

Source: CPSI: http://www.cpsi.co.za
(We have uploaded the PDF to our servers, because the original link was misfiring.)

Using the 2thinknow Innovation Design Life Cycle™ approach, 2thinknow analysts turns ideas and issues into innovation.

2thinknow innovation consulting uses the Innovation Design Life Cycle™ process. This end-to-end Life Cycle process includes access to 2thinknow analysis, analytical tools, innovation models, metric design, data gathering, and innovation training.

Indicative innovation consulting rates for 2thinknow innovation analysts here. 

Ask us for your custom innovation consulting proposal. Or contact us with your enquiry.

According to the analysts, top-ranked nexus cities have better economic opportunities for all of us, due to their innovation economics building future industries for employment and community services.

Paris and Amsterdam contested the top spot with Boston, being ranked second and third, respectively, in the 2thinknow Innovation Cities Top 100 Index. Since 2009 Vienna has moved to fourth place and New York to fifth place. The cities of Frankfurt, San Francisco, Copenhagen, Lyon and Hamburg, rounded out the top ten places.

In Asia, Hong Kong was first in 18th place overall. Japan has two cities in the top index, with Tokyo (20) and Kyoto (22) both ahead of Chinese city Shanghai (24) in the current year. Australia’s strong relative economy was represented by Melbourne and Sydney, placed 19th and 28th respectively.

In Europe, German and French cities out-scored United Kingdom cities across all classifications of the Index. In southern Europe, capitals of Milan (16), Rome (20) and Barcelona (26) placed well followed by and Madrid (60), despite the economic and social concerns of the region.

Scored cities were classified in five groupings for their importance to the innovation economy. Nexus cities dominate the globally innovation economy across many sectors, followed by hub cities.

Node and influencer cities have regional industry influence on innovation, so whether these were ideal places to live and work was based more on choice of industry.

2thinknow commenced the index in 2007 to help start-up businesses, creative class and communities determine their cities relative performance in the global innovation economy.  In 2010 of 289 cities scored, compared with 256 cities last year. Of these 282 were categorized, with 30 hub cities, 65 nexus cities, 162 node cities, 20 influencer cities and 5 upstarts.

The index was scored based on measuring 31 common industry and community segments of the urban economy, with 162 indicators weighted against global trends. This was reduced to a 3 factor score out of 10 measuring the cultural assets, human infrastructure and networked markets of an innovation economy.

The final complex process of a top 100 ranking focussed on assessment of cities ‘market confidence’.

Entrants that rose since 2009 to become nexus cities included Hong Kong (now 18), Shanghai (24) and Munich (15).These cities represented innovation performance at a global level and across many sectors of the innovation economy. Prominent hub cities included Singapore (31), Seattle (35), Chicago (47) and Manchester (58) in England.

The index relied on measuring cultural assets, and infrastructure as conditions for innovation, rather than counting patents or research spending.

The index can be viewed at http://www.innovation-cities.com/

The index is designed to evolve over time, with global economic and social conditions.

2thinknow are a private network of consulting innovation analysts, based in Melbourne, Australia.
— ENDS —
SPOKESPERSON
Christopher Hire, Executive Director
2thinknow ICP
+61399352927
media@2thinknow.com

RELEASED: 2THINKNOW, Level 27, Rialto South Tower, 525 Collins St Melbourne VIC 3001 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61399352927

A longer variation of this release including regional & global top tables http://www.innovation-cities.com/top-100-city-rankings-for-the-innovation-economy/

There is also an extensive FAQ and more resources on the index rankings.
http://www.innovation-cities.com/innovation-cities-top-100-index-top-cities/

The Innovation Cities™ Program is an evidence-based city development program, for economic and social development of cities. The program provides resources for building offering full city benchmarking data,  segment case studies and other resources. It is the only commercial program of its type.

Innovation Cities™ Program Resources.

Key resources include:

• The Innovation Cities Analysis Report – global city report.
• City Benchmarking Data – measuring city performance.
• Local Innovation Forum event. Community town hall events.
• And Select Client Services

Innovation Cities™ Index.

The Innovation Cities™ Program was conceived by 2thinknow in 2006, from research commenced in 2005. The first city rankings of 22 cities were scored from 95 cities. This was accompanied by the the first Innovation Cities™ Analyst Report, the Global Innovation Review.

In 2008, this became the Innovation Cities™ Index, expanded to the 256 cities scored for innovation in 2009. In 2010,  the City Benchmarking Data program moved out of beta and into production, benchmarking 256 major global cities.

In 2010, this expanded to 289 cities, and in 2011 the Index will cover 330 benchmark cities.

Region and City Locations.

The Innovation Cities™ Program is independent, and provides insight to clients in city government, investors, trade boards, state and federal government, business and communities across North America (USA & Canada), Australia, New Zealand, European Union, Singapore and Asia.

The Innovation Cities Program continues to grow and provide an independent open innovation view centred around transparency and improving actual city results.

For these innovation resource and more, see > the Innovation Cities™ Program website.

This morning, in Melbourne, Australia a new concept in urban research a global city report, was launched with a new website to take new ideas in urban planning and city management global.

Cities now house 50% of the world’s population, yet the body of ideas and practice available to cities is far less in number and depth than in business and management.

As a new concept in urban research, the Innovation Cities Analysis Report aims to change this situation with a concise readable work pulling together ideas to be implemented and communicated to create innovation in cities.

Whilst innovation in nations has been a topic attracting much attention — indeed the OECD proved that Finland and Norway innovated their way out of previous recessions, leading to stronger economic recoveries — this information has not to date been applied to cities.

The Innovation Cities Analysis Report fills that gap. Unlike other cities literature, the focus goes beyond ideas. The centrepiece is a structured framework for the implementation and communication of ideas in local cities, towns and suburbs.

This framework, the Innovation Cities Framework, has been created upon review of 42 benchmark cities, and expanded to the ongoing review of 256 cities.

The report introduces the framework as a structured logical way of communicating urban approaches — rather than presenting an idea as an opinion, the idea can be measured based on the potential implementation and communication.

For more, read the newly launched report website: http://report.innovation-cities.com