SURREY - Will Surrey be named the smartest community on the planet? Well, that won't be revealed until June 11, but this week Robert Bell is touring town to learn all about Surrey and report back to Intelligent Community Forum, which will hand out the award.
The New York-based think tank has named Surrey as one of the top seven most intelligent communities in the world for 2015 - and it's the only Canadian city to make the cut this year.
"Surrey is a very interesting community to me, personally, and it's an example of a community that is in an evolution we see in more than one place," Bell said. "I think the leadership of Surrey has decided that it's time for the city's economic and social future to be really in its own hands."
During his visit this week, Bell was scheduled to tour a variety of places, including Innovation Boulevard and the city's state-of-the-art traffic management centre.
So is Surrey on track to nab the title of the smartest city in the world?
"We keep it all deadly secret until we actually get to June 11 and reveal the number one choice," said Bell.
Three communities from the U.S. are also nominated (Arlington County, Columbus and Mitchell), one from Australia (Ipswich), one from Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) and one from Taiwan (New Taipei City). The winner will take over the title from Toronto, the 2014 winner.