MEDIA RELEASE: Innovation Cities Indexes 2012-13 Launch

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NORTH AMERICA ECONOMY OPENS UP TO INNOVATION, AS BOSTON AND NEW YORK TAKE GLOBAL PRIZE

7th annual 2thinknow Annual Innovation Cities Index released today in Melbourne, classifying 445 cities globally for innovation

EMBARGOED UNTIL WEDNESDAY 27^th FEBRUARY 8:05 AM EDT (New York) / LONDON 1:05 PM GMT

2thinknow // MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA -- Boston and New York were announced as twin winners for the world's most innovative city today by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow. In the seven years publishing the index, this is the first time two cities have tied for first place -- due to their strong innovation potential.

This year's top 10 cities for innovation economy in 2012-2013 were rounded out by Vienna, San Francisco Bay Area, Paris, Munich, London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Seattle.

Other notable global cities were Toronto (11), Los Angeles (12), Berlin (13), Hong Kong (14), Stockholm (16), Seoul (21), Washington DC (22), Tel Aviv (28), Shanghai (29) and Dubai (34). Cities in this grouping up to 35th place were classified as Nexus cities, demonstrating innovation potential across a diverse range of industries.

In March 2012, U.S. President Obama talked about "how to boost innovation in manufacturing," after factories in Petersburg, Virginia added jobs for the first time since the early 90s. In his speech, Obama talked about "additional steps to lead to recovery" and the need for supporting the valuable trend of innovation.

The next group of cities included Hub cities, with the primary contributor cities of the United States and Canada. Notable Hub city improvers included Dallas-Fort Worth, Raleigh-Durham, Houston, Portland, Baltimore, and Mexico City. Many southern European cities fell this year. London and Scandinavian region cities rose. There are five classification bands for cities.

Seoul improved 2012 and changed from a Hub to a Nexus city, following Hong Kong's lead from last year. Asian cities are now ahead of Australia's city economies represented by Melbourne and Sydney. However, Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur are both surprises with enormous climbs in the ranking Index.

Key European cities continued to place well, often indicating a separation between city and national performance. For the first time a city in Israel receives Nexus Status, Tel Aviv. The city has been improving well over the last year. Germany's Munich continued climbing up to 7th place from 15^th, as German cities continued to perform well. London improved to 11th from 14th, as Manchester (32nd) rose to Nexus status for the first time.

In the Middle-East Dubai and Tel Aviv entered the Nexus classification for the first time, and were the first cities in the region to show such strong innovation performance. Cape Town in South Africa was the top placed African city, maintaining second-tier hub status.

Informing the rankings was the trend of "localised and 3D manufacturing, with the maker movement as a key driver of US innovation in fields as diverse as robotics, design, behavioural computing, and unmanned planes (drones)," stated Executive Director of 2thinknow, Christopher Hire.

The top 35 of 445 cities were classified as Nexus cities by the analysts. Nexus cities were the analysts best general destinations for innovation, followed by the next 95 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. The lower two bands of Upstart and Influencer were names as strong classifications for developing cities.

"The real game change is the 3D manufacturing and maker movement in the United States. With a superior distribution network for innovation -- also true in South Korea and Japan, 3D manufacturing which is the printing of physical objects from blue prints -- means the decentralisation and customisation are almost here. This makes cities administration centres for distributed enterprise.

"This decentralisation of physical production (not just virtual stuff) is a phenomenal game changer our trends have been predicting since 2010, and we are mapping the progress in mature markets. It's the next economic cycle, bigger than smart phones.”

In 2012-2013 there were 445 cities benchmarked for innovation, up from 333 cities in 2011 and compared with 289 cities in 2010. The top 133 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.

The analysts indicate on the fact that a city performance is more flexible, changeable and faster to turn around than national performance.

Unlike other innovation measures, this index is not based on patent filings. According to the analysts, the Innovation Cities Index is based on data from 162 indicators across a diverse range of industries in all cities. The Innovation Cities Index has been published since 2007 and all years are available online at www.innovation-cities.com/indexes.

Each year, the global index and top rankings are released with four regional indexes, that classify and 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 now predicting the strong innovation-led recovery of the U.S. economy on a by-city basis.

SPOKESPERSON

Christopher Hire
Executive Director
2thinknow

+61 386780319

TIME: Melbourne, Australia (AEST)

2012-13 INDEXES > TOP 100 | AMERICAS | EUROPE | ASIA | EMERGING | GLOBAL | ALL YEARS

Rapid email: media@2thinknow.com

About 2thinknow.

2thinknow is the world’s first innovation agency established in Melbourne in 2006. The Innovation Cities Program by 2thinknow commenced in 2007 from 2005 research. 2thinknow develops innovative data collection and analysis techniques based on sector innovation by city location.

2thinknow delivers City Benchmarking Data, analyst reports, the Innovation Course and other innovation services to city, business and government clients. See http://www.2thinknow.com

INDEXES TEXT LINKS

GLOBAL: http://innovation-cities.com/innovation-cities-global-index-2012/7237

AMERICAS: http://innovation-cities.com/innovation-cities-americas-index-2012/7241

EUROPE: http://innovation-cities.com/innovation-cities-europe-index-2012/7243

ASIA: http://innovation-cities.com/innovation-cities-asia-index-2012/7239

EMERGING: http://innovation-cities.com/innovation-cities-emerging-index-2012/7245

CITY RESOURCES:

Report: http://report.innovation-cities.com

Data: http://www.citybenchmarkingdata.com

Added Notes for Editors

Indexes

2012-13 INDEXES > TOP 100 | AMERICAS | EUROPE | ASIA | EMERGING | GLOBAL | ALL YEARS

Read the 2012-2013 FAQ

About This Year's Index

2thinknow’s city benchmarking data set contains 1,540 cities. 445 cities are selected for inclusion.

The Innovation Cities™ Index purpose is to measure the development of innovation economies globally. The index measures the 3 factor preconditions for innovation -- Cultural Assets, Human Infrastructure and Networked Markets.

To make it easy to read the indexes 2thinknow publish a global top 100, global full, and 4 regional indexes: Americas, Asia, Europe and Emerging.

Some quick facts about the Index.

• The worldwide rankings are produced annually by analysts at innovation consulting analysts, 2thinknow.
• The index is not a survey, but is independently researched by 2thinknow analysts.
• The index was first produced in 2007 with 22 cities from 95 profiled.
• City benchmarking data, contains all global cities benchmarked on 162 city indicators.
• Data is updated ongoingly, with more than many indicators being refreshed 2 or 3 times per annum
• Explanation of the 162 city indicators, and how cities can become innovation economies are contained in the Innovation Cities Analysis Report, from 2thinknow. http://report.innovation-cities.com

Reproducing the Index

The indexes and supporting materials are copyright and used under license by 2thinknow. You may reproduce the statistics and indexes in any reasonable form, graphics, or data mash-up as long as you attribute it to 2thinknow and do not modify the numbers or otherwise mislead. Print journalists can attribute in the standard fashion, or the other easy way to do this online is as follows:

Source: 2thinknow Innovation Cities™ Program: www.innovation-cities.com [or the link of the page you are referencing]

2thinknow do reserve all rights, including the right to ask content to be removed.

City ranking Tables / Lists for reproduction.

Links to the cities indexes

2012-13 INDEXES > TOP 100 | AMERICAS | EUROPE | ASIA | EMERGING | GLOBAL | ALL YEARS

Top 100 world cities for an innovation economy in 2012-2013

Top 10 Innovation Cities Americas Index 2012-2013

Top 10 Innovation Cities Europe Index 2012-2013

Top 10 Innovation Cities Asia Index 2012-2013

Innovation Cities Emerging Index 2012-2013

Attribution of all Tables

Source: 2thinknow
Attribute to: “INNOVATION CITIES INDEX(ES) 2012-2013”
Link To: www.innovation-cities.com

Information on 3  Factors:

You should know (Disclaimer)

The Innovation Cities Indexes (the “Indexes”) are for information purposes only and are intended for as a general purpose ranking measuring the relative importance of cities to the innovation economy. Practise in this area is continually changing and emerging, so the methodologies and processes change from year to year, and the availability of data changes from city to city.

While the Indexes have been prepared based upon the best available information, they are provided on an “as-is” basis, and 2thinknow accepts no responsibility/liability for the validity/accuracy (or otherwise) of the resources/data used to compile the Indexes. In no event will 2thinknow be liable to for any decision made or action taken in reliance of the results obtained through the use of, or the information and/or data contained in or provided by, the Indexes.

2thinknow and its representatives make no representations or warranties with respect to the Indexes, and disclaim all express, implied and statutory warranties of any kind, including, but not limited to, representations and implied warranties of quality, accuracy, timeliness, completeness, merchantability, and fitness for a particular purpose.