Tokyo Wins, Sydney Moves into Top 10 of Cities for Innovation Globally Ahead of Melbourne for First Time in 11 Years

CITIES BECOME SMARTER AS TECH SOLVES CITY PROBLEMS OF 2 GLOBE-SHAKING TRENDS – 2thinknow

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2thinknow // MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – Sydney moved in the top 10 of the world’s most innovative cities for the first time since rankings started in 2007.

In tenth place, Sydney was also the first Australian city in the top ten and marked the first time three cities in the top ten had been in the Asia region. Melbourne moved up nine places to 16th, with a reinvigorated tech sector and government infrastructure projects supporting the Victorian innovation eco-system according to the analysts.

The overall winner was Tokyo, the first time an Asian city won the city rankings. The top five cities of the Innovation Cities Index included previous winners London (won 2015, 2017), Silicon Valley (San Francisco-San Jose) and New York, followed by Los Angeles. Singapore rose one place behind previous early double winner Boston, Toronto, Paris and Sydney rounding out the global top ten.

“What really surprised us this year, was the resurgence of Tokyo, moving up to eclipse rival cities like Boston. They showed clear direction by embracing smart technology change to lead innovation, and leadership in what we have identified as the twin long-term globe shaking trends of robotics and 3D manufacturing.” said Christopher Hire, director of commercial data provider 2thinknow, which publishes the annual ranking.

According to the analysts Tokyo's gradual climb was also based off strong baseline performance average across the broad-base of 162 city indicators used to score the cities, and a focus on applied technology as a unique solution to current urban opportunities and challenges.

Behind the rankings is the analysis that cities with higher rates of innovation will experience higher economic output and be perceived as the best destinations to invest in commercial product, service or social innovation.

“This year innovation is likely to come from large cities as usual, but we found on a population-adjusted basis many small cities are punching above their weight. It’s the year of big cities with physical networks and small cities with digital networks, going global,” said Hire in a statement.

INNOVATION IN ANZAC CITIES

In positive news for Adelaide (163), the city rose 14 places. Brisbane cemented the city’s leadership as the areas third major city, now in 54^th place ahead of Auckland (96). Regional capitals of Newcastle (up 27 places) and Wollongong (up 38 places) also moved up based on recent community efforts to boost the cities and strengthened university performance (alongside Brisbane).

Hobart’s startup and arts scene and resultant increased economic activity caused it to move up twenty places, with broadband mitigating some of the effects of the distance of the capital from global cities.

New Zealand’s Wellington (96, up 8 places) moved up off strong environmental and cultural performances to challenge Auckland (down 7 places), partly attributed to rising business costs. Both Queenstown and Christchurch moved up and began recovering.

The Innovation Cities Index has been published annually since 2007 by commercial data provider 2thinknow to measure each cities pre-conditions for innovation using 162 indicators based on commercial data sold to corporations.

CLASSIFYING CITIES GLOBALLY

The city ranking classified five hundred cities into four bands for innovation based on trend-adjusted scores derived from 162 indicators annually benchmarked and reduced to three factor scores for measuring conditions conducive to creating a process of innovation in a city.

The top band was ‘Nexus’ cities of which there were 52 cities (approximately top 10%). There were 120 cities in the next ‘Hub’ category (about 25%). 256 cities (or about 50% of cities considered) were in the next globally competitive ‘Node’ category, this year.

According to the research model ‘Nexus’ cities remain the optimal locations for innovation of a general nature, and Hub cities remain optimal for innovation in a few key industry segments.

After the classification process, the cities are ranked by the analysts.

TOP GLOBAL ‘NEXUS’ CITIES

As in 2017, nine of the top Nexus cities remained in Asia, including Seoul (12), Hong Kong (27), Shanghai (35) now topping Beijing (37) and Osaka (45).

In North America, there were 23 Nexus cities compared with 19 last year, indicating renewed United States and Canadian cities dominance of innovation. Cities that improved dramatically in the ranking included Chicago (11), Dallas-Fort Worth (13), Seattle (15), Houston (17), Austin (29), Denver (31) and Philadelphia (32) due to favorable trends and improved economic development.

The last time the Index was compiled in 2016-2017 was based on Obama era data, and while overall scores had declined just over one percentage point, United States cities showed higher scores on average across all cities.

In Europe there were 19 Nexus cities, reversed from 24 cities last year due to declined economic conditions providing a slower market rate of adoption of innovations according to the analysts. There were fewer rising cities in Europe, but some included Berlin (13), Oslo (36) and Rome (47).

Last year’s high-ranked European capitals that fell but retained high positions Amsterdam (18), Vienna (19), Munich (21), Barcelona (30), Madrid (38), Copenhagen (39) and Milan (40). According to the analysts, this was due to less favorable trends and distractions from a local policy focus on economic development and innovation during the period.

Dubai (33) remained the only Emerging Nexus city, although Tel Aviv remain highly ranked (44) competitor in the Mid-East region, with the next regional city being Abu Dhabi (69), trailed by Kuwait City (268) and Doha (294).

Africa’s top innovator remained Cape Town (265) and Johannesburg (380) although both cities declined due to the economic implications of recent policies.

REGION – ASIA & OCEANIA

ASIAN INNOVATION SPIKY

The total number of top hundred cities in Asia fell by one to 18 from 19, due to Perth (now 105) and Guangzhou (113) being jumped by newcomer Wellington.

Overall top hundred cities in Asia region improved by an average of three places, and five places in the top 35% of all cities. Analysts attributed to a ‘spike’ factor of wealth concentration in Asian society, reflecting a greater concentration of innovation to fewer locations in Asia, compared with the greater distribution more equitably within European society. In practice, this means location matters more in starting new ideas in Asia than Europe or the United States.

Beyond Nexus cities, other key Hub cities in Asia region included Brisbane, Shenzhen (55), Taipei (60), Kyoto (64), Busan (68) and Kuala Lumpur (99).

Major Chinese cities held steady in the Index overall with the most notable rises being in the two Nexus cities of Hong Kong (up 8 places) and Shenzhen (up 14 places). Other notable changes included Suzhou (up 42 places) and cities such as Fuzhou, Ningbo and the island of Macau improving significantly.

Australian cities improved on average eleven places relative to competing cities, which is the same as the overall improvement in Chinese cities. The analysts noted that improvement in the top hundred cities was harder than improvement outside the top hundred due to increased competition amongst changed trends in the top twenty percent globally.

In Australia, more overlooked regional and smaller capital cities marched upwards such as Canberra (152), Adelaide (163), Gold Coast (198), Wollongong (262, up 38 places), Hobart (264, up 20 places) and Newcastle (up 27 places to 309) because of broadband access to global services.

The top Indian cities for innovation were Mumbai (92) and Bangalore (139), with Delhi at (199).

REGION - AMERICAS

SILICON VALLEY STORY OF SATELLITE CITIES

In the United States, Los Angeles and a series of Bay Area satellite cities such as San Diego (23), Portland (41), Oakland (up 12 places to 43), Sacramento (up 21 places to 59) and Santa-Ana-Anaheim (up 37 places) reinforced their destination attractiveness to tech companies priced out of the San Francisco Bay Area in the analysis.

Oakland was noted as especially significant, having capitalized on the success of being in the Bay Area while having a distinct city program and overcome past economic issues.

NORTH AMERICA TECH RESURGENCE

North American cities were represented in the top hundred cities with 37 cities in the United States, 5 in Canada and Mexico City (73) being the new winner in Latin America, replacing Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro. This left 43 cities within the top 100 in the NAFTA Zone.

Larger Canadian cities continued their top rankings with few changes including Montréal (22), Vancouver (25) and Québec City (58) due to higher costs.

Lower business costs and improved innovation policies lead Ottawa (126), Halifax (202) and Hamilton (205) to achieve above average positions relative to their smaller populations with potential to improve in future years.

Outside the top hundred innovation efforts by cities like Detroit’s (80) neighboring small city Ann Arbor (up 51 places to 114) and Des Moines in Iowa (up 26 places) could be seen in their movements. The analysts noted the start-up and tech scenes appearing in American cities as providing “strong grass roots of opportunity positivity in the U.S. economy”.

A lot of this was noted as due to the movement of new product ideas “as a service” e.g. SAAS (Software as A Service), FAAS (Fashion as A Service) or MAAS (Mobility as A Service) enabling new ways of monetizing undervalued assets in the digital economy.

LATIN TECH TANGO CHALLENGE

The top 10 Latin American cities moved up an average of 11 places each, showing that Latin American capitals were challenging and growing distinct identities from cities of the United States. The fastest movers were Bogota (up 46 places) and Santiago (up 23 places) off improved start-up and more stable business policies.

REGION - EUROPE

BREXIT WEAKENS EUROPE NOT UK

Because the Index factored in economic performance, Europe scored fewer cities than usual with 35 in the top hundred but with improved performance by Stockholm (28), Oslo (36), recovering Athens (62) and Lisbon (rising 17 places to 90).

Strong mobility solutions (such as an embedded fast rail network) were noted as a key performance differentiator enabling European cities to maintain a strong performance across the data-set. Sustainability performance also played a big part in European cities strong performance when smaller populations are accounted for.

The number of cities reduced further to 27 for Continental Europe, once the four Brexit cities of London, Manchester (34, up 11 places), Edinburgh (89) and Glasgow (95) and four other non-continental cities are excluded – Tel Aviv (44), Istanbul (53), Moscow (48) and Saint Petersburg (93).

Outside the top 100 often-overlooked Liverpool (up 22 places to 129) and Leeds (up 13 places to 150) proved that London’s recent last few years of innovation success had now begun transferring to other cities in the United Kingdom.

The European Union had 25% of the cities in the top hundred once Helsinki and Zürich are excluded (not European Union members).

ANALYST FUTURE PREDICTIONS - RECOVERY WHERE NEXT

“Our index is often a lead index – in 2009, we predicted the resilience of German cities, events in Ukraine, and the GFC, as we last year correctly predicting the ongoing recovery of Athens based on the Index. Cities that do well in our index can go on to be recognized in other indexes. This year we are predicting that Thessaloniki will continue to recover rapidly having risen 71 places.”

“We also predict that French cities have hit bottom based on their current scores and should rebound in 18-24 months. German cities have declined this year but may improve in 2-3 years, less with significant policy change.”

“If the United States avoids any damaging conflicts, U.S. cities should continue to grow, and an economic turnaround in Europe is already under way. Asian cities will continue to be less numerically represented but greater power will be concentrated into a few key Asian centers,” Hire ended.

BACKGROUND

All indexes are published on www.innovation-cities.com/indexes along with further resources. All data in the Index can be purchased. The publisher and creator of the city ranking is 2thinknow, a private business established in Melbourne in 2006 from research started in Vienna in 2005.

Media Release

ENDS--- SPOKESPERSON

Christopher Hire
Director Data, Founder, 2thinknow
Melbourne +61386780319 California +16692413435 Vienna +43720775886
media@2thinknow.com (Email for Report excerpt and Excel rankings)

Over 75% of cities, with a population of over one million residents monitor the Innovation Cities Index results, and many major entities such as Samsung, PWC, Brookings Institution, UN-Habitat and Jones Lang LaSalle use the Index results to assess broad-based city innovation.

2thinknow supplies raw data to Fortune 500 corporations and leading management consultants to assist them with making key business decisions.

Melbourne based company 2thinknow was started in 2006 as a commercial data provider and training organization, who have modeled the innovation process based on city data. 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.com

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

INDEXES TEXT LINKS

GLOBAL: http://innovation-cities.com/?p=13935

AMERICAS: http://innovation-cities.com/?p=13951

ASIA: http://innovation-cities.com/?p=13966

EUROPE: http://innovation-cities.com/?p=13955

EMERGING: http://innovation-cities.com/?p=13974

CITY RESOURCES:

Supporting Analysis Report: http://report.innovation-cities.com -- About & pre-order 2018 Report (packaged with 2017 report used to compile Index basis) here.

Data: https://citybenchmarkingdata.com

Updated Index

2thinknow’s City Benchmarking Data set contains over 2000 cities, of which 500 are currently selected for full benchmarking. In 2011, the number of cities appearing in the yearly published scores and rankings was 331, up from 289 cities in 2010. The new inclusions reflected previously omitted destinations in the Emerging, Asian and Americas regions. There is a base level of development, population and services required to appear in the Index.

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.

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 500 global cities benchmarked on 162 city indicators.
• Data is updated between August and early next year (until finished), with more than 50% of indicators being refreshed in this period.
• 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
• All cities scores are weighted against 30 current change trends (detailed and available in the report).

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 Benchmarking Data.

City benchmarking data can be used to create your own indexes or rankings. This can ordered by contacting 2thinknow for City Data Audits, or comparisons between any cities on 1 segment or all segments of the economy. There are 31 industry and community segments. Further information is available from 2thinknow ICP Team, by contacting us here or calling Melbourne +61 3 86780319. Or, you can visit the City Benchmarking Data site here for full details.

Links to the cities indexes & national statistics

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