ICF Renaissance Dialogues: Robert Bell with Jay Orr & Steve Reneker of Riverside County

It was 100 degrees in the shade in Palm Springs when the department heads of Riverside County, California gathered for an annual retreat and heard from keynote speakers including Deb Socia, executive director of Next Century Cities and ICF co-founder Robert Bell.  At the top of the agenda was an ambitious goal to transform Riverside – expected to grow into the largest county by population in the United States over the next two years – into a Gigabit County through deployment of a fiber-to-the-premise network. 

 

Robert’s Community Accelerator keynote focused on how the county should approach turning that asset into economic value, social inclusion and a contributor to quality of life, based on the Intelligent Community development model.  After the Accelerator Keynote, Robert facilitated small group discussions that gave department heads a chance to envision how their departments – from water and sewer to parks, transportation and law enforcement – could contribute to realizing a Gigabit County and would benefit from its capabilities. 

 

Riverside County is home to Riverside, the 2012 Intelligent Community of the Year.  Steve Reneker was then the chief innovation officer of the city and is now serving as chief information officer for the county, reporting to county executive Jay Orr.  The two make a visionary pair of leaders, and Robert sat down for a conversation with them at the end of the retreat for the interview above.

 

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