frog Becomes Member of the New Cities Foundation

GENEVA and SAN FRANCISCO, March 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The New Cities Foundation (NCF), a global platform for innovation and exchange on the future of urbanization, announced today that frog, one of the world's foremost design and innovation firms, has become its newest member.  With an interdisciplinary mix of 1,000 designers, strategists, and engineers, frog helps companies develop highly differentiated, user-friendly products and services. NCF's rapidly-growing membership base includes GE, Cisco, Ericsson, Orange, GDF Suez, Citynove - Groupe Galeries Lafayette, the Ford Foundation, Metropolis, NYU, the SENSEable City Lab at MIT, CITRIS, HEC Paris, the Urban China Initiative, the Climate Group, and USC's Annenberg Innovation Lab, among others.

The NCF/frog partnership will enable NCF to provide valuable insights to its community about the increasing importance of design, user experience, and connected ecosystems in the urban world. "The addition of frog to our membership is crucial to our mandate to develop a community of experts who come from a multitude of disciplines and who will all play an important role in developing the urban world and redefining the way we live going forward," said Mathieu Lefevre, Executive Director, New Cities Foundation. "A user-centered and design-driven approach is crucial in cities as it determines the ease and efficiency of, for example, a city's transportation system, services and the overall enjoyment and efficiency of the city itself."

Doreen Lorenzo, President of frog, said: "The explosive rise of mobile devices, social computing, and 'big data' is fast changing how we live, work, and play. frog is poised to address the challenges and innovation opportunities in the Connected Cities of the future. As a member of the NCF, we are thrilled to engage with this community of experts and innovators to help shape and humanize the next urban revolution."

The partnership will be highlighted at the upcoming New Cities Summit that will take place in Paris from May 14-16, 2012 with the theme Thinking Ahead, Building Together.Building on a recognized track record in organizing high-level global forums, the Summit aims to be the leading annual global forum on 21st century urbanization. The event brings together global thought leaders in technology, infrastructure, architecture, energy, transport, national and local government, the media, academia, and the non-profit sector from all regions of the world. Content-rich innovative keynotes and specialist panels with concrete examples of emerging best practices will help place the city on the global agenda.

At the Summit, frog will run an interactive session --  "Navigating the Meta City" -- offering a glimpse into a future city in which various layers of software constitute a powerful computing platform for hybrid digital-physical environments.  

About frog

frog works with the world's leading companies, helping them to design, engineer, and bring to market meaningful products and services. With an interdisciplinary team of more than 1,000 designers, strategists, and software engineers, frog delivers connected experiences that span multiple technologies, platforms, and media. frog works across a broad spectrum of industries, including consumer electronics, telecommunications, healthcare, energy, automotive, media, entertainment, education, finance, retail, and fashion. Clients include Disney, GE, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Siemens, and many other Fortune 500 brands. Founded in 1969, frog is headquartered in San Francisco, with locations in Amsterdam, Austin, Bangalore, Boston, Johannesburg, Kiev, Milan, Munich, New York, Seattle, Shanghai, and Vinnitsa. frog is a company of the Aricent Group, a global innovation and technology services firm. frog is a Global Growth Company member of the World Economic Forum.
www.frogdesign.com

About the New Cities Foundation

The New Cities Foundation is a global platform for innovation and exchange on the future of urbanization. NCF is guided by the principle that the unprecedented rate of urban growth that defines the 21st century represents a unique set of challenges as well as a chance to build more sustainable, vibrant, innovative and equitable communities in the developed and the emerging world. NCF brings together members of local governments, corporations, research institutions, NGOs, entrepreneurs and creative industries to address the future of cities around the world. The Foundation manages a number of task forces with its members, testing new models, technologies and processes on key urban topics such as healthcare and mobility.

The New Cities Summit is the centerpiece of the New Cities Foundation's work. The first Summit will take place in Paris in May 2012 and will gather approximately 800 public and private sector leaders. This invitation-only event, innovative in both content and form, will mix thought-provoking panels featuring some of the most recognized global urban leaders with innovation demos and interactive thematic workshops on specific issues such as mobility, urban China, energy and finance – among others.

NCF is a Swiss non-profit based in Geneva with offices in Paris, New York and Rio de Janeiro whose members include GE, Cisco, Ericsson, Orange, GDF Suez, Citynove - Groupe Galeries Lafayette, the Ford Foundation, Metropolis, NYU, the SENSEable City Lab at MIT, CITRIS, HEC Paris, the Urban China Initiative, the Climate Group and others.
www.newcitiesfoundation.org

SOURCE frog