A lot has been said about the economy of Cairns, its reliance on and vulnerability to the tourism market.  Slowly, the mining boom in the rest of Australia is having an effect on employment in Cairns , but we still need to find other industries to employ the thousands of people who are moving up here from down south and the other parts of the world.

Already, there is a small but flourishing digital economy in Cairns, with graphic designers and web design companies servicing mainly the local market, but with the potential to go much further afield. If we want a (reasonably) eco-friendly industry to base up here in the tropics, then this is a great way to go, high value knowledge based business with a small effect on the immediate environment (lots of people, working out of their own homes, electronically connected not commuting).  

Yes, we are strangled with inadequate (compared to the rest of the civilized world) internet provision due to the Telstra monopoly, but then we simply have to work smarter rather than harder - everything is still possible with the internet in Cairns - al-be-it slower, in serial fashion, rather than the all at once parallel working European IT users are spoilt with.  I suppose its only fitting that in the laid back far north - the internet provision is similarily laid back!

But how do grow an IT industry out of  Cairns?  Servicing the local economy is all well and good, but ultimately extremely limiting. How do we expand beyond the borders of the Far-North and compete with companies based in Brisbane or Sydney?  And just why did the IT Business Cluster in Cairns disappear several years ago?

Idea's on the back of an envelope please.... Or better still to this blog.

Anyone interested in re-forming the Cairns IT Cluster, and setting up some trade missions to the south?