Whilst last year the Federal Government-sponsored tour was specifically targeted at telecommunications, this year its organisers say big opportunities lie in e-learning and e-government.
Mobile value added services will be another of the tour's major themes, but the tour won't be repeating its visit to Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom's 3G telecommunications labs.
One Australian wireless data application developer who joined the tour right months ago, said it gave her a very strong sense of the direction of the wireless data markets, after visiting Ericsson and stopping in at British Telecom's 3G laboratories in the Isle of Man.
She said 3G wireless environments weren't going to arrive at anywhere near the speed that publicity in the media had suggested, and that there was "quite a lot of reticence both at the supply level and carrier level toward such technologies".
"If you go to a lab and they can't show you something that's working well you know it's two years away," she said.
"You can't find out that stuff just by being in the market, you have to go to the key labs," she added.
This year the tour's organisers have decided to head south, inviting Australian ICT companies to compete for the chance to showcase their technology in Italy and France.
While tour organiser Tim O'Connor said France had been chosen because it has grown to be the third largest information economy in Europe and the fourth largest globally, he believes Italy represents a ground floor opportunity for Australian businesses.
"Italy has quite an immature ICT market so there is massive potential for Australian companies there," said O'Connor.
Italy is being targeted for it high-growth mobile telecommunications sector. According to Austrade figures, Italy has one of the fastest growing populations of mobile users in Europe. By 2003 forecasts predict that the country will have 59 million mobile telecommunications devices.
France and Italy rank as the third and fourth largest European information economies. The United Kingdom and Germany rank first and second.
Companies who intend to take a fly-by-night approach to doing business Europe need not apply for the tour, according to O'Conner.
"They're [European companies] looking for companies that have a proven track record in the United States or Asia," he said. "The companies should have a clear plan and commitment to the European market, with a view to developing long-term business relationships."
In addition to promoting their products, the successful companies will meet with lawyers, venture capitalists and marketing specialists, and have the opportunity to network with visionaries from several major European tech firms.
Applications to compete for a place in the tour close August 12.
