Despite being developed at a time when the use and proliferation of ICT was far less than it is today, many of the broad objectives of the Ballarat IT2010 strategy are still pertinent to the 2030 strategy. The mission of Ballarat IT2010 was - 'By the year 2010, Ballarat will be recognised as a primary Australian focus area that has contributed to Victoria becoming the heart of the information industry in the Asia-Pacific region'.

A major factor influencing the 2010 strategy document was the Victorian Government's establishment of a major IT Centre in Ballarat to supply computer processing and other services for the Public Transport Commission and VicRoads. It was thought that the Centre had the potential to underpin the development of a sustainable, world-class information technology industry focused on Victoria. IT2010 was based around the perceived need for rapid action to be taken in order to consolidate and enhance such a 'first step'. The broader IT2010 strategy was primarily about facilitating, catalysing, networking and brokering new opportunities; the strategy recognised the need to broaden the ICT industry in the region and minimise leakages. The IT2010 strategy suggested encouraging linkages between the IT industry and local industry so that local enterprises could benefit from the use of a wide range of embedded IT services. Two goals for the region were:

Ballarat IT2010 highlighted the following themes that needed to be fostered and developed in order to realise the goals for the region:

To capitalise on competitive advantages that existed at the time, strategic resources were to be concentrated on the following four IT market segments:

The ICT industry in 1994 was in transition. ICT manufacturing was increasingly migrating offshore, major ICT companies like IBM and DEC were being restructured, the potential of the Internet was in its infancy, and Google was still four years away. There was a lack of evidence on the impact of ICT on productivity. But the future was an ICT future, and IT2010 acknowledged the importance of this notion. Spurred on by a number of key individuals, strong public advocacy for Ballarat, the growth of Ballarat's higher education sector and some strategic government investments, ICT in Ballarat prospered. Ballarat became the regional Victorian centre for ICT with over 40 percent greater penetration of the ICT industry than other major Victorian regional centres (i.e. Bendigo and Geelong).