IT was bigger, brighter and had more of a buzz the second time round.

Now Venturefest Yorkshire is set to grow even more as the organisers of the York-based event aim to make it the premier business networking exhibition in the county.

About 2,000 delegates were attracted to York Racecourse yesterday to pitch their ideas alongside fellow businesses and young entrepreneurs from across the region.

Venturefest chairman Professor Tony Robards,

pictured below, said he had big plans for the event, which was held for the first time last year, and he wanted to build on the current buzz surrounding businesses in York.

He said: "The city has never been at a more exciting stage. I've been waiting for this to come for tens of years. Now everybody is well engaged in it.

"Back in the 1990s we were looking at a job shortfall in York. Now there's no job shortfall and in fact we are getting some cases of skills shortages.

"The event this year is bigger and better. Last year it was more of a York-based event but this is a Yorkshire regional event.

"We are trying to bring in businesses from across Yorkshire. We want to develop this as the leading event of its kind for the whole of Yorkshire."

Venturefest Yorkshire 2005, sponsored by Yorkshire Forward, included 57 exhibition stands from companies such as Agilisys, a technology and business process services provider based in York, York-based Shepherd Construction, The University of York and York-based publishing company Stone Soup. The event was opened by Sir Ben Gill, former general secretary of the National Farmers' Union and now chairman of the Bio-Mass Study Task Force. Speakers included Charles Cecil, managing director of York's Revolution Software, and Sir Peter Williams, patron for Women into Science and Engineering (WISE).

Updated: 11:38 Thursday, February 03, 2005