Ever wondered how to stop bags of groceries sliding around in the back of your car on the way back from the supermarket?

A man from Tadcaster may just have the answer.

Robert Soper,inventor of the Shopstick, was one of dozens of Yorkshire entrepreneurs hoping to catch the eye of deep-pocketed investors at the Knavesmire yesterday.

The smell of money was in the air as the region's brightest business brains pressed the flesh and made the big sell in the hope of securing the cash input that could make them the next Richard Branson.

Mr Soper's idea, like many of the best, is a very simple one.

Small plastic blocks with loop nylon on the bottom stick to the floor or your car boot, keeping your bags, or plant pots, or bottles, in place.

"Unlike a lot of other products, it won't ever be superseded and will never go out of date," he said.

Mr Soper was angling for an investor to put up a six-figure sum, or preferably to offer to manufacture it under licence.

"The potential world market is enormous, you could use it in China or Outer Mongolia."

Also at the showcase for new business inventions was York-based businessman Gordon Bell, who is hoping to make his first million from video postcards sent over the Internet.

Why, he asks, send bland "wish you were here" postcards by snail mail when you can e-mail video clips of you and your mates larking around on the beach in just seconds.

Gordon, 24, had his "eureka" moment as he lay in the bath and he is already planning to beat the boffins from Silicon Valley at their own game.

Already the director of Internet company ADigitalWorld.co.uk, he is now looking to branch out.

Ken Ormerod, of Business Angels Network, who organised the event, said: "We had a record number of applications to attend and some fantastic ideas have been put forward.

"It just goes to show that entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Yorkshire."

Updated: 08:33 Friday, January 19, 2001