The Morrice Partnership

Called Connected Conferences, the software allows everyone involved in a conference to link up beforehand to pool ideas on content and organisation.

Its launch comes as the 20-year-old firm, which recently expanded into new premises at Heworth Green, York, pitches for the Growth Business Of The Year in The Press Business Awards 2006; and as its founder, Richard Morrice, is nominated for the title of Business Personality Of The Year.

Mr Morrice said the product would "ensure a much higher level of involvement in conferences".

He said: "It also helps during the event by recording and analysing people's attitudes on key issues - and concluding what projects should be started immediately to improve the performance of the participating businesses.

"Normally you get a reminder of the conference a week before and speakers are in danger of talking at delegates rather than involving them. Delegates need to be participants rather than observers."

At the heart of the product is artificial intelligence which allows millions of pieces of data to be assessed, matched up and collated. It is the same technology behind The Morrice Partnership's Net p.a. product, which provides bosses with filtered information from possibly thousands of sources on which to make better and more decisive business decisions.

Net p.a. is already used by PricewaterhouseCooper and other major organisations are negotiating test packages.

Mr Morrice said: "We invested £150,000 on Connected Conferences and we already have our first customer who takes it on board in November."

It is one of three new software products to be rolled out this year, two of which are top secret, but will be announced before the end of the year.

The dynamic Mr Morrice graduated from Lancaster University in the early 1970s with a combined degree in French studies and marketing.

He went on to work for a string of world-class companies - Clarks Shoes, Scott Paper and Nabisco, before becoming marketing director of Courage brewers in his early thirties.

He then set up his communications consultancy, at first providing a broad range of services to the licensed trade then flowering into an international provider of communications solutions.

Now the likes of Tesco, Barclays Bank, and Legal & General rely on him and his team to analyse communication briefs, devise solutions and implement them.

Each year, the Morrice Partnership runs the Tesco Drinks Awards, an international competition. Fullers Brewery entrusts the firm to run the Fuller's Fine Ale Club with more than 25,000 members.