Those doubts will have been laid to rest.

In the ballroom of the Queens Hotel on Friday evening was a gathering of some talented and enterprising individuals who represented the very best of Yorkshire.

There was the pleasing presence of youth, whose enthusiasm, energy and ability to adapt will surely help steady the ship during the coming year.

There was also the solid and reassuring presence of experience, and the wisdom that comes with it, gained from working through the past cycles of boom and bust.

In combination, these two are formidable.

There was also passion, and pride. Passion in the single-minded determination of businesspeople to continue to flourish and prosper during the good times and the bad.

And pride – even if it is not loudly expressed – in the continuing commitment to this region.

Yorkshire is such an enterprising place. Sir Ken Morrison believes this is born of necessity. Others have told me it comes from the bad weather. Wherever it comes from, I think it is something to be immensely proud of.

There was something of this pride in evidence at our awards.

I found it a pleasure to watch the faces of the winners when they learned they had been singled out among their peers for their excellence.

I also enjoyed speaking to some of the winners and asking them how it felt to be the best in Yorkshire.

I suggested late on to a pair of beaming winners that they contact their friends and family in the morning to share their news.

"Too late!" they said, "we've already done it."

Standing outside towards the end of the evening, I watched with satisfaction as some winners poured out into the night singing 'we're the best'.

There were moments of humour too. Declan Curry, who it seems is being fast-tracked for big things at the BBC, was a sharp-witted master of ceremonies and laughed it off when David Cameron referred to him as Dermot. At the earliest opportunity, Declan referred to Cameron as "Tony", mocking the Tory leader's past claim to be heir to Blair.

Tom Riordan, the chief executive of Yorkshire Forward, was seated next to Cameron and looked at one point to be involved in some intense lobbying with the would-be Prime Minister, whose party has singled out some regional development agencies for the bullet.

When his turn came, Riordan delivered a tub-thumping speech, telling the audience they had a choice when facing a recession.

"We can shrug our shoulders, complain and let the others make the running," he said.

"Or we can work as a team and fight back. So keep batting for team Yorkshire and let's start by discrediting the absurd idea that Scottish jobs are more important than Yorkshire jobs because they are not."

That raised a cheer from the crowd, which by that stage of the evening was in convivial form.

Cameron unsurprisingly was an accomplished speaker – mixing humour with a serious political message – though it would have been nice if he'd been able to stay until the climax of the night.

After the nine awards came the final category: the Yorkshire Post Individual Award for Excellence.

I had the honour of presenting this to Sir Ken Morrison, the Bradford boy who went from sales assistant on his parents' market stall to captain of industry.

The audience fell into total silence for the first time in the evening when the 77-year-old spoke of his experience in business.

He issued some fairly direct but understated advice on how to cope with an uncertain economic future.

In short, this was: "Watch your costs" and "Don't lend money to people who can't afford to borrow it."

We've had some great feedback on this year's awards and I look forward to next year's, whatever the next 12 months will bring. I know that Yorkshire's business community will be able to meet all the challenges it faces.

A final congratulations to all the companies that entered the awards. Keep up the good work.