Roadshow plan for enterprise festival

A FESTIVAL that celebrates Yorkshire’s spirit of enterprise could take to the road, it was revealed yesterday.

Venturefest, a one-day event which helps entrepreneurs to find investors, has been held at York Racecourse every year since 2004.

It has helped a number of companies in the technology, IT and digital sectors to gain advice and funding which has created jobs.

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It was founded with sponsorship from the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, which is being scrapped as part of the coalition Government’s spending cuts.

However, Venturefest has survived after private sector sponsors, including Lord Sainsbury, decided to rally round.

Tony Hardy, the chairman of Venturefest, said other events could be held around Yorkshire to complement the one-day festival.

He told the Yorkshire Post: “We are getting continuing pledges of support (from the private sector). Venturefest is Yorkshire-based, but this really is quite a York-centric meeting.

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“There are other things which we could do to extend the impact and the connection across Yorkshire.

“What we’ve been trying to do this year is move away from the concentration on one day in a year.

“Through the use of our social networking and the website, we have been encouraging people to network and connect with each other, which is beginning to add something between the annual events.

“There might be opportunities to organise other events, maybe a platform to take it out around the county.

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“The board is looking at a number of options and will try to build on the feedback we are getting from people as to how they see the future.

“It was always our intention, once we had got the Venturefest brand out there, not to let it die, but to build on it. The vision I have is that Venturefest should be self-sustaining. With the powerful brand we’ve built up, I think we’re on the way.”

This year’s Venturefest, which was held last week at York Racecourse, attracted 1,520 delegates, compared with 2,000 last year.

The fall in numbers was mostly due to a reduction in delegates from the education sector, with the numbers of business people attending staying the same. Eighty per cent of the funding for the 2011 event came from the private sector.

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Although Venturefest’s organisers won’t reveal how much this year’s event cost, it was delivered on a budget reduction of £75,000 on last year.

Many of the exhibitors at this year’s event had continued to grow their business despite the economic uncertainty.

Dave Helm, the managing director of Leeds-based Blue Logic, which provides IT services to small and medium-sized enterprises, employs 26 staff and expects turnover to grow from £2.1m to £2.6m this year.

He added: “Over the last year and a half, we have continued to grow. We’ve got a growth plan of looking to take on about 10 or 11 employees over the next year.

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“We’d like to get the business up to around £4m to £4.5m turnover.”

Peter Slevin, the chairman of Leeds-based Plus Minus Design, which designs environmentally friendly products, said: “We’re looking to be 12 to 15 times bigger this year than we were last year.

“In the first year our turnover was £50,000 and this year we are looking to be about £600,000.

“People are particularly focused on value during a recession and we’re able to provide good value pricing to our customers.

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“In 2011, we’ll expand by about four more personnel and in 2012 another four, to take us to around a dozen people.

“We’re very lucky in Leeds, we’ve got an enormous student population. There’s a wealth of top talent in our field.”

Other exhibitors included Dr Eileen McMorrow and Dr Sam Hoste, the joint founders of This Little Piggy Innovations, a York-based enterprise that helps small businesses gain access to major contracts.

Dr Hoste said: “There’s not going to be access to large scale funding from Yorkshire Forward, but people will find innovative ways of making things happen.”

He said there was strong potential for growth in the digital and bioscience sector, with developments such as York Science Park helping academics and entrepreneurs to work together.