Top speakers lined up for convention

From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Monday 7th Jun 2004.

One of Yorkshire's most prestigious annual business events will take place this week - with a full house of delegates already signed-up to attend.

The Yorkshire International Business Convention (YIBC) will this year be held across two venues, in Harrogate and Hull, with guest speakers topped by Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr Zander will be joined on stage by William Hague, former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, management and marketing guru Agnieszka Winkler and Yahoo! chief solutions officer Tim Sanders.

Impressionist Rory Bremner will kick off the proceedings after breakfast.

The event on Friday, which is a 1,500 sell-out, is the ninth YIBC, organised by former Bradford businessman Mike Firth.

He said the event promised to be one of the most successful to date and would prove a major networking opportunity for Yorkshire business people.

For the first time this year, the organisers have introduced a `networking wall' which allows delegates to leave a note of the kind of businesses they are interested in making contact with during the day.

"We always find that people get a great buzz out of the day and leave the event feeling re-energised by the inspiration they get from the speakers," said Mr Firth. "Often we hear of people who come along with all sorts of problems facing their businesses, but what they hear gives them the motivation to go back on Monday morning and really tackle things."

Mr Firth said that Yorkshire business people were also becoming better networkers and he expected many businesses to benefit from deals secured at the event.

"All the key business people from across Yorkshire will again turn out and this event has now become well-established on the networking scene," he added.

The main venue for Friday's convention will be the Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate with evening dinner following at Harewood House. A simultaneous event is being held for the first time at the KC Stadium in Hull.

Previous speakers at the YIBC have included President Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Neil Armstrong and Rudy Guiliani.

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