Co-operation is in the air as Oxford's two universities combine to present the county as a hotbed of hi-tech innovation, writes Maggie Hartford.

Oxford University is fighting to shed its Brideshead image and Oxford Brookes is steadily rising up the league tables.

The opening of the Said Business School has marked an even deeper stage of co-operation. One of its aims was to forge links with the local business community - something which Oxford Brookes, with its origins as a technical college, had been doing from its inception. This year the two universities are pooling their expertise to run Venturefest Oxford 2000, an international festival presenting Oxford as a centre of innovation for hi-tech and knowledge-based industry.

Last year's event - the first - was voted a huge success, with more than 900 visitors, far exceeding the organisers' expectations.

There was an exciting buzz to the two days, with some glittering guests and several deals done as a result of the festival's networking opportunities, with entrepreneurs, researchers and start-up companies vying to be introduced to potential investors, new markets and customers. It was the brainchild of Said Business School lecturer Dr Peter Johnson, whose students had visited the Moot Corp Fair in Austin, Texas, where a business plan competition was one of the centrepieces of a festival showcasing the area's hi-tech businesses, with inventors and budding entrepreneurs rubbing shoulders with venture capitalists, business angels and service providers.

Using his business contacts, Dr Johnson came up with an impressive list of sponsors, including management consultants McKinsey, venture capitalists Apax and Advent, business advisers Grant Thornton, Midland Bank, Oxford pharmaceutical company Powderject and news and business information agency Reuters.

This year they will be joined by computer company IBM, Oxford book company Blackwells, the London Stock Exchange, merchant bankers Schroeders and venture capitalists 3i. And, aptly for a festival promoting entrepreneurship, there will be several innovations including a "bazaar" where inventors can display their pet discoveries, plus a technology "car-boot sale".

Venturefest will also host the launch of a new Oxfordshire Internet Forum, to be championed by whizz-kid Zia Uddin, who runs Sharkhunt.com.

The two-day festival will follow the process of setting up a business, from the original idea through the nuts and bolts like office space and grants, to drawing up a business plan and finally funding presentations where new companies explain why they need more money to develop their ideas, or to expand. Apart from one social event, everything is free to delegates. McKinsey & Co is putting up a £10,000 prize for the best business plan, which once again will receive business angel funding of up to £250,000.

This year non-MBA students are being encouraged to enter, with coaching and feedback so that budding tycoons can have the wrinkles ironed out before they bid for funding.

Roger Mumby-Croft, director of Oxford Brookes's enterprise centre, will run a clinic for young entrepreneurs, showing how to turn bright ideas into a business plan. He is delighted that Brookes will be hosting this year's Venturefest. He said: "The idea is to create a hub of enterprise and enterprise start-ups in Oxfordshire and there are two places where people can go to get their business education. We cover the whole spectrum from the internationally renowned MBA at the Said Business School and our Certificate of Management and MBA programme to the business skills courses we run for unemployed people."

"We want to promote this area as somewhere people can set up new businesses and get advice.

"When you get a true enterprise culture it's not enough to say 'If you are good enough you will make it and if you don't it's your own fault'. We had so many failures during the Thatcher era because of that attitude." Dr Johnson said: "Oxfordshire has more educated professionals than any other county and that talent is not being fully used at the moment. I think the county is developing quite well but there is potential for much more. There have been plenty of people with clever high-tech ideas but there has never been enough money or help for them."

*This year's Venturefest Oxford will be on June 26 and 27 at Oxford Brookes University. To register, visit the Web site www.venturefest.com, email info@venturefest.com, or call Rubicon Communications on 01865 204947. To exhibit, contact Justin Short on 01666 860147, email justin@shortwork.com

Story date: Monday 13 March

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.