A NEW portable "millennium dome" created by Banbury hospitality company De Boer Structures won prizes worth £2,500 at an innovation exhibition.

The 50-metre diameter Millennium Structure which can seat 4,000 people, is the first circular temporary structure of its kind.

The roof can bear two tonnes of heavy material from its apex and its roof sails are made from special layered PVC, which keeps out sunlight.

The structure was one of the Oxfordshire inventions to be shown at the first South East Innovation Exhibition at Sandown Park, which was staged by Business Links and commercial sponsors.

Business Link Heart of England Innovation and Technology Counsellor, Dr John Coyle, said: "The exhibition was a great success. It began life as a Hampshire event, but this year several Business Links joined forces to make it a regional event.

"It is the largest such event for inventors in the country, and Oxfordshire featured strongly. We had a total of 12 entries for the invention competition, and several of the others did well in the judges' scoring."

Apart from De Boer, which specialises in providing tented villages and other structures for sporting and other events worldwide, the other Oxfordshire exhibitors were: Clicksure, of the Oxford Centre for Innovation, which has developed a quality system to boost confidence in e-commerce trading.

CUS Busting, Mercury Court, Bampton, near Witney, whose innovative aromatherapy diffuser is designed to combat stress in the workplace.

Informed People, Oxford Centre for Innovation - the Dispatch! Author invention is a system that meets the electronic publishing needs of small and medium sized companies.

Oxlight, Oxford BioBusiness Centre - a novel scheme for vehicle lighting, in particular for cycles by using high intensity light emitting diodes (LEDs).

Spork, of Wootton, near Woodstock - the Spork is a stainless steel fork with a narrow blade welded to the tines with a sharpened profile, making it a fork and spade and easier to use in difficult soils.

Techno Weld, of Aston, near Witney - using simple tools, Techno Weld fusion welds all aluminium alloys below the normal melting point of aluminium and needs only a simple blowtorch.

The RugBug Company, Oxford - Rugbug is made from waterproof, windproof breathable fabric that fits on to children's pushchairs and protects them from the elements.

PIP Products, of Cassington - the Baton Beam is a small, light, tough police baton torch.

Story date: Tuesday 19 October

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