Business people packed three marquees at Cougar Park on Wednesday for the launch of Keighley Business Forum's ground-breaking One Stop '98 exhibition.

The two-day event, organised by Keighley Business Forum, was a sell-out with 90 stands booked by product and service providers from West and North Yorkshire and neighbouring Calderdale.

The exhibition was officially opened by Keighley MP Ann Cryer and KBF president Sir James Hill.

Mrs Cryer said the exhibition was a victim of its own success, having outgrown the leisure centre venue of the last three years.

She said she had worked with the forum on transport, waste minimisation and environmental issues. "It is an excellent organisation and I am pleased to have been associated with it," she added.

Sir James Hill said this was the fifth annual exhibition, the first having been a table-top event.

The exhibition was now one of the KBF's flagship projects, along with the waste minimisation programme, tourism and SRB.

This week's One Stop exhibition was the biggest of its kind ever staged in the area, and featured presentations by leading business training organisation Video Arts, as well as live video conferencing facilities demonstrated by BT.

A range of Asian businesses were promoted, and Sherman Banks from the Little Rock Visitors and Convention Bureau in Arkansas added to the international flavour.

Keighley-born deep sea salvage expert Keith Jessop, who shot to world-wide fame after raising gold from sunken 2nd World War cruiser HMS Edinburgh, was guest speaker at a corporate dinner on Wednesday evening.

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