INVENTORS and innovators are being invited to demonstrate their ideas to potential investors in Oxford later this month.

Venturefest 2000, a festival of entrepreneurship designed to showcase the area as a centre for hi-tech innovation, will be held at the Wheatley campus of Oxford Brookes University on June 25 and 26.

An Innovations Showcase will allow inventors, academics and business people with bright ideas to present their plans to an audience of business angels and investors.

The HSBC Professor of Innovation at Brunel University, Clive Butler, will be on hand to discuss the commercial feasibility of the ideas. He will also offer practical guidance on how plans can be developed.

Venturefest 2000 chairman Peter Johnson said: "There is currently nothing like Venturefest in the UK for bringing together entrepreneurs and investors.

"Following last year's event, several companies raised significant levels of funding and the Innovations Showcase will extend that opportunity to individual inventors."

The festival is developed with the Said Business School and Oxford University's departments of engineering, chemistry and medicine.

Other sponsors include consultants McKinsey & Co, who are funding a 10,000 prize for the best business plan, and business advisers Grant Thornton, who are providing a 5,000 runners-up award.

There will also be an exhibition of technology, business and innovation products and services provided by organisations and individuals worldwide.

Exhibitors range from banks, solicitors and venture capital organisations to hi-tech companies working in Internet, computer software and IT sectors.

For details, visit www.venturefest.com. The event is free, but space in the Innovations Showcase costs 200 and can be booked by calling 01865 811145.