Businesses across York and North Yorkshire are being urged to take up the challenge of an Innovation Revolution.

At Living Innovation 2004, hosted by Business Link York and North Yorkshire and attended by more than 150 delegates at York Racecourse, strategic adviser Max Mckeown warned companies to "Innovate or die".

He said: "Innovation kills boredom and brings about organic growth. Innovate or have a really dull life."

Mr Mckeown, founder and chairman of Maverick & Strong, is described as "a new media business architect".

He introduced the event, which was organised in conjunction with the Department of Trade and Industry and backed by Business Link's partner organisations from the business support arena.

A strategic adviser for a number of global businesses, Mr Mckeown delivered a lecture this year at Microsoft, attended by 10,000 people.

The York event was one of many held all over the country, aimed at encouraging people to look at innovative ways of adding value to their business through inspiring their employees, creating market-winning products and connecting with their customers.

Mr Mckeown said: "Yorkshire should be the most innovative county in the country.

"Yorkshire people do not seem to remember that they have a culture of revolution. It was the north of England that was involved in the Industrial Revolution, not the south,"

Mr Mckeown suggested the introduction of innovation to the school curriculum, or a flood of ideas generated via the internet as possible strategies to enable more people to earn a good living in Yorkshire. "There are gutsy people here in the North and we need to come up with a way of keeping them here, going some way to dispel the myth that people need to go to London to make money," he added.

Living Innovation 2004 at York was linked live by satellite to a national event in Liverpool, where BBC television presenter Fiona Bruce led discussions with high-profile entrepreneurs Sir Christopher Evans, founder of Merlin Biosciences, and Simon Woodroofe, founder of successful chain Yo! Sushi.

Updated: 11:13 Tuesday, October 19, 2004