GREG Dyke's appearance as guest speaker at the annual dinner of the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce next week has helped trigger record ticket sales for the event.

More than 500 business people in the region will converge on The National Railway Museum, in York, on Wednesday, to hear Mr Dyke, who in January controversially stood down as Director General of the BBC in the wake of the Hutton Report.

That is well up on previous years for the event, whose sponsors next week will be York-based GNER.

Len Cruddas, the chamber's chief executive, said: "We are delighted that we have sold 500 tickets for this year's dinner compared with 350 last year. We are also very grateful to Greg Dyke for keeping us in his busy schedule since leaving the BBC. His change of circumstances has undoubtedly heightened interest in what he will have to say.

"However, there is no doubt that many tickets have been sold simply because of the re-emergence of the chamber as a business and networking force within York and North Yorkshire."

Mr Dyke is due to become Chancellor of the University of York in August, following the retirement of Dame Janet Baker.

The multi-millionaire has kept close ties with the university where he studied politics from 1971 to 1974. He donated a £210,000 all-weather sports pitch to the Heslington campus in 1996 and earlier this month it was disclosed that he had funded a new professorship in film and television.

Other sponsors for the dinner are Business Link York and North Yorkshire, the Learning and Skills Council North Yorkshire, Science City York, ip4business Limited and Shepherd Building Group Limited.

Updated: 11:47 Friday, April 23, 2004