All aboard at York for today's start of the three-day Confex 2000 conference exhibition at Earls Court...

Kate Evans, conference sales assistant at York Tourism Bureau brandishes the latest weapon in the armoury designed to lure conference organisers to the ancient capital - a revamped version of the successful York Conference Directory.

The bureau's conference desk has generated just under £500,000 worth of business for the city over the past year largely on the back of the guide which is mailed to conference organisers nationally, but business tourism is thought to account for a third of the £247 million worth of income generated by tourism in York generally.

And where better to depict a city on the move than from a Midland dining car at the National Railway Museum in York? The NRM is just one of the more unusual conference venues featured in the guide which will be heralded to the thousands of corporate buyers, charity organisations and conference agents at the Confex show.

Kate Evans led by Kate Richardson, the York Tourism Bureau's conference manager, will arrived armed with thousands of copies of the guide demonstrating that York can cater for groups in single figures or 500-strong, with around 9,500 serviced bed spaces available in the city.

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