Jonny Harrison is sailing to Australia from the UK via the Panama Canal before he starts work in Sydney on a secondment at his firm PricewaterhouseCoopers »
Andrew Hebden is Assistant Editor (Business) of The Journal »
Katie Pringle has started her own business, Rock, Paper, Scissors »
Andrew Mernin is the Digital Journalist for nebusiness »
Matthew Rippon is an IP lawyer for BHP Law »
Formerly editor of a national business lifestyle magazine, Jez Davison is a business writer for the Evening Gazette in Teesside »
Ross Smith, Head of Policy and Research at the North-East Chamber of Commerce »
Julian Christopher from Footprint Public Relations, on media and marketing »
Norma Foster from the North East Regional Portal writes about e-business »
Ian Brown, Northumberland farmer and businessman writes about the agricultural industry »
Accessibilty Champion Steve Wilkinson on the importance of inclusion »
Andrea Wilkinson of Shared Interest is visiting Swaziland to deliver business training »
Jonathan Wheatley from Stokesley-based MC Ware writes about IT matters »
Mark Lisgo is a Northeasterner who works for law firm Eversheds in Abu Dhabi, UAE »
Paul Williamson from Deloitte »I'm going to have to find something else to fill the void on a Monday night. Last night saw the end of BBC Two's brilliant Dragons' Den series.
Over the past nine weeks the sublime and ridiculous business ideas have been pitched to Britain's most no-nonsense venture capitalists.
My favourite moment was when one chap desperately tried to pass off little more than a sewn-up sheet as a potentially profitable device for carrying Christmas trees without dropping needles on your carpet.
The only problem with the Tidy Tree Sack was that it cost just as much as the average tree. And isn't hoovering up needles all part of the festive season - a sign that Christmas is coming to an end for another year?
Anyway, last night's episode also saw a first for Bannatyne and his well-heeled mates. Two young inventors pitched their unique two-in-one water carrier and purifier aimed at people in disaster-hit and poverty stricken areas. The pair needed £50,000 of investment. And guess what? All five dragons had a whip-round and put in £10,000 each. And so, for the first time, all five luminaries will be involved together on a business venture.
Now a cynical hack like me would say that this is great PR for the five entrepreneurs to be involved in such a humanitarian project. But it's also great to see that our universities continue to harness the country's top talent to produce solutions for the world's poorest areas.
And it's also heartening to know that this is something that's happening on our doorstep. I recently had the pleasure of meeting one of the North-East creators of a device to allow women with diseases such as Aids to breast-feed their children safely. The young entrepreneurs' creation looks set to make a real difference in disease-ridden areas all over the world in the future. Hopefully the new year will see other life-saving devices making the transition from our university laboratories into the market place.
Meanwhile ahead of the next Dragons' Den series I'm currently drawing up plans for my own money-spinning invention. Any ideas on a postcard please.
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