ENTREPRENEURIALISM is the latest buzzword - it's a culture that's growing on a massive scale, helped by cult television shows such as The Apprentice and Dragons' Den.

If you're not a mega-rich football player, or set to inherit your family's fortunes, it seems that the next sure way to make your millions is to be an entrepreneur.

Such a road to riches has been glamourised in recent years, with the likes of Sir Alan Sugar and the North-East's own Duncan Bannatyne becoming household names, admired by millions and envied by millions more.

But the reality is that entrepreneurialism exists in us all - and sometimes all a person needs to succeed is a nudge in the right direction and some friendly advice.

That is the purpose of the region's Entrepreneurs Forum - it provides an environment where business ideas can be discussed, knowledge can be shared, mistakes can be learnt from and opportunities can arise.

In its own words, the forum allows for a "transfer of wisdom" by providing a place where people can come together to help grow businesses, nurture emerging talent and create wealth and jobs.

The Entrepreneurs Forum was created in 2002, by leading business figures Lorna Moran, founder of Newcastle's Northern Recruitment Group, and Sir Peter Vardy, the man behind the successful Reg Vardy empire, which was sold in a £506m deal to larger rival Pendragon 14 months ago. With Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson at its launch, the forum set out very clear aims from the start - to champion entrepreneurship in the North-East and help shorten the road to success for new, high-growth businesses through the sharing of experience and support.

Since then, the Forum, under chief executive Carole Beverley, has gone on to become one of the leading business organisations in the region, with more than 200 members from a range of sectors.

Ms Beverley was appointed as the forum's first chief executive four years ago. She had a high-flying business career and made her mark as senior sports manager with Adidas from 1993 to 2000. She was instrumental in developing some of the group's biggest global contracts, with the likes of AC Milan and Real Madrid, as well as Newcastle United.

After Adidas, she took a job as commercial director with Newcastle United, and then as marketing director at the Federation Brewery, before taking a change in direction to lead the then very young and largely unknown Entrepreneurs Forum. She hasn't looked back.

She said: "I didn't know where the organisation was going or what shape it was going to take, but I could see the potential and I wanted to be a part of it. I also wanted to be able to put something back.

"There is something about the North-East that is so wonderful - people don't scream about their success, they tend to quietly get on with building great businesses. But they still need help, and that's where the Entrepreneurs Forum comes in.

"The forum is not a selling shop, or a networking place where people can exchange business cards, it's a place where people can help each other and share trade secrets. It's all very confidential, so you do get people sharing very sensitive information - something that doesn't happen anywhere else, it's amazing."

But Carole believes entrepreneurialism needs to be stimulated further.

"Entrepreneurial activity is at its height when there is a necessity, such as redundancy or illness, but a lot of the region's university graduates don't have the fire in their bellies because they finish their studies confident they are going to find a job straight away. We have five massive universities, but entrepreneurial levels are still lower than they should be."

The Entrepreneurs Forum works closely with the region's universities and has hosted two major conferences with delegates from education and the public and private sectors - How to Close the Entrepreneurial Gap (2006) and Building the Talent Base of the North-East (2007).

It has also developed a Graduate Enterprise programme, which brings together business students with established entrepreneurs and has in the past allowed them to learn from high-profile business leaders including Simon Woodcroft and Caroline Plumb.

Looking ahead, Carole has a clear aim for the Entrepreneurs Forum - to extend its reach across the region and attract even more members.

She says: "We need to do more to increase our profile and presence in the Tees Valley. At the moment, only about 20 per cent of members are from the Tees Valley, the rest are from Durham and Tyne and Wear, so there is a big drive in the south of the region to increase membership there."

For details about the forum, visit www.entrepreneurs forum.net

Taking a few tips from the masters

THE Entrepreneurs Forum annual conference has grown into the premier event of its kind in the region, and last Thursday's line-up of speakers at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead Hotel was the best in its brief history.

They included jewellery retailer Gerald Ratner, Luke Johnson, the chairman of Channel 4, and North-East businessman Simon Heptinstall, who earlier this month sold Storey Carpets to Carpetright Plc making £19.5m for his family.

It is 16 years since Gerald Ratner committed his most famous presentation gaffe by writing off a sherry decanter as "crap", but he was keen to point out to the 270 delegates at the conference in Gateshead that it was not his only error.

"People only think about me as the person who made that one terrible mistake - my whole life doesn't really exist outside of that 20 minutes in 1991. It's a bit unfair, because I made many mistakes which I am not credited for," he said.

Mr Ratner, who was later sacked for wiping £500m off the capitalisation of the company, spent six years in the wilderness. He now runs Britain's biggest internet jewellery site, Gerald On-line, and is soon to star in a new Sky TV series helping businesses to overcome major problems.

He said: "Business is all about setbacks, about dealing with them and never giving up. And success is much better second time around."

The conference is in its fourth year and this year's "My Way" theme reflected the fact that no two entrepreneurial stories are the same. Other speakers included Charan Gill, founder of the Harlequin Group, the biggest chain of Indian restaurants in Europe, and Lara Morgan, chief executive of global luxury toiletries company Pacific Direct.

Paul Walker, chairman of the Entrepreneurs Forum and chief executive of Sage plc, said: "It is rare that those of us in business in the North-East get the chance to hear from such a fascinating group of people with such broad experience in one day and on our own doorstep.

"Simon Heptinstall is a much-liked and admired member of our business community in the region and it was fascinating to hear from him about the decision to sell the company."