Hundreds of people with great business ideas attended a show that aimed to help them set up on their own.

Attendance at the second Kent 2020 Vision Start-Up LIVE, held yesterday at Kent Event Centre, Detling, was well up on the inaugural show last year. Organisers claimed that was due to increasing confidence in the economy and the growing number of people planning to launch their own businesses in the next 12 months.

Emma Jones, director of the national StartUp Britain campaign and founder of Enterprise Nation, opened the day of keynote talks and workshops at the Kent Event Centre, Detling, on October 23.

She told a large audience why the time was right to start a new business in the UK. She cited ready availability of specialist talent, the raft of available support services, high levels of interest in British products and low set-up costs made possible by the proliferation of high-speed broadband and digital marketing channels.

Kent 2020 Vision Marketing LIVE ran alongside the StartUp event. Thomas Brown of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) said senior marketing executives in many leading UK companies were increasingly confident.

CIM’s Quarterly Confidence Index has risen fourfold in 10 months, from an Index score of 4.12 in October 2012 to 20.36 in July 2013. This is widely regarded as a strong forward indicator of business optimism.

The shows, hosted by Business Support Kent (BSK), based in Rochester, and organised by Revolution Events of Pembury - they also run the large Kent 2020 Vision LIVE expo in April - attracted more than 70 exhibitors and 20 speakers.

BSK’s commercial director Chris Callander said: “We are really delighted with the momentum that these two events are gathering. Having a large-scale event at both ends of the year is a significant part of our commitment to supporting the Kent business community through a wide portfolio of services, all of which are now accessible through our new website: www.kent2020.co.uk.”

Plans are already well advanced for the third Start-Up LIVE show in October 2014.