He was looking for somewhere to take his Lloyds TSB bank manager for lunch and realised the town no longer had a regular lunch club event, so he decided to set up his own.

Howard and his bank manager, David Brown, organised the first event at the Imperial Hotel, now the Yorkshire, and 110 people attended for a meal and to listen to the first speaker, Penny Hemmings from the CBI.

The event grew year on year and eventually outgrew the Imperial, The Crown and the Cedar Court Hotels.

Today’s event will see more than 300 local business people gather at the Pavilions for a two course lunch, entertainment from speaker Dr Kevin Jones and the renowned quiz, answers to which can be found in this article.

The event is now held three times a year at the Pavilions and is organised jointly by Howard, Richard Strike, Senior Business Development Manager at Lloyds TSB and Jenni Moulson, Business Editor at Ackrill Media Group.

“When we launched the Harrogate Business Luncheon it was before the days of networking groups and people wanted an informal event where they could go to lunch with colleagues or guests,” said Howard, who moved his firm of chartered accountants and tax advisers to Harrogate in 1995.

The practice is now six times bigger than it was when it opened and two of its partners are members of the instutute of tax.

“The luncheon has never taken itself too seriously and is more than just a networking event, people bring their clients along to it.

“It’s the guests who have moulded the format over the years and that’s why it’s so successful.”

One of the secrets of that success is the time and effort the organising team put into the seating plan, taking on board requests from attendees.

Since that initial partnership with David Brown Howard has worked with Lloyds TSB managers Martin Connolly, Paul Varley, Andrew Naylor, Graham Scott and most recently Richard Strike.

Harrogate born and bred, Richard worked at RBS for 22 years before moving to Lloyds TSB in 2006 to take on the challenging role of developing the North and East Yorkshire Corporate markets.

He is currently putting the finishing touches to plans for his wedding in November.

“Harrogate Business Luncheon is a fantastic opportunity for Lloyds TSB to keep its name at the forefront of the Harrogate business community as well as being superb for my own personal profile.

“Being able to stand up in front of 300 of my peers is a chance which doesn't come along very often,” said Richard, who comperes the event and comes up with the quiz questions.

Ackrill Media Group supported the venture from the start with Rita Sobot working closely with Howard and Lloyds TSB to promote the event.

Since then Katie Oxtoby and the most recent business editor Jenni Moulson have taken on the role.