THREE of the biggest names in Lancashire’s economy will give talks at an event in Blackburn this week.

A former Dragon’s Den contestant, the finance chief of a sports clothing firm and the man responsible for driving Crown Paints forward will be the highlights of a seminar on Tuesday.

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Blackburn College hosts Does Investing in Training Lead To Success?, a free event from 4pm to 8.30pm.

Single mum Kirsty Henshaw launched her range of gluten-free, dairy-free and wheat-free chilled ready meals in 2012, after developing a range of frozen desserts for people with food intolerances and allergies, like her son Jacob.

Her speech is called A Dragon-tamer’s Rollercoaster, inspired by her “near-perfect business pitch” on the BBC show that help land a significant joint investment from presenters Duncan Bannatyne and Peter Jones.

Kukri, formed in Lancashire in 1999, supplies kit to more than 100 different teams, clubs, universities and schools worldwide, including Team England’s for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games last year, Lancashire Cricket Club and and Wycombe Wanderers FC.

Ian Clark, the group finance director, will give his talk on culture and employee engagement.

And Mark Bannister, who is creating Crown Paints’ learning and development plan, will talk about how to achieve your true potential.

Crown Paints dates back to 1777, when James Greenway established Dob Meadows Print Shop for calico printing in Darwen.

After perfecting the art of commercial wallpaper production in the 1800s, the first experiments in water-based paints began in 1904, with Walpamur Paint Company established two years later.

Walpamur’s paint was used for the demarcation stripes on all planes in the D-Day landing in 1944 and Crown, originally a brand name under Walpamur, officially became the firm’s name in the 1990s.