I was privileged to attend the business network group, the Hive's, latest meeting recently at Ewood Park.

The meeting was ably & affably chaired, compered even, by Lancashire Business View Editor Richard Slater. The leader of the Hive, Khalid Saifullah, of Star Tissue UK, welcomed us all to the morning's events.

The main inputs were from James Roberts, engineer manager 6G and Linda Szafar, enterprise relationship manager 6G, tutors from Blackburn College & social media guru Mark Williams aka Mr LinkedIn.

I learned many new things. But the best thing was meeting new people, mainly local entrepreneurs, business men & women who day in, day out, run local companies, making & doing all sorts of different things in all sorts of premises, in all the different business sectors that there are.

We have some real gems of businesses here locally. We should praise them more. Perhaps they should blow their own trumpets more & more? We should be proud of them & the wealth generating activities that they undertake.

I visited a local factory later that week & was warmly welcomed. The firm's being going since the Second World War, employs 100s of staff, exports all over the world. The enthusiasm for their processes & products by their business leader was abundant & obvious.

We need to shout out loud about these companies, we need to recall the role Lancashire played in the first Industrial a Revolution. We need to ensure we recreate that energy & success.

What one thing should/could be done, by whom to make that dream a reality?