This week is the deadline for nominations for the 2004 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

All nominations for the competition have to be in by Friday April 9th. Nominations can be made on application forms or online at www.eoy.ie and entries are invited from all 32 counties.

This weekend, Ernst & Young and the competition's backers, The Irish Times, Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, Intertrade Ireland and Shannon Development, unveiled details of the entrepreneurs' chief executive retreat weekend, which is planned for the competition's 24 finalists at Harvard University, Boston.

They will spend the weekend of July 8th-11th discussing strategy and management, as well as networking with each other and with participants in the US Entrepreneur of the Year programme from the Boston area.

Commenting on the addition of the retreat to the awards schedule, Mr Enda Kelly, Ernst & Young partner in charge of the programme, said it was a hugely significant development.

"As well as recognising the achievements of these great individuals, a key aim of the awards is to help the entrepreneurs build their brands and to compete successfully in international markets," he said.

Ireland's first Entrepreneur Of The Year in 1998 was Mr Denis O'Brien. Ms Moya Doherty and Mr John McColgan won the Award in 1999 and Mr Eddie Jordan in 2000. Monaghan man Mr Martin McVicar took the accolade in 2001 and the prize next went to Galway, when Mr Padraig O'Ceidigh was declared Ireland's Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2002.

Last year's winner was Mr Liam Shanahan of Shanahan Engineering in Dublin.