FROM banking specialists, to business advisers and even a city mayor, Startup Mackay's Mentor Blaze today brought in a range of experience to help guide and encourage future entrepreneurs.

With multiple 20-minute one-on-one sessions, people with ideas and initiative had the opportunity to sit down and pitch their concepts to some of the region's best known business leaders.

Joel Cox, who's part of Startup Mackay, helped organise the event. The idea of a mentoring afternoon had interested him, he said, as he felt there was a "real need for it”.

"Mentor Blaze is actually Brisbane-based,” Mr Cox said. "So, as a startup community, the team there contacted us.

"Today there are other events being held around Queensland but we are excited about organising one here.

"We wanted the event to be a space for people who are in a rut, or who have an idea, to be able to discuss it with a range of different business leaders.”

This is the 7th Mentor Blaze held in Mackay and while attendance today was lower compared with previous events, Mr Cox said they would "go back to the drawing board” to see what they could do better next time.

The next Mentor Blaze is expected to be held in the first half of 2017.

One of the more popular mentors present was Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson, who thinks the blaze concept is "fantastic”.

"Having been in business myself, I know having someone to bounce ideas off is an amazing opportunity,” Cr Williamson said.

"I don't know if I'll be able to be a massive help but if you're young it can be daunting trying to bring to life your ideas by yourself.”

Mentor Blaze is part of a build-up to the Startup Mackay flagship event to be held from November 18-20.

Bringing together experts from a range of fields, the three-day "weekend” is designed to allow people to develop their ideas into proof-of-concepts all in the space of 54 hours.

Mr Cox said while the startup ecosystem in Mackay wasn't as developed compared with capital cities, there were associations helping.

"The new Split Spaces co-working space, for instance, came from a startup event, so we're doing what we can to push digital ideas.”