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    Blue Monster Entertainment Helps Small Colleges Put on Big Events

    Schools like Ohio State may have no trouble attracting big names for campus concerts and events, but what about smaller colleges and universities? Who better to solve the problem than college students themselves. Nathan Pyle and Andrew Jacoby used their internship experience with well-known names in the Columbus entertainment industry to start their own event management company post-graduation, Blue Monster Entertainment.

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    The company specializes in live concerts and events, providing everything from production and staffing, to artist connections, for smaller schools. Blue Monster doesn’t only bring great entertainment to these schools, they also provide students valuable internship experience during the process. Interns are largely responsible for event production.

    Pyle and Jacoby are looking forward to diving in to the Columbus music scene after a successful stage sponsorship at the 2013 Independents’ Day Festival, so we asked them to tell us more about their background and what Blue Monster means for small schools.

    Q: Tell us about your background as it relates to Blue Monster Entertainment and how you came up with the concept.

    Blue Monster Entertainment consists of Nathan Pyle and Andrew Jacoby. Nathan started out working for the University of Dayton Concert Board and eventually moved towards independently booking and promoting. He also interned for PromoWest. Andrew Jacoby joined the team a short time later, bring production and promotion experience from an internship with CD102.5, and a production tour internship with Jars of Clay & Invested Production. Upon graduating from smaller Ohio schools, Blue Monster moved down to Nashville to pursue the next level. After a year of hard work in Nashville the team was drawn back to Columbus by growing local support for the business concept!

    Influenced by their own personal small-college experiences and internship history, Nathan and Andrew saw the demand to bring relevant, large-scale entertainment to the numerous small schools around the Midwest. Many students would have to travel to see their favorite band or artist and Blue Monster saw a marketplace that was being ignored and untouched. Blue Monster has created a strategic network that now allows these marketplaces to no longer be ignored. Small Colleges, Monster Events!

    Q: What has the process of starting your own business been like? Are there any resources or programs you utilized to help get started?

    As with any startup business, it has been a roller coaster of ups and downs but overall the reward and satisfaction of doing it on our own has outweighed any downs. Our biggest resource has been friends, family and fans we have met over the past year that believed in Blue Monster. They have helped guide, offer advice, and been supportive for the entire year process it has taken to start this company.

    Q: Who is the target market for Blue Monster and what services do you provide?

    Blue Monster Entertainment, LLC is an entertainment event management company specializing in live concerts and events. Built by college students for college students, Blue Monster Entertainment provides a unique opportunity for smaller colleges to produce monster events. We empower these colleges through our strategic network so they can compete with large university budgets. We provide the necessary tools, experience, and relationships with students, artists and sponsors.

    Specifically we are targeting small to mid-sized colleges and universities in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee and the students and administration within these universities. We provide all the components of organizing a successful event from production, staffing (internship program), artist and artist agency connections, marketing and advertising, etc. We cover it all.

    Q: What kind of opportunities does Blue Monster create for college students?

    Blue Monster has created an internship program for each school that allows students to take part in all aspects. The goal is to provide  five key internship roles for motivated students at each university we work with. It’s a risk, but we really pin a lot of the success of these events on how successful our student interns are. We believe that our college interns are capable of anything and are hungry and ready to prove themselves, they just need to be given the opportunity. Visit our website to find all our internship positions along with a description of responsibilities.

    And of course provide every student a chance to enjoy their favorite music, with their friends, at their college!

    Q: Tell us about some of the events you have produced in Columbus.

    Up to this point the majority of our events have been in Dayton, OH, but we are currently working on bringing the success of our Dayton events to Columbus area along with many other cities.

    Most recently we were a part of the Columbus Independents’ Day Festival on September 20-22, 2013 as two-day stage sponsors! This was a big opportunity for our company to start getting our brand more involved in the growing Columbus music scene.

    Q: What would you like to see for the future of Blue Monster Entertainment?

    We would like Blue Monster to be a symbol that small schools can have the same power as larger schools and have the satisfaction of knowing that students, like we once were, are able to enjoy and be apart of the music they love. We want Blue Monster Entertainment to eventually become a dorm-room name!

    Q: Anything else you would like to add?

    We love to hear from students, up-and-coming artist, companies, colleges or anyone interested in Blue Monster and can find our contact information on our website as well. We are excited for what the future holds!

    For more information, visit bluemonsterentertainment.com.

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    Susan Post
    Susan Post
    Susan is the editor of The Metropreneur and associate editor of Columbus Underground, and also covers small business and entrepreneurial news and the food scene in Central Ohio.Susan holds a degree in Communication with a minor in Professional Writing from The Ohio State University. She sits on the board of the Central Ohio Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and loves coffee, whiskey, cooking and spending time with friends and family.
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