Word on the ‘Streetvents’

In any type of business, there is often someone who comes along and changes the game before essentially taking over. Meet Streetvents.

The new kid on the block in entertainment promotion via the Internet Streetvents is getting its chance to shine with its start in Tallahassee.

Streetvents.com is a Web site created in October to promote different events and activities that occur in local college communities.

The Web Site, http://www.streetvents.com, was started by four ambitious men: Chris Maylor, Craig Scott, Doug Scott and Zach Royers. They began promoting events for fun and started getting serious when the opportunity to make a profit arrived.

The site gained popularity from the men standing outside of club let-outs and having people put their e-mail addresses on blank sheets of paper. Now, people from clubs, organizations, fraternities, sororities and other venues pay for their events to be promoted.

Because all four men are Jamaican, they were only getting feedback from the Caribbean community. So they decided to bring in a different flavor, Dele Bajere, who would work on a hip-hop section for the Web site.

“Zach was complaining about how it was too Caribbean and Zach thought I would be the answer,” said Bajere, a 22-year-old civil engineering student from Chicago.

Bajere said he is no stranger to business and thought it was a good move for him to work with the company.

“Business has always been in my background. I felt like it was a business opportunity I could take advantage of.”

Bajere also said Streetvents are the new people on the scene to change the business of Internet promotion.

“DigitalGuestlist is so general. We focus more on college events,” he said.

“DigitalGuestlist is broad. Ours is more specific. It goes into more detail.”

DigitalGuestlist, another event promotion Web site, caters to a broader audience within and outside Tallahassee.

Although Streetvents claim to have a great buzz on Florida State University’s campus, they still have some bigger goals.

The group wants the Web site to help anybody who would like to promote anything to be able to go on the Web site and get whatever they need.

The group discussed some things they had to go through every day to maintain the site.

Bajere said they go around looking for events, meeting with promoters and looking up what’s happening in the news. They have a writer, who writes daily and posts the news every week.

“There are a lot of things we do on a daily basis, but the main thing is going around looking for events, exciting events people want to see,” Bajere said.

Like many companies, Streetvents didn’t have everything they wanted in place at the beginning and faced some frustrating difficulties as they progressed.

“Updating the site was a major problem because it wasn’t updated on a regular basis,” said Doug Scott, founder and a 23-year-old political science student at FSU from Fort Lauderdale.

“No one really had tasks, now we all have individual tasks.”

Bajere said he helped with the burden of tasks by bringing in more people to help with his responsibility of the hip-hop section.

Though celebrities such as Lil’ Wayne, Khia and Fat Joe have been at events they have promoted, that is not what pushes them in the end.

“It’s a joy to know you are doing something positive with your time,” Bajere said.

Contact Royce Wynn at royce117@aol.com