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February 19, 2004
New feature: reverb "off the wall"
I have had the pleasure to work with a group of staff, faculty and students to plan a new program here at Belmont to enhance the study of entrepreneurship. The university has generously provided us with three prime retail spaces in our new Curb Center building. One space will open this Friday. It will house Boulevard Art and Design, which is a cooperative program with our Art Department. It will feature a retail art gallery and a graphic design business. The second business, opening around March 1st, will be reverb media. reverb will feature new and used CD's and DVD's, with a focus on music produced and/or performed by Belmont students and alumni (which includes Trisha Yearwood and Brad Paisley, just to name two). The students launding this business have decided to chronicle their story for you in my blog site. Click on the "Continue reading..." below to see their first installment.
When I first heard that Belmont would be setting up stores for students to run businesses in, my first thought was that we needed to do a music store. Like 99.9% of people here at Belmont, I?m a music fanatic. I wanted a place where I could feed my auditory addiction without even leaving campus. I didn?t really think much about it after that, though.
An entire semester later, I heard about an Entrepreneurship Club opening on campus. Like most people, I thought it would be cool to own my own business someday. However, I thought the club would be like all the other clubs I?ve ever been in?you sit and discuss the latest happenings in the field, and listen to an occasional speaker or two. Um, that didn?t happen.
I was a little shocked to learn that this entire group of people had not only latched onto the exact same idea I had (probably long before I did), but they were actually going to make it happen. The first thing we did was set up a retail space committee that would be separate from the rest of E-Club. They would hold separate meetings on Monday afternoons in Dr. Cornwall?s office to develop the business. Originally, seven or eight members were part of the committee.
One of the first things the committee set out to do was come up with a name for the business. Inspired by the great view of Nashville?s glorious skyline streaming in through the windows of Dr. C?s office, we began tossing around ideas?names like The Belmont Pulse, Sound Phase, Sound Exchange, Sound on the Curb, and AudioEcstacy (um?yeah).
Finally it was Joe Drake who hit upon the name reverb. I thought it fit well with the kind of store we were doing. We were selling CDs that had been used before; this would be at least the second time listeners would be hearing them. It?s the same with reverb?after the initial sound, the first reflection that hits the ear is echo. The second reflection to hit the ear is reverb. We tacked on ?media? because we thought we would eventually expand the business to include other types of media, including DVDs, music magazines, etc. It also just sounded cool. Thus, the name ?reverbmedia? was born.
--Jessica Phillips
Posted February 19, 2004 06:53 PM
Comments
I think this is a long needed program at Belmont. Graduating with an undergrad business degree and working on my masters here, I see the need for and the usefulness of this program. Students learn much better when they apply the theories they are taught. It is one thing to sit in a classroom and memorize Pavlov's theory, it is an entirely different experience to apply this in real life. I think the problem with graduates today is the lack of work experience. Employers are looking for graduates who not only have the knowledge, but also have the life experience. Student-operated businesses provide this experience. A student is allowed to see all sides of the business, not just the area he or she is studying in school. In addition, those students who are not studying business at all, but wish to be successful in the music world need an eye-opening experience such as this to contribute to their success. I am so glad to see this program being established and only wish that it had come sooner.
Posted by: Brandy at February 26, 2004 11:14 PM
at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. He consults with a variety of businesses on start-up and growth related issues, and with larger corporations on re-establishing entrepreneurial cultures within their organizations. Dr. Cornwall's current research interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ethics. He has authored or co-authored four books.
