Between Rain or Shine and City Bagel is a ramshackle white building characterized by speckled shingles and angular awnings. The sign in front informs passersby that it is the “Bill Davis Photography Studio,” and the only reason one would allow it a second glance is if he or she were intrigued by its peculiar architecture.
Little do Starkville citizens know of the social hub buzzing within the small house. The house has been everything from a tuxedo parlor to a recording studio, and now five young men are attempting to transform Starkville’s restaurant, retail and event industry and call it their studio.
Miles Byrd, James Kastrantas, Philip Vanderleest, Patrick Quinn and Adrian Marcus have teamed up to create a website/mobile app that allows Starkville citizens and Mississippi State University students to stay up-to-date with “what’s happenin'” around the small town.
A former Starkville music vendor, Miles Byrd said the site began as a way to inform Starkville natives of concerts and events in the Golden Triangle Area. A prior State Theatre employee, Byrd said the most frustrating thing about the untimely demise of the eclectic venue was that students would beg for artists and bands, but upon his delivery of these bands, those pleading for the events would not be informed of them.
Byrd said soon after the inception of the site, they realized the same problem existed within the food industry as well as booking music.
“There were cool restaurants that came here and closed down before anyone ever heard of them. I just thought it wasn’t very fair because people used to complain that we didn’t have much variety here to eat. But you have crazy places pop up, and you never hear about them. Next thing you know, they’re gone,” he said.
Byrd said the business began as a do-gooder scheme to make sure Starkville was well represented across all forms of social network. The group endeavored to update all of the incorrect information on sites like Google and Four-Square.
“You don’t Google ‘good food in Starkville’ and expect to find a good, relevant search,” Vanderleest said.
This desire to help small businesses and for Starkville to be well-represented on the Internet and social networks led to “What’s Happenin'” encompassing all aspects of Starkville social life.
The site now currently has three tabs – entertainment, food and drink and shops and services. The home page gives the viewer an at-a-glance look at what all is “happenin'” in Starkville that day. The viewer can then leave the home page and look at what all Starkville has to offer on a more specific scale and for months ahead. The site also provides links to all of the businesses’ social networks. The entertainment section provides viewers with times and locations as far as the events are planned. As soon as an event is announced, it is inputted into the site.
The food and drink section provides viewers with an in-depth description of all the restaurants in Starkville. The list is defaulted to show what restaurants are open when the viewers open the site, and most of the restaurants of “What’s Happenin'” have menus posted on the site. By clicking on these menus, viewers can get a better feel of what types of food they will be enjoying – without ever leaving the house. Some of the restaurants provide photographs of their food to accompany their menus to provide customers with a visual of what exactly he or she is in for when they visit.
“Our goal is instead of having photo albums for a Facebook page, we actually take pictures or let the restaurants take pictures. We actually attach them to menu items. So if you go here, you can actually see pictures of business’s food,” Byrd said.
Byrd said the site hopes to soon offer the same visual aids to the shops and services tab so owners can provide photographs of their merchandise. Visual aids will soon be added to the entertainment section as well by including artist profiles and links to YouTube footage of live performances.
The site runners hope to offer its services to other towns in the Golden Triangle Area, such as West Point and Columbus, with representatives in each city continually updating the sites according to each town.
Byrd also said the site is even eager to expand out to Southern Mississippi and into Oxford and Jackson, while still keeping its personal approach to providing information.
The site is in the process of catering to the student body in Starkville by creating “What’s Happenin’ MSU.” This version of the site will portray all on-campus events that are open to the public. This includes everything from Lab Rats performances to MusicMakers productions to sporting events. The site runners are also in the process of adding a sports and activities section that provides information regarding everything from high school basketball to bars with dartboards and pool tables.
“We want Starkville to know that there’s an easier way to find what you want, when you want,” Quinn said.