A former Ohio University football player has channeled his passion for athletics into a new online network designed to give youth sports organizations a web presence, and engage players’ parents and fans. David Carter knew the downturn in the economy had placed a tremendous strain on an already financially-challenged youth sports industry. “Budgets are tight and [...]

A Thurber House master class taught by Geben Communication President Heather Whaling will offer attendees tips on how to use social media to promote their writing. The one-day class, titled “Marketing Your Writing Through Social Media,” will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday at Thurber Center, located at 91 Jefferson Ave. in Columbus. [...]

The Columbus Chamber has reaffirmed its commitment to public policy and cultivating local relationships in order to stay on top of legislative issues affecting its members. In fact, that commitment lead the Chamber to hire Kristen Easterday earlier this year as director of local government relations. Herewith, Easterday, an Ohio University graduate and former executive [...]

Columbus-based Spacejunk has acquired Los Angeles-based Nylon in an attempt to enhance both studios’ creative reach. Spacejunk −a live action, motion design and animation studio founded by managing directors Robb Dierken and Mike Blosel in 2006− produces broadcast, digital/web, documentary, long format, event, and brand videos for agency and direct clients. Spacejunk and Nylon −founded in 2005 [...]

Thanks to a new product from Columbus-based FlyMuch Inc., businesses can more easily identify and interact with people sharing their story online. Prior to the April launch of VenueSeen, monitoring location-specific updates from niche social networks was nearly impossible without a custom-built tool. Now, businesses using the web-based dashboard can access that content and, with one [...]

The eighth annual Ohio Growth Summit will be held May 24 at Columbus State Community College. Columbus State’s Center for Workforce Development, at 315 Cleveland Ave., will host the summit, which is designed to give entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, and marketing professionals the opportunity to learn, discuss, and problem-solve their way to better business strategies. Registration [...]

After spending an hour driving around Columbus one evening looking for a particular food truck, Ryan McManus was annoyed and inspired. As anyone who frequents them knows, food trucks can be hard to find. And oftentimes once you do find them, they aren’t where they said they’d be in a tweet sent several hours earlier. [...]

Victor Thorne has joined Columbus 2020 as managing director of strategic development. In his new role, Thorne’s mission will be to grow the Columbus region’s reputation as a preferred and optimal location for entrepreneurs to launch and turn their innovative ventures into profitable and sustainable world-class enterprises. “Victor brings a background of both investment and operating management experience [...]

Columbus-based Blind Acre is holding a social media contest for local businesses. The Digital Spring Cleaning Contest’s winning company will receive six hours of free digital marketing consulting services. The consulting hours may be applied to any of Blind Acre’s digital service offerings, and will be allocated based on a free one-hour strategy meeting. “Spring is [...]

May is International Social Media Month, and Chandler Interactive will be helping Central Ohio companies celebrate. The Columbus-based digital marketing agency is sponsoring Social Media Month Columbus to help local businesses develop social media marketing strategies with measurable results. “We wanted to bring a tangible strategy to local businesses, to be able to help them get [...]

A new March Madness-style competition put on by American City Business Journals puts corporate social media front and center. For Social Madness, the growth of a company’s social media presence is measured by tracking the number of votes it receives on three platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Companies that increase their likes, followers, connections, etc. [...]

Business owners are often told they should be using social media to help market their offerings. If they own a small company, it’s likely they’ve responded with at least one of the following statements: “I don’t know where to start.” “I don’t have time to do it.” “I don’t have the budget to pay someone to [...]

While a student at The Ohio State University, Stephanie Leader worked for a promotional advertising company that ended up hiring her on full time in 1992. As she was about to graduate, the company’s owner offered her a partnership. A year later, she became its sole owner. Some young professionals in her position would have been [...]

As home to Anchor Hocking Co., Lancaster has long been identified as a manufacturing community. Recently, though, the city has begun touting its small business friendliness. Lancaster officials are quick to list the city’s skilled workforce, proximity to several universities and colleges (and the fresh talent they offer), and its location (30 minutes southeast of Columbus) [...]

Jeremy Slagle always knew he’d be a designer one day, but becoming a business owner was not in his plan. In 2009, Slagle was working as senior creative director at Element, a Columbus design agency he’d been with for more than a decade. When the agency closed that year, Slagle was handed the client list and a [...]

Weirick Communications President Amy Weirick recently offered business owners several insightful tips for writing effective press releases and building good relationships with reporters and bloggers. Now, let’s imagine for a moment that you’ve taken her advice and the media is contacting you for interviews. What’s your next move? As a reporter, I can assure you that how you [...]

The fourth annual Alleviating Poverty Through Entrepreneurship Summit takes place April 21 at Mershon Auditorium at The Ohio State University. The APTE Summit is intended to educate, impassion and empower individuals to alleviate poverty through market-based solutions on a local and global scale. From conception to execution, it is a student-organized and student-run undertaking that is free [...]

The Ohio Department of Development will offer a series of seminars for entrepreneurs from April through September to strengthen and expand small business ownership throughout the state. The free seminars, which will be held in Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Mansfield, were developed specifically to address the needs of aspiring entrepreneurs. They are sponsored by the Ohio Department [...]

Two of Ohio’s most prominent universities are teaming up to create a new venture capital fund that addresses the funding needs of early-stage technology ventures. It was announced Thursday that The Ohio State University has committed $20 million to the fund and Ohio University has pledged $15 million. The universities also will leverage their resources and [...]

Josh Watters and Larry Scott think small business bartering is a fact of entrepreneurial life that needs to be better facilitated, and that’s just what their startup aims to do. Created during Startup Weekend Columbus, BarterQue was developed with freelancers and new businesses in mind. Unlike other online bartering communities and directories, which generally focus on [...]