On the Beat

Andrew Jensen serves a diverse and demanding clientele ranging from CEOs to 16-year-olds, and he knows he’d better listen well when it comes to both — they’re equally his most promising demographics.

Owner of Jx2, a production company based in Westfield offering disc jockey, sound, and lighting services for a variety of events, Jensen is one of the region’s most inspiring youg entrepreneurs. He has learned that the only constant in his industry is the ever-growing scale of the events he helps create, spurred largely by more accessible technology and the lofty desires of party planners of all types and ages.

Recently, he’s found that the teen scene is where the action is, but that a solid reputation in the corporate arena can create a strong base for growth in an often unpredictable vocation.

The Jx2 Web site, jx2productions.com, speaks to that range. The welcome page features two boxes; click on one, and it leads to a professional, content-rich site with a professional feel.

Click on the other, and a MySpace profile page for the company appears. It’s not a shortcut, but rather the best way to reach the prom committees, student councils, and teens planning birthday bashes and bar mitzvah celebrations that regularly seek his services.

And as Jensen can attest, the means of finding these audiences may differ, but from there, the lines start to blur — corporate events aren’t just sit-down dinners anymore, and birthday parties have come a long way from pin the tail on the donkey.

It’s a Family Affair

Jensen said he first started noticing that trend in his own family, when he and his brother Eric threw a 25th anniversary party for their parents. They bought much of the equipment they’d need to provide entertainment for the event, in order to stage it themselves, and following the party, guests started asking for repeat performances.

That was in 2001, and since then Jx2, named for the Jensen brothers and now owned by Andrew (Eric still DJs occasionally), has grown to provide a wide array of event entertainment services. His father, Paul, is also now an employee.

The business is primarily a disc jockey service, but in today’s multimedia-driven age, that amounts to much more than spinning records. Jx2 offers event management and organizing, lighting and staging, and audio-visual system setup and operation. The company can provide a master of ceremonies if necessary, as well as ‘audience motivators,’ including dancers, and can provide services and equipment for events ranging from karaoke parties to trade shows.

Jensen said the core of his business is still private formal and semi-formal events, such as weddings, school dances, and jack-and-jill parties, but he added that a number of other offerings that are new to his repertoire are helping Jx2 stand out in a saturated market.

“There’s a lot of heavy competition in the area,” said Jensen. “Some are big, well-known companies, and others are small, one-person operations, but everybody takes a piece of the pie.”

In fact, Jensen once counted 26 DJs doing business in Agawam alone, not far from his offices at Shaker Farms Country Club in Westfield.

One Is a Lonely Number

To thrive in that climate, Jensen has worked to diversify his business model in a number of areas. For one, he has branched out with a new endeavor, partnering with fellow event-services provider Mark Ashe of Marx Entertainment in Enfield, Conn., to form JenMark, which focuses on the management and staging of corporate events. Combining the expertise and equipment of both businesses, JenMark puts the two DJ and entertainment companies squarely in the middle of the event-planning arena, offering a suite of services that includes database procurement to help spread the word about a corporate event, such as a conference or trade show; payment processing for events that require a fee; custom Web site development for the event; facility procurement; food procurement; audio-visual services; and on-site management.

JenMark’s first major event, a trade show catering to the sweet 16, 15, and bar and bat mitzvah crowds, will be staged on Oct. 5, and will serve to promote Ashe and Jensen’s own industry, as well as those of many of their partnering vendors.

It’s a market both entrepreneurs have been actively working to cultivate; a strong presence among the teenage crowd, the corporate crowd, and party-planning families creates a sort of perfect storm, leading to what is currently the juggernaut of the event services world — the Super Sweet 16.

It’s Gonna Be a Party, Party

Sixteenth birthday parties for both boys and girls, as well as bar and bat mitzvahs, have received a rocket-fueled boost in recent years, thanks to the success of MTV’s My Super Sweet Sixteen, a reality show geared toward teenagers and pre-teens.

The show created a national trend by following various would-be 16-year-olds in towns and cities across the country as they plan what they hope will be the party of the year for their classmates.

Gone are the days of birthday cake and potato chips, replaced by elaborate themes (a luau, complete with fire jugglers, for instance, or a jungle with live tigers and pumas), nationally touring musical acts, and, usually, a brand new luxury car to top off the evening. Teens who aren’t featured on the show can still flaunt their own parties by joining an online community sponsored by the show, and uploading bulletins, photos, and videos.

Jensen said the events he’s seen in Western Mass. aren’t usually quite so involved as those featured on television — yet, anyway — but they mirror MTV’s over-the-top celebrations in that everyone wants something unique, and seemingly high-end.

“The kids want it to look like a dance club,” he explained, “with music, lighting, and fun extras. The parents want it to be an upscale event. These parties are moving further and further away from anything that resembles a home or family function; now, people want to turn it into a whole production.”

Jensen is also branching out into area high schools, sending out mailings and meeting with prom committees across the region to provide music, lighting, and other variables for high school formals. Those are some of his most demanding clients, he said; every class wants something different, but each one also wants something big and bombastic, no matter how many bake sales it takes.

Even with such a boom underway, however, Jensen is also expanding his services in other areas, targeting other demographic groups in addition to companies and kids.

All Parties, Great and Small

He continues to zero in on the wedding crowd, offering an extensive suite of services to clients to make their events as seamless as possible, and hopefully to spur referrals. For instance, Jx2 will assist in booking other wedding services via a network of Western Mass. professionals, rather than just point a couple in the right direction.

“It helps with pricing, because I can negotiate with vendors to get more bang for the buck,” said Jensen, “but it also allows me to say ‘yes’ more often when a client asks for something. ‘Yes, I can get a movie screen.’ ‘Yes, I can get a popcorn machine.’ I have the connections, and that helps us expand into other areas.”

But Jensen was quick to note that his business has not been built by tacking on extras, but rather by tailoring his services to the needs of his clients. A blanket approach no longer works in his industry, said Jensen — a huge variety of entertainment choices have created a larger set of demands — and new technology allows for a little bit of spectacle at even the smallest functions.

Jx2 has recently started leasing out equipment, for instance, offering tutorials so clients can save money on a DJ by plugging in an iPod filled with favorite music, or setting up an outdoor movie screen and sound system that only requires the customer pop in a DVD.

That means families and businesses alike can plan memorable events at a much lower cost — movie-night packages start at $299. And if a client would prefer that Jx2 handle everything from soup to nuts, Jensen said he and his staff of three are ready to deliver.

The End of the Night

“We do more than come and play music,” he said, noting, for instance, that he’s drafted a 60-page guide for brides, which covers everything from common wedding-reception traditions to frequently asked questions — not just of him, but of photographers, event planners, and caterers, as well. “We try to go the extra step to help. I’m not doing it to be an event planner, but there’s so much that goes into these events that people appreciate the extra guidance.”

That help might also be increasingly necessary, judging by Jensen’s own notes for a coming event. Too many for a notebook or a software program, Jensen had instead resorted to a classroom-sized whiteboard to record his clients’ wishes and the necessary equipment. “I like to have it all in front of me,” he said.

And with both juniors in high school and senior executives to impress, he might soon need a new, even bigger whiteboard to keep things straight.

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]