Hark, the Little Rock digital media startup that records central Arkansas entrepreneurial conversations, is expanding throughout the Southeast.
Hark announced that it will launch a six-week tour of the Southeast beginning in July in partnership with Bespoke Video Production of Little Rock.
On the tour, Hark will create new content for its original programs “Off Script,” a mixed media series portraying conversations between entrepreneurs, and “Local Ingredients,” a long-form video series telling the stories of restauranteurs in the context of community, said Hark CEO Tim Freeman.
Freeman calls the South the most important region for entrepreneurship today and wants to showcase its stories of entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation. He believes network and cable television “are dead,” and that digital video is the new “king of content.”
Production on both programs started this month and will continue as Freeman and Ryan Guinee, HARK COO and Bespoke production partner, begin the tour in Louisiana and Mississippi with several Bespoke team members. The first stops will include New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport in Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi.
The tour will begin the third week of July, Freeman said. Hark is in growth mode and earlier this month added former Windstream manager Scott Davis as CTO.
“We’ve been growing quickly,” Freeman said. “We added Scott Davis just a few weeks ago and now, with our production partner, Bespoke, we’ve more than doubled the team.”
Bespoke CEO Rick Rogala said he was “thrilled” to be providing video production services for the tour and expects the programming to be smart, innovative and bold.
While on tour, HARK team members back home will be developing a new Hark website.
“The new website provides enhanced functionality for our audience to consume content in new ways,” Davis said. “As our content library expands, we’ll need ways to track engagement and recommend videos or podcasts. This will pave the way for us to focus on user experience and revenue generation. This first step will be exciting, but it’s just a first step.”
Guinee said Hark ultimately will have concepts for digital video technology that “elevate the user experience and improve content engagement the way hyperlinks improve text.”
“I’m confident we’ll see measurable improvement in product quality thanks to Bespoke, and our viewers will enjoy the network’s new website thanks to Scott,” Freeman said.
Before embarking, Hark is raising awareness for the tour and announced its first tour sponsor, Ink Custom Tees of Maumelle.
“We’re excited to partner with Hark because their passion for capturing entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in the community align with our own values,” said Caleb Harris, Ink marketing director. “Our sponsorship goes deeper than believing in an idea. Hark is on a mission to redefine how networks tell stories. It’s something to pay attention to. And for that reason, Ink has purchased a front row ticket.”
Freeman promised more tour information to come. Hark’s first season of central Arkansas entrepreneurial conversations is available here.
Sign up for Daily E-news
