A new local events company, Way Beyond Events, is working to make its mark in Joplin and help the community flourish.

“We all meet over the summer through various Chamber of Commerce events,” Niki Corcoran, a Missouri Southern alumna said.

“Matt [Osborn] was already working on the Oktober Fest festival and he invited me to join and help with the planning of the event and in turn we started working on that.

“From that, the idea started going around that we should start a festival company in Joplin.

“The job would actually be to throw these events and festivals throughout the year to help inspire the community to celebrate a little bit more,” Corcoran said.

According to Matt Osborn, one of the four Way Beyond Events founders, their goal is to encourage people of Joplin and the surrounding areas to get out of their houses and into the community.

“Our goal is to basically bring a minimum of one event per month to the community,” Matt Osborn said.

“A lot of our events are going to be downtown in the Main Street area to encourage that culture down there.

“Kind of piggybacking off of a lot of the third Thursday’s, we’ve put several of our events as the third Saturday of the month.

“Just try to help, again, with the downtown Joplin alliance with what they’ve got going on with third Thursday events, making it a fun weekend instead of just a one afternoon 5 to 9 deal,” Osborn said.

The group is scheduled to bring Afroman to Joplin on March 15th.

“We’ve partnered with JB’s piano bar. He’ll be here on the first third Thursday of the year. It has no partnership with Third Thursday, they just happened to fall on the same night, but he is going to be at JB’s Piano Bar on the 15th,” Osborn said.

The company, founded by Osborn, his wife Linsey, Wade Utter and Corcoran, is currently working setting up other events through May.

“[We’re working on] ourSt. Patrick’s day parade and festival in March,” Corcoran said. “In April, we’re working on an ‘April Showers Arts and Crafts Fair,”’ she said.

According to Osborn, the April Shower’s Arts and Crafts Fair will double as an Earth Day festival where participating vendors will have homegrown or made items.

“Then in May we’re working on a spring-to-summer kids bash on memorial weekend,” Corcoran said.  

“It will be a big, kid-go-crazy event with water guns, water balloons, silly string, we’ll be bringing out a DJ, different carnival games and stuff. We’re talking to Carousel Park about partnering on that one and having a big all day event for the kids.”

As far as long-term goals go, Osborn hopes Way Beyond Events will continue to grow and to have their events become a staple for the area. “We also want to become the go-to for the four-state area, for entities and businesses that are wanting to do company picnics or a corporate lunch-in,” he said.  

“We are going to do some of the higher-end weddings and birthday parties as well. But our main focus really is the larger-scale events,” Osborn said.

For more information on Way Beyond Events and their upcoming events, you can go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/WayBeyondEvents.