A well-known, pioneer event promoter, Quency Barton, recently opened up his first club called South Beach bar and lounge. It is located on Spring Garden. Barton began his career as a businessman at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
Barton graduated from N.C. A&T’s middle college in 2010 and decided to continue his studies at the university as a visual arts design student. Barton’s first introduction to The Executive Team was during Welcome Week.
During this time, The Executive Team, a well-known party promotion team founded in Greensboro in 2004, was just beginning to gain prominence with college students. The Welcome Week ambassador assigned to Barton was a member of The Executive Team. Intrigued, Barton decided to join to see what it was about. He immediately loved it. He enjoyed his first event so much he decided to continue promoting thereafter.
Barton began to gain attention from senior members of The Executive Team including founder, Christopher Walden. “I identified him as a shooting star early on, and I decided to take him under my wing,” Walden said.
Through 2010 and 2014, Barton learned how to promote, advertise and market. He recalled constant battles against other promotion teams on campus to see who was the best.
At the time, Twitter was increasingly becoming a major social network site. Barton used this platform to advance the overall goals of The Executive Team. Eventually, Barton’s social media presence on Twitter aided in his success. “I started all the gym jams and people wearing their Twitter names on their shirts,” Barton said. Barton was also the original conductor of #AggieTrain Twitter trending topic. When people clicked on it, they would see everyone from N.C. A&T, including current students and alumni who used it. The hashtag began trending worldwide.
The Executive Team was just the start of Barton’s promoting career. They were also the beginning of many party trends around Greensboro. Barton said, “The Executive Team was before everything. Chris told me that they helped NxLevel with their first event,” Barton said.
From Pre Dawns to Gym Jams, the Executive Team helped create the current party scene, and Barton was there to make it happen.
After Barton graduated from N.C. A&T in 2014, he wanted to try what he called the “real world life” and get a job at a firm. He quickly learned that it wasn’t for him. Barton decided to pursue his second degree in public relations at Full Sail University in 2015. Soon after, he and Walden began promoting for Sandy Bottoms, a former club in Greensboro. Barton and Walden parted ways with Sandy Bottoms and found out months later that the owner was selling the club.
They bought the club earlier this year. As partners, they made it a family business. It is a three-way partnership with Barton, Christopher Walden’s family, and Main Event. In the months leading up to the grand opening of South Beach, Barton and Walden realized just how much work it takes to open up a club. They spent weeks sleeping inside South Beach to prepare for its grand opening.
The grand opening for South Beach took place over the summer on July 1, 2017. Around 600 people attended the first night event. “The support was unbelievable, and I had so many people thanking me. I’m blessed and humbled by it,” Barton expressed. South Beach has had plenty of successful events and they plan on taking over N.C. A&T’s homecoming scene this year.
For more information on Que the Promoter and his business endeavors, follow him on social media:
Twitter: QueThePromoter
Personal Instagram: quethepromote
Club Instagram: southbeachbargso
Snapchat: quebarton
www.theexecutiveteam.eventbrite.com/
