Martin Biallas
Born in Hanover, Germany, Martin Biallas was destined to work as a promoter in the entertainment industry. From a young and tender age he sought to organize everything – from school performances to plays in his family living room – and to promote them effectively. As the years passed, his passion for “the event” only increased; as it continues to until this very day. It was not long before Martin’s neighborhood in Germany seemed too limiting, and his aspirations sought a new home with greater opportunities. In his last year of high school Martin participated in an exchange program that brought him to Grand Rapids, Michigan. From there, there was no turning back. After graduation, Martin attended the University of Michigan where his passion quickly developed into a viable business; he sought out local garage bands, jazz groups and other performers and arranged for them to play in clubs back home in his native Germany. In so doing, he learned how to practically apply all his scholastic knowledge and innovative thinking to what was now already a substantial and growing client list.
Ultimately, the number of acts traveling back and forth over the Atlantic made it necessary for Martin to postpone completion of his Master's degree in order to engage more full-time in his business endeavors. By the age of 21, Martin opened MBI Productions, set up a regional office in Berlin, and managed, booked and toured dozens of acts. It was not long before Hildegard Knef, one of Germany’s greatest personalities and music legends, caught wind of the young man’s successes and requested his representation. Signing and touring such a well-known artist was a defining moment for Martin, and it soon opened the door to a broad range of opportunities for him.
Martin then refocused his efforts on Hollywood – the entertainment capital. Martin partnered with Michael Lang, the "father of Woodstock", in 1981, and together they formed Bi-Continental Management. Their eventual roster of talent read like a who’s who of the entertainment industry; including musical acts such as, Tina Turner, Liza Minnelli, Joe Cocker, Duran Duran, Barry White, Eartha Kitt, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Shirley Bassey, the Pointer Sisters, The Beijing Opera, the Bolshoi Ballet and 80's sensation Nena. During its representation, promotion and management of these personalities, the company managed to garner many awards for their clients including Gold, Silver and Platinum Albums and a Grammy award for Joe Cocker's "Up Where We Belong".
At the special request of a close friend Martin accepted a contract to promote an event for Paramount Pictures, even though it was outside of what he initially perceived to be his area of expertise. Nevertheless, the event was so successful that Paramount soon turned to Martin for all their major events. One such event was the 30th Anniversary of the Star Trek Franchise, in Huntsville, Alabama. Martin recalls with fond recollection and pride how he managed to get 80,000 people to attend the event on one “unimaginably hot and humid weekend in September 1996”. Despite the rural nature of the location, it was a record for any such type of event. The experience left Martin newly-inspired and invigorated.
Martin envisioned a new form of entertainment; a way to bring Hollywood’s best and brightest film and television franchises to people everywhere in the form of massive, highly immersive themed traveling tours. Nothing on this scale had been tried before and Martin was keen to give it a chance. In 1997 Martin launched Special Entertainment Events, or “SEE” and began the laborious and complicated process of licensing major themes from Hollywood’s biggest studios and producers. Over the next dozen years, Martin financed the creation of many global tours utilizing some of the world’s most favorite properties. All of his massive, multi-million dollar tours were major successes and several garnered the industry’s top awards as "Best Attraction" and "Outstanding Achievement" from the Themed Entertainment Association of Hollywood. The notation on the THEA award for The Official Titanic Tour reads: "Presented to Special Entertainment Events for having been judged to represent the highest standards of excellence and creative achievement in the arts and sciences of the themed entertainment industry".Over the years his licenses for SEE projects have included: Star Trek, Pokemon, Titanic, I love Lucy, X Files, James Bond, NASA, Boris Becker, Gladiator, Van Helsing, The Mummy, Waterworld, War of the Worlds, Zena and the NFL.
Martin continues to oversee SEE’s robust touring business, which now additionally specializes in utilizing its acquired licenses in ever-expanding ways, including sponsorships and full merchandising avenues. Moreover, always looking for new opportunities, Martin has begun to branch out into other endeavors in ‘new-technologies’. In August of 2008, Martin created a subsidiary company, SEE Virtual Worlds destined to become a major player in the new and expanding realm of on-line virtual world gaming. SEE VW utilizes Hollywood’s biggest titles as a way to enhance the entertainment value and profitability of both browser games and Massively Multi Player On-Line Games (MMOG’s), while at the same time garnering more recognition, promotion and fan base appeal for the titles themselves. In this vein, SEE Virtual Worlds has entered into landmark agreements with the Swedish Gaming giant Mindark PE AB, the Michael Jackson Estate, as well as several major Hollywood Studios, including Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures.
It is conservatively estimated that the market for this new venture is set to explode by some 2000% in the next five years, and – always one step ahead of the game - Martin has positioned his new company to take full and rapid advantage of this trend. The off-shoots of this Hollywood-based company are expected to create employment opportunities numbering in the thousands… Not bad for a boy from Hanover, who now feels very much at home in Hollywood, California.
Info[edit]
- Birthday: March 28, 1959
- Personal website: www.martinbiallas.com
- Company website: www.seeglobalentertainment.com
- LinkedIn: Martin Biallas|LinkedIn
- Twitter: Martin Biallas|Twitter
