Founder. Innovator. Educator. Builder of Creative Economies.

Dr. Trevor Lane is a founder who turns ideas into industries. With a career rooted in learning, workforce development, and agritourism, he has spent more than two decades transforming festivals, fairs, farms, and community events into engines of economic growth and hands‑on education. As a university educator and Extension specialist, he built programs that teach people how to work, how to lead, and how to build sustainable rural enterprises. As a founder, he applies those same principles to entertainment, production, and community development creating scalable systems that blend culture, commerce, and innovation.

In 2003, before his career in education and during the heart of his exposure to entertainment industry, something unexpected happened – his younger brother was killed. After losing his younger brother TC, friends staged an intervention to help channel his grief into a gathering of friends around a bonfire in Oklahoma. What began as an act of healing became a career rooted in community and ultimately the Backwoods Bash, one of the most authentic, grassroots independent music festivals in the country, drawing thousands of fans, launching careers, and building a community rooted in family, music, and the TC Lane Make a Difference Foundation. When the festival was handed off and ultimately hollowed out by others, Lane stepped back, but never away from the festival or the industry. He spent years in academia and industry studying the very systems of festival sustainability and governance that had shaped and undone what he built, all while quietly working to reclaim the intellectual property, the digital assets, and the mission that bore his brother’s memory. Now he is bringing it all back. 

Dr. Lane has spent decades at the intersection of entertainment, community, and independent culture. His career began in the underground scene at Chaptown Studios in Tulsa before taking him to Church Studios and then to Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York, where he engineered sessions, developed emerging artists, and built relationships across independent and major labels. A guild pianist, drum corps veteran, BMI affiliated songwriter/publisher, he has worked across every discipline the music business has to offer. He is a member of the International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) and  also serves on the board of the Washington Festivals & Events Association (WFEA) supporting internationally renowned events like the Tulip Festival, CRAVE Food Festival, Chocolate Festival (and many more). His passion for community, learning, and culture across the US and beyond impacts thousands of festivals and all of the attendees, directly and indirectly.

As the Founder, Dr. Lane is returning to the field he built, with the team, the tools, and the hard-won wisdom to do it better and do it right.

Where Education Meets Industry

Dr. Lane’s work sits at the intersection of applied learning and real-world production. He designs environments where students, volunteers, organizers, and entrepreneurs learn by doing, whether that’s running a festival stage, managing a farm event, coordinating vendors, building a community workforce pipeline, supporting small business ecosystems, on rural main street, or implementing a local investment network.

• Workforce systems that prepare people for creative, agricultural, and event-based careers
• Training models that turn rural or tribal events into living classrooms
• Agritourism strategies that strengthen local economies and cultural identity
• Scalable frameworks for festival operations, governance, and sustainability

A National Voice in Agritourism & Rural Innovation

From the highest levels of two Carnegie Research Institutes for higher learning, Dr. Lane shaped statewide networks and trained thousands of business owners or volunteers across rural and tribal America. Expertise spans:

• Festival & fair management
• Farm-based tourism & experiential agriculture
• Rural and tribal workforce development
• Community event production
• Food systems & local agriculture
• Sustainability and SmartGrid-style event operations

Dr. Lane understands how to help communities build events that are not only profitable but meaningful, safe, culturally grounded, and future-ready.

Founder-Level Vision

As Founder, Chairman, and President of Outlaw Entertainment Group, he brings an educator’s clarity, a strategist’s discipline, and a producer’s instinct to every venture to build systems that scale, brands that endure, and experiences that resonate.His leadership is defined by:

• Founder-led governance
• Innovation rooted in community impact
• Acquisition-ready business models
• Multi-phase development strategies
• Technology that simplifies workflows and expands revenue
• A commitment to cultural preservation and rural revitalization