EPIC Toledo will host its inaugural T-Town Dash on July 12, 2012.
The event will take place from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at Quimby’s at the Park in Downtown and will feature a scavenger hunt designed to help improve leadership, creativity and problem solving skills for young professionals in the Toledo area.
“Our goal was to get young professionals into Downtown Toledo,” said Desmond Strooh, EPIC Toledo communications coordinator. “We wanted to showcase what Downtown Toledo has to offer, why businesses are in Downtown, as well as to help young professionals improve their leadership skills.”
Participants in the T-Town Dash will be randomly assigned to teams of four. Each team will begin at Quimby’s, navigating to secret locations throughout the Downtown area by solving clues.
At each location, team members will have specific tasks to complete to garner points, with the ultimate goal of finding the final location where prizes will be awarded.
So far, there are 100 total points for the event, but all locations and activities are being kept secret.
“Speaking in broad terms without giving too much away, all clues are location-based and all activities may involve things like finding a specific person, taking a photo with them or doing an act of service for someone,” Strooh said. “It’s all very random. It’s a very cool event.”
EPIC Toledo is expecting 100 people to sign up. As of July 3, 67 people had registered for the event. Registration for the T-Town Dash is $5 per person and is open to anyone who wants to participate. Deadline for registration is July 11. All money received goes to food and drinks provided at the final location.
Last year, EPIC Toledo’s Leadership and Professional Development Committee hosted a similar scavenger hunt for committee members only. Katie Rofkar, committee co-chair and CEO of Nemsys, a technology support firm, said the success from that event lead to ideas for the much larger T-Town Dash.
“It went really well. The venues were wonderful and it was a lot of fun,” Rofkar said. “There were some people who rushed through to get their points, but there were a lot of teams who really took the time to talk to people. They didn’t care if they won or lost, they just loved being able to talk to the business owners and professionals and learn from them. Some of them said they got a lot more out of it than just winning.”
While the T-Town Dash is a point-based event offering prizes for winners, Strooh said the main focus of the event is networking and sharing ideas with fellow professionals.
“It is point-based, but it’s not point-based,” Strooh said. “It’s not so much about how many venues you go to, it’s about how many people you talk to.”
The geographic location for the T-Town Dash has expanded in relation to last year’s event. No longer just in the Warehouse District of Downtown, participants will navigate through Summit Street, onto Madison Avenue, to Michigan Street and down to Lafayette Street, among other locations, Strooh said.
Planning for the T-Town Dash began in February with committee co-chairs Rofkar and Blake Underwood, a professor at Bowling Green State University.
“It was originally just for the 30 people in our committee but we came up with the idea to open it up to all of EPIC and to make it so anyone can participate,” Rofkar said. “We have non-EPIC members, and even people from Akron and Cleveland. We have people from hairdressers to CEOs and businesspeople. It’s great exposure for Toledo.”
EPIC Toledo was created by the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce. The organization works to “attract and retain young professional talent” to Toledo. EPIC stands for “engaging people, inspiring change,” according to the organization’s website.
Currently, EPIC Toledo has more than 1,300 members.
“EPIC Toledo is an organization that seeks to accelerate the influence and leadership skills of young professionals in the greater Toledo area,” Strooh said. “We have three main pillars, which are networking, community impact and leadership and professional development.”
Quimby’s at the Park is located at 25 S. Huron St. Registration for the event can be completed online at www.epictoledo.com.
