Emerging Leaders Gather for EPIC Event

Creating conversations – making meaningful connections.

That seemed to be a consistent theme throughout our 2018 Leadership Summit. More than 320 emerging professionals came together for a full day of connecting with their peers, learning from one another, and interacting with an incredible lineup of speakers.

Mark Ostach kicked off the day by inviting attendees to make an immediate connection with the people around them. He set the stage for a day of connecting with the region’s young professionals in a way that made people matter. Beyond facilitating conversations, Mark encouraged everyone to consider their “digital wellness.” Technology is an incredible and huge part of our day-to-day personal and professional lives, but like any tool or resource, needs to be used mindfully.

After Mark’s introduction to the day, everyone had the opportunity to choose their next session with Dr. Lisa Dubose of BGSU or Christopher Smith from Jumpstart. Dr. Dubose broke down the relationships essential to the success of emerging professionals. She shared how both the role of a mentor and sponsor can dramatically impact the professional trajectory of young professionals in the workplace. Christopher Smith discussed entrepreneurship as a whole, as well as the role of Jumpstart in the community. His interactive session got people talking and even had a few groups get up in front of the crowd and pitch a business plan. The take-away from these sessions: your interpersonal relationships, collaboration and conversations are essential to long-term success.

Rachel Bauer of the Gild Collective brought everyone together for one final session before lunch. Her message – meaningful, professional conversations, specifically when it comes to being an ally for gender equity. She created a space for attendees to talk about their personal experiences, while giving tools to everyone to have effective communication about gender issues in the workplace.

Post lunch, Sara Best of In2Great, Decoded Team DyNAmics by investigating how the makeup of your team can lead to effective collaboration. She continued the communication theme by sharing, “The #1 thing that predicts the success of your team is having the ability to disagree.”

Another round of breakout sessions followed Sara’s presentation. Eric Chase facilitated a session titled Find your Failure: Mental Health for Success and centered his message on finding coping mechanisms that lead to personal and professional success. Dr. Jerry Schnepp broke attendees into groups to solve problems using the “Design Thinking” method. By creating a persona and learning about a problem, groups worked together to build an effective solution.

The final session to pull everyone together was about the Communities of Excellence project that Toledo has been selected to participate in. Toledo is one of 10 cities to participate in this national learning collaborative and there will be many opportunities for emerging leaders to get involved in impacting the community through this outreach.

A huge thank you to our committee members and sponsors for this event.

See more photos on our Facebook Page.