The University of Toledo Athletic Department this week hosted a first-of-its-kind Team Toledo Partner Summit in Savage Arena on Tuesday, bringing together a cross-section of executives from across the sports, business and community landscapes.
According to a release posted to the school's website, the summit featured high-profile speakers and panelists from sports and business, as well as more than 100 community leaders and innovators.
The University of Toledo Athletic Department this week hosted a first-of-its-kind Team Toledo Partner Summit in Savage Arena on Tuesday, bringing together a cross-section of executives  from across the sports, business and community landscapes.Â
According to a release posted to the school's website, the summit featured high-profile speakers and panelists from sports and business, as well as more than 100 community leaders and innovators.Â
The event focused on "the power of sports to engage communities and generate resources, including topics such as private equity/capital, real estate partnerships, youth sports and innovative revenue generation initiatives."
Nic Barlage, CEO of Rock Entertainment Group, which includes the Cleveland Cavaliers and Rocket Arena, was the event’s keynote speaker. Barlage shared his vision on how sports can be a platform for transformative growth and community engagement.
“The sports industry has a compound annual growth rate that is going to continue to drive value for communities,” Barlage said. “That’s something we all should embrace and wrap our arms around. Therefore, partners are seeing the value of sports in a lot of different ways.
“Athletics is a gateway to show off how great we are. Activation generates life, it generates momentum, it generates vibrancy, it generates community and it build relationships. For a community like this, it’s important that everybody supports everybody, and everybody locks arms together and continues to work to bring people together.”
The summit also included a “Team Toledo Partner” panel that showcased how corporate and community partners are creating meaningful collaborations through sports. Featured panelists included Albert Atkins of SERVPRO, Jennifer Strauss of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Mike Keedy, chief engagement and enterprise officer for Metroparks Toledo. Their conversation focused on maximizing community impact and connecting with the Rocket brand across Northwest Ohio.
University of Toledo vice president and director of athletics Bryan B. Blair opened the event by highlighting the tremendous recent success of the Rockets, such as three straight Cartwright Awards as the top overall program in the Mid-American Conference, 13 MAC titles over the last three seasons and two top 65 picks in the last two NFL Drafts. But, he added that the bar for Toledo Athletics will be set even higher going forward.
“This is just the starting point,” Blair said. “This is the bottom of the mountain. Next we’ve got to climb that mountain to get to the true peak.”
