Tricycle races... at work?

Where would you find a climbing wall and a huge indoor treehouse, complete with slide?  A children’s museum, you might say.  Guess again!  This is the working office of Red Frog Events, an event production company based in Chicago.  CP students were treated to a tour of the space, designed by Torchia, the same designers who worked on Google's Chicago office. You have to see this place to believe it!  There’s a tree in the center of the office, conference table made of legos, foosball and pool tables, tricycles (for tricycle races) and a wall of hands, just waiting for your high five!   My favorite is the conference room with swings instead of chairs!

Owner Joe Reynolds wanted to create the type of work environment that would attract lots of employment interest. In an interview with EntrepreneursUnplugged.com, Reynolds explained how he has always been "incredibly focused on having a company that's the best place to work in the world. When you have a great place to work, great people want to work there."  And it seems to be working!  Every employee I met was smiling, enthusiastic, and their eyes glowed whenever they talked about the company.  

Red Frog  won the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Dream Big Small Business of the Year Award in 2011 and was also a Chicago Innovation Awards 2011 winner.  In 2010, Red Frog was voted one of the top workplaces by Chicago Tribune.  

Redfroggers explained to CP students how Reynolds started the company, Great Urban Race, with a competitive scavenger race in Chicago in 2007.  By 2008, Great Urban Race expanded to 20 cities nationwide.  Great Urban Race became Red Frog Events in 2009, when they added Warrior Dash, a 5K obstacle running race.  They have also added Beach Palooza, a beach themed 5K obstacle course, and Red Frog Bar Crawls.

In response to CP students questions about how a project comes together from ascertaining the market to marketing, securing permits, etc., Redfroggers and  “tadpoles” (interns) were happy to respond.  If there is sponsor/participant/city interest in a race, Red Frog sends a marketing team out to ascertain the market, local media, find location, meet with city government to secure permits, etc.  They work with 65 venues across the country, and have traveling obstacle courses they bring and construct on site.   They use digital, print, broadcast, and social media and are huge on Pandora.  They have 800,000 facebook followers.   They also value participant feedback, and so send out a survey to all participants after the event with questions about area, course, obstacles, food, camping.

Internships here are very competitive; they’re paid and you can learn so much!  Departments are referred to as teams, and interns are assigned to five teams, and can join others.  It’s hard work, but they have the world’s best benefits package.  Deadline for summer 2012 internship:  April 6.