It’s a scene played out in thousands of offices across the land come Monday morning – weekend warriors, perhaps a bit battered and bruised, regaling their work colleagues with tales of heroism and glory from their multisport endeavours.
And, in the eyes of their attentive audience, the pangs of jealousy are clearly visible, regretful that they opted for a nondescript weekend of gardening and grocery shopping instead.
The UK Challenge, the UK’s leading corporate team development, provides you with the perfect opportunity to get your colleagues involved in your multisport endeavours.
The event is unique, combining a demanding physical multisport challenge with intellectual and strategic tasks to stretch teams’ ability to work together under pressure.
As well as being an enormously enjoyable experience, the event prides itself on providing powerful and long-lasting business benefits for the many companies that take part.
The 2014 event, taking place from the 3-6 July, is being held in the wilds of Snowdonia. The event will host 70 teams (of six members apiece) – all of whom will be battling to outdo other companies with superior strategy, intelligence and endurance and in the process climb the leaderboard.
The premise of the event is simple – teams are charged with working together to complete a series of themed missions in the least amount of time possible.
From navigating their way through forests at night by torchlight, kayaking across wide open lakes or riding bikes through woodland trails, all of the missions will require teams to collaborate, dig deep and utilise each others’ strengths.
What to expect from the UK Challenge
Here's a sample of mission from 2013:
“We have received intelligence that an enemy spy network is operating within the UK and is selling intricate details of national importance on the open market to our enemies. Your mission is to seize the spies and disrupt the passage of their information. You have 2 hours and 30 minutes to seize a minimum of two spies in this fastest-to-finish stage.
"To locate a spy, teams must split into one canoe pair and one run pair, and visit water- and land-based ‘intelligence points’. By visiting all these points, a team gathers all the information needed to decipher the location of each spy.
"There are harsh time penalties for those teams who fail to meet the deadline and for failure to capture the minimum of two spies. A team’s time is recorded when their final team member crosses the finish line.”
Powerful play
The event is run by IMG Challenger World, the people behind the Virgin Active London Triathlon and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Blenheim Palace Triathlon.
As IMG’s Managing Director James Robinson explains, the UK Challenge has seen a sharp rise in the number of triathletes signing up to this brain-stretching endurance event.
"We find that many London and Blenheim participants see the value in taking part in an event that not only satisfies their insatiable appetite for physical endurance, but one that allows them to share their passion with their work mates.
"There’s certainly no doubting the event’s ability to raise their profile and their teams performance back in the workplace. It’s extremely powerful.”
Each year, the UK Challenge attracts some of the UK’s top businesses including Samsung, Barclays, HP, Sainsburys and AWE – all of whom clearly identify the advantages of participating.
Of all the teams taking part last year, 95% believe the skills and experiences they gained will benefit them back in the workplace, 96% believe they have since significantly improved their teamwork and 99% would recommend the event to a friend.
Having completed the event, an employee’s ability to work under pressure, to lead their team and to communicate effectively should all improve considerably.
In addition to these fantastic business benefits, with teams raising well over £80,000 for charity last year, the event provides companies with a great opportunity to fundraise for a fantastic cause and fulfil CSR objectives.
There’s still time for businesses to enter a team (or, indeed, teams!) in the 2014 event. Please contact George Alston on 020 8233 5934/george.alston@img.com, or head to www.ukchallenge.co.uk and check out the short promo video.
See you there!