 Firstly, I want to send a huge welcome from everyone at BG and Challenger World. Following last year’s success, we’re really looking forward to this year’s BG Energy Challenge – UK and we’ll be working furiously behind the scenes to make the event as perfect an experience as we can possibly make it.
For those teams returning from last year, I hope you’re excited about your next Intelligent Sport® event. For teams new to the event this year, you may well be asking just what is Intelligent Sport®? I think it’s all about the mind, the body and team spirit. It’s a way of measuring not just how fit we are, but how smart we are and, most importantly, how well we work together as a team. It fuses all of the fun and competitiveness of sport with the strategic decision making of a game of chess.
Before I joined Challenger World, I used to compete in Intelligent Sport® events myself (which means I know how addictive they are!) and I was lucky enough to be part of the all-female team that came 2nd in the World Team Challenge 2006. So you don’t have to be the fastest or strongest team out there, you just need to make good decisions, think strategically, stay calm under pressure and communicate well to succeed.
I’ve no doubt there are many teams from last year who made strategic errors during the event, some significant and some easy to rectify. That’s part of the journey. We design our courses to test team dynamics under competitive pressure. I hope those same teams will return this year to apply those lessons into delivering great performances.
We needed a venue capable of delivering a first class course that would build on those experiences. The Plymouth and the South West of England is the perfect choice. To the south you have the stunning natural harbour, to the north the wild moor land of Dartmoor National Park and to the west and east can be found picture-postcard villages, smugglers coves and some of the finest beaches in England, providing us with a varied terrain that will allow us to design testing strategies for both experienced and novice teams.
This wide variety of terrain is exactly what I’ll be examining over the next five months to design a creative, fun course to challenge all the facets of Intelligent Sport®. I’ll be writing a blog each month to let you know what the course team have been up to, to give you some of our top tips for the event and (if you’re lucky!) I may throw in the odd puzzle or clue. So keep checking the website for future updates.
In the meantime, signing up to this challenge will require certain things from you: preparation through improving your fitness and navigational skills, as well as fundraising for the event’s official charities, CARE International and Sparks. My top tips at this stage are firstly to train with your team mates. Get to know each other and understand each others strengths and weaknesses. The more you learn now, the fewer surprises you’ll have at the event. And secondly, make sure you get your fundraising activities underway so you don’t leave it all to the last minute.
More than anything you are signing up to an unforgettable experience – the most fun you’ll ever have at work!
Amy Whiteley
Course Director
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