Based loosely on the TV series of the same name (but influenced by everything from The Cube to House of Games) this is a very popular “something for everyone” event mixing fun and a light level of competition. It can be run as a ‘block’ of activity (normally up to 2 hours with a break halfway) or a series of short energisers to punctuate a conference as delegates are invited to complete a series of simple-but-complicated competitive challenges.

The group are split into 4 teams (red, green, blue, yellow) - either pre-ordained, or at random, courtesy of an entertaining icebreaker - and issued with a coloured T-shirt or bib.

 It’s then down to each team to score as many points as they can by completing a series of fast-moving challenges issued by the Taskmaster; in all cases, tasks are scored on a qualitative basis, so that the better they are executed, the more points will be awarded.

While we normally run a mix of tasks requiring anything from one to several or all members of the team, the Covid19 Safe version will see most of the tasks being solo challenges (1 from each team) but part of the challenge will be for teams to decide who to “send up”, as they will be required to ‘rotate’ team members (the ‘standing rule’ is that individuals should not attempt another task until the rest of the team have had a turn: given that teams don’t know what type of challenge is coming up next, strategy is often replaced by improvisation!) – this is also true for those working from home, who will be set random head to head challenges as part of their teams.

Of course, the best teams will be those who are working most efficiently in utilising their resources (human or material), planning, communication, resource management, problem-solving, negotiation and time management. The tasks are as varied as the group (and can be adapted to meet particular group requirements): there’s a right old mix of mental agility, coordination, problem-solving and creativity but, for example, include:

Bean Bowl Relocation

Blind Love

Rollerball

SelloJars

An Average House

Thanks For The Memories

Plane Sight(less)

Conundrums

House Of Cards

Where’s Wally?

Overhead Scrunchball

Blowing Up

Stack Attack

…and many more seemingly-meaningless fast-moving challenges (about 30 in total over 2 hours) which only make sense when the team are set the task – prepare for a LOT of fun & laughter!