Brave employees from Dome Recruitment Ltd in Putney will be leaving their desks to join up with 280 professionals representing some of the world’s leading companies to take on the Cisco Euro Challenge. From 8 – 11 September, teams will battle it out in the Ardennes Forest, Belgium, competing to be the greatest corporate team in Europe.

Teams have been submitted from Hewlett Packard, Punch Taverns, Barclays, Vodafone, Merrill Lynch and Accenture. Day and night these teams will be tested to their absolute physical and mental limits. Leading business executives that will be swapping their brogues for running shoes include:

o Siemens - VP, Rolf Lueb
o Merrill Lynch – VP, Matt Callahan and Head of EMEA, Roger Barris
o Accenture – CEO, Information Management Services, Royce Bell
o Punch Taverns – MD, Alistair Darlay

Using the unique Intelligent Sport™ concept, Challenger World carefully designs each course to test a variety of skills, ensuring that mental ability is as important as physical fitness. Key to success is developing a strategy, clear communication and teamwork. Teams from the mailroom to the boardroom will have to work well together, utilising the skills of all team members to complete a range of top-secret tasks that could include kayaking, mountain biking and mountaineering as well as bridge building, code breaking and complex construction.

Tom Craven, Ops Director says: “We’re really looking forward to the Cisco Euro Challenge and are working hard to prepare for the tough mental and physical challenges ahead. It will give us the chance to share experiences we wouldn’t get from our everyday working environment, while pitting our skills against a host of big names in business.”

Challenger World MD Andrew Finan commented, “We are extremely excited about this year’s event and have a great course designed for the teams. The Ardennes Forest is perfect terrain to provide a physical demanding course for competitors as well as a stunning backdrop for the event, which will be watched on television in over 100 countries.”

Andreas Dohmen, VP for Channels European Markets, Cisco Systems said, “Challenger World’s business to business format brings companies, partners and customers together under testing and unique conditions. The event has proved to be an excellent tool for reinforcing and building long lasting partner relations, and can be a lot of fun along the way.”

Companies will travel from across Europe to compete, including Norway, Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Hungary, Jersey, Belgium, Lebanon, Cyprus, UK and Slovakia. The top teams from the this years Cisco Euro Challenge will qualify to represent their country and company at the World Team Challenge in Citrus County Florida in December 2005.

Challenger World events are designed to attract the greatest companies in the world to compete in a series of adventure challenges whilst delivering the experience of a lifetime for individuals and great teams for businesses. In addition, fierce competition across industry sectors is given a new playing field and teams train hard to beat their rivals.