The suits will loosen their ties for contest
The tourist council will co-sponsor a three-day world event in which business colleagues compete in sports.
By DAWN REISS
Published August 11, 2005
HOMOSASSA SPRINGS - Don't expect any alligator wrestling when the World Team Challenge comes to Citrus County this December. But almost anything else is possible.
Hosted by Challenger World, a London company that has put on a similar European competition since 1990, the event calls for four-person teams of business colleagues to compete in sports and problem-solving skills to increase team building in the workplace.
Challenger World senior operations manager Jon Hazan and operations manager Mark Cunningham made a presentation on the Dec. 8-10 event Wednesday at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.
"I had some gator the other day," Hazan joked. "But I think that is close as we'll get for the event."
The two spent three days scouting the area for course options, which will include kayaking, canoeing and mountain biking.
The three-day event will include five challenges and include a night event through a forest. Participants must be able to run a minimum of 8 miles and swim to compete.
Thirty teams will compete in Citrus, qualifying from one of three feeder events: the Microsoft U.K. Challenge, the Cisco Euro Challenge and the upcoming U.S. Challenge in Asheville, N.C.
Last year, the World Team Challenge took place in Valencia, Spain. Hazan estimated the approximate revenue impact on Citrus will be $220,000.
Representatives of Challenger World learned about Citrus during a trade show attended by the county's tourism development manager, Mary Craven, and chose the county after touring its terrain in May 2004. They have partnered with the Citrus County Tourism Development Council and Citrus County Economic Development Council to co-sponsor the event.
"This is a fusion of sport and strategy," Hazan said. "Where football meets chess, where the brain is carried by the body."
Hazan and Cunningham visited with the Tourist Development Council during its regular monthly meeting Wednesday.
They showed a brief clip of a past competition. Hazan gushed about seeing manatees and bald eagles while exploring possible Citrus venues for the events.
"I think it is going to be awesome," he said, mentioning that he and others have already looked at Whispering Pines Park, Lake Henderson, the Plantation Inn and Kings Bay. Once locations are approved, the organization will work on securing permission to use them and will begin looking for local firms that can help with equipment and construction needs.
Hazan said the companies voicing interest in participation include Volvo, Dell and Microsoft. He told the tourism council that the international recognition the county would receive when the competition is broadcast to 160 different countries will be invaluable. He even predicted that some of the firms might send out representatives ahead of time to scope out the area and gather intelligence so they are prepared when the actual competition begins.
Also during Wednesday's meeting, the council voted to spend about $7,000 on a two-day photo shoot to prepare images that can be used in the new advertising campaign under development by the council's marketing consultant, Gold & Associates.
The new campaign, based largely on tourist feedback from a recent survey, will assemble collages of photos depicting Citrus County's many attributes, such as manatees and other wildlife, and focusing on water activities. Keith Gold showed the council some of the early proposals for how the ads might look.
He also asked the council to consider hiring professional talent to play the tourists for the photo shoot, but tourism development manager Mary Craven couldn't immediately find enough money in the budget for that. Instead, Gold will first look for local talent to participate in the project.
Times staff writer Barbara Behrendt contributed to this story.