Schweppes - Amazing Race Perth

May 4, 2016

The Amazing Race is all about putting teams through their paces as they race around the city tracking down information about their city, taking on challenges that give a real indicator how they work as a team and have a whole lot of fun doing it. For this Amazing Race Perth challenge the activities came from the outset as a sprinkling of rain came from the sky and set the stage of a fast race where the corporate team of Schweppes had to face adversity and ask how committed they were to the goal of reaching our coveted beyond the boardroom medallions and probably a cold beverage.

The picturesque gardens of the supreme court provided a great place to get the schweppes team into their race. It was very evident from the beginning that in the 29 crew that would participate there were various competitive levels and with that the tempo raised for the beginning of this Amazing Race.

There is no better way to start a race than buy testing the trust factor in the teams or the absence of trust. As the rain fell harder the teams would take on a blind fold challenge that would highlight their ability to communicate without spoken communication and to achieve the goal of retrieving items by working together as conga line. This challenge always splits the teams with various strategies and approaches to the task. Sometimes its a matter of limited communication being the downfall to downright laughter as all the teams navigated their way to the all important first clue.

The outcome for schweppes saw all 5 teams track down their items and then race off all directions so it was very clear there were different strategies going on even though they all had the same clue. The first two legs takes them into a treasure hunt of tracking down Perth history and significant landmarks. You can learn a lot about a team is their commitment to hug statues and pretend to be kangaroos in the broad daylight in the CBD. Also included is part of the race is to meet Perth’s most famous TV star coffee maker Peter from Mini Espresso to get their next clue.

At this stage the front runners were the Schweppes Red team followed closely by the Schweppes Blue. The remaining Schweppes Green, Yellow and Black team were trailing behind or choosing a different strategy. As they arrived at Perth Concert Hall the 3rd Stage of the race the first teams were reminded about the 5 dysfunctions of a team with a Roadblock Photo challenge in which they were asked to put into a picture one of the 5. All the teams were very keen on portraying a fear of conflict with some very funny photos. After this the teams were asked to put their minds together and see what personalities, strengths and weaknesses come to the surfaced faced with a Water bottle and rope challenge. The aim being to empty the bottle without being near it. The schweppes teams, especially team Red and team blue were innovative from the outset as they used the local park benches and trees to create contraptions to achieve the goal. While the black used full force and grunt and the yellow team just wanted to shake, shake, shake.

With over 10 minutes between first and last it would be interesting if we would have a change in the status and see who would come out on top in the last 2 legs of the race. As the racers went off and did their best pilot impersonation, concert pose and reveal their artistic geniuses in the teams it would see Schweppes Red and Blue arrive at a very busy Murray st Mall for a problem solving challenge of fitting a member through a piece of A4 piece of paper. After the blank looks teams blue and red consulted Dr google and came up with the answer in quit time. The remaining three teams also arrived about 10 minutes later not closing the gap on the frontrunners, but achieving the challenge in quick time.

The final leg of Amazing Race is the final test of the teams and their commitment to a task as they have track down one Perth’s famous London Cabs and make their way to purchase the most unusual delicacy they could find in China town just over the bridge to Northbridge and only using $10 for both. Their true commitment would be tested and heroes arise as they would have to eat these purchases at the finish line in front of their colleagues. Sometimes luck follows a team and this certainly would be difference and determine the eventual winner today with a London Cab pulling up after the team had purchased their item and say you need a lift. The other teams were so fortunate trying to track down there rare cab experiences.

As the hours had passed and the km certainly clocked up the teams arrived at the flash bar of the Stables on Hay st and much to my surprise the first bandannas i laid eyes on was the colour of blue, but would they have chosen the fastest and cleverest strategy only time would tell. Soon after was the Schweppes Red teams and then quite a gap back to the green team, black teams and finally a whole 25 minutes later the yellow team which couldn't track down that elusive London Cab.

As the artworks poured in, the answers and the many creative modes of transport the results of the Schweppes would pan out like this. Bringing home the wooden spoon were the team in Yellow with strategy that didn't quite work out for them, however includes the most modes of transport including hotel luggage racks, wheelie bins and more. Coming 4th were Schweppes black, not without taking out the prize for best artists. Schweppes green closed the gap on the frontrunners, but their strategy just didn't quite get them into contention for the prize. So it came down to the most competitive teams all day and they were Schweppes blue and red. And after their strategies were calculated, the answers and their problem solving prowess it would see a last leg victory by Schweppes blue and maybe that little bit of lady luck at the end would be the difference.

The Schweppes team were full of smiles, a lot of laughter and few interesting insights about their teams and overall really satisfied with a great afternoon where the rain did become sunshine and another Amazing Race was put in the record books of Beyond the Boardroom.

Written by Justin Monaghan of Beyond the Boardroom.

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