Cisco UK & Ireland Blog

Firing the starting pistol on Leaderboard 2016

2 min read



It’s that time again – I’m calling on 30 of the UK’s CEOs to get behind a team triathlon challenge in a bid to raise a huge sum of money for Sport Relief.

On July 3rd a thousand people will be descending on Eton Dorney Lake in the Thames Valley, to swim, cycle and run their way into history, by competing in the most connected triathlon ever!

Welcome to Leaderboard.

We’ll be joined by British sporting legends Roger Black, Will Carling, Will Greenwood and Steve Backley as we collectively aim to smash our fund-raising total from 2012- 2014 of £500,000.

There’s a reason this means so much to me. I experienced first-hand the fantastic work of Sport Relief when I made a trip to Malawi a few years ago. They make a massive difference to the lives of millions of people in the UK and third world countries. We feel passionately about doing everything we can to help by fusing health and technology for the next generation of sporting events.

To bolster their efforts, this year we’re going to make Leaderboard the most connected triathlon ever. Each business leader is being kitted out with a FitBit, and we’ll have access to all their training data as we build up towards the big day. And CEOs are a notoriously competitive bunch, so our partners at Dimension Data will be involved in visualising all of that data – we’ll be able to reveal more on that soon.

Let me explain how the event will work. This year Leaderboard returns in the form of a team relay, with each team required to complete six laps of the course. One single lap consists of a 200m swim, a 5.2 km cycle and a 1.5k run. The total distance each team will need to cover is a 1.2km swim, a 31.2km cycle and a 9km run.

It’s the ideal distance for first-time amateurs wanting to give triathlon a go, while also raising money for a great cause. And if you’re a seasoned triathlon pro? It’s the perfect distance to challenge yourself against the clock.

For us at Cisco we’ve been proud technology and charity partners of Sport Relief for more than 15 years – and we’ve raised well in excess of £1 million so far.

Combine team donations with individual sponsorship and we’re hoping to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for Sport Relief this year. That money can make a huge impact on the lives of those in need.

On Sunday our CEOs will be kicking off their training at London’s Olympic Park as I lead the team to take in part the Sport Relief Mile. Good luck everyone!

Follow all the action on our see-all drone @TimTheDrone

The Leaderboard Challenge 2016 is sponsored by Cigna.

Authors

Phil Smith

Chairman, UK & Ireland

Chairman, Innovate UK and The Tech Partnership

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