You’d have been hard pushed to miss the GCC Frenzy that struck many of the staff in RCSD between May and September over the last two years!  A tiny little Accelerometer (a fancy name for pedometer) had many of us dancing our way to and from the kitchen to make tea, and carefully calculating the longest route between two meeting rooms.

It inspired many people to take up new hobbies (swimming, spinning, dancing, etc.), and helped create even stronger bonds in already close teams.

More importantly it got us away from our desks and out into the sunshine during the best months of the year – SUMMER!

After such a successful year last year (LSE came 1st against all other organisations in the UK education sector), LSE is getting involved in the Global Corporate Challenge again for 2016.

Wait wait wait, hold up!  I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.  Start again!

The Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) is an activity challenge that businesses around the world enrol teams in.  Last year over 370,000 people took part across the world.  Your LSE team will compete against other LSE teams, other Higher Education teams, and against all other teams around the world.

If you sign up, you will get sent an Accelerometer which you will need to wear for 100 days from 25th May. (The GCC is also compatible with some other devices, such as Jawbone and FitBit, so you may be able to use these instead, if you prefer)

For 100 days you will need to record your step count on the GCC website (don’t worry – there’s an app for that!).  The steps taken by members of your team help you walk around the world.  The more steps you do, the quicker you move, and the more locations you uncover.

At various stages you’ll be set extra challenges (e.g. achieve 100,000 steps in 7 days) to give you an extra bit of motivation, as well as given information about improving your diet and sleep quality.

After the 100 day challenge is over the website with more advice and mini challenges will still be available to you, but it becomes an individual challenge.

For more information, have a look at the LSE website and the GCC homepage, ask anyone who took part in GCC last year, or email Jennifer (j.frances@lse.ac.uk) or Claire (c.warne@lse.ac.uk).

Would YOU like to give it a go?

Whether you’ve been involved in GCC before or not, you are more than welcome to put yourself forward for this year.  In fact, priority will be given to those who haven’t previously taken part.  This is a challenge open to everyone, and you don’t have to be an aspiring athlete to get involved.  It’s more about incorporating more activity into your daily life, not just gaining credit for an already active lifestyle (though of course you have the right to feel smug and revel in your athleticism outside of the GCC!)

Already active people are definitely also welcome to take part but, to encourage fair competition between teams, only two ‘very highly active‘ people are allowed in each team of seven.

If you would like to take part, find a team of seven and register yourself online here.   If you can’t find a full seven, email Claire (c.warne@lse.ac.uk) who will try to buddy up part-teams to create a full team.  Unfortunately there is limited space available, so it might not be possible for everyone to take part (registering a team doesn’t guarantee you a place), but don’t let that stop you putting yourself forward!

We look forward to seeing interest from lots of you, and embarking together on a

Super Summer of Stepping!