A Powerful Innovation Challenge for Teams at Global Finals!

KNOXVILLE, TN—The 3M DIsaster Challenge is not for the weak, the timid, or the feint of heart. Inside this intense problem solving arena, the wacky minds at 3M and Destination ImagiNation® will throw anything and everything at teams. Teams must use creativity, problem solving and teamwork to brave their way through a series of challenges that simulate elements of a natural disaster. But teams should beware: As they fight their way out, they must innovate solutions or suffer the consequences.

Scheduled to run from May 20-23, 2009, the 3M DIsaster Challenge will be unlike any event ever held at a Destination ImagiNation (DI) Global Finals. Three DI teams will enter the DIsaster Challenge simultaneously, and once inside, they’ll form three new teams. Then they’ll disappear into one of three exciting storylines that details a distinct natural-disaster scenario and includes two electrifying challenges. The three teams will work through their scenarios at the same time, and to heighten the stakes, if teams are successful in completing the challenges, their passage through the DIsaster Challenge will be much easier.

In the final section of the 3M DIsaster Challenge, participants will unite with their original teams, and they will pool their collective knowledge to face a climactic final challenge. They will only succeed if they can apply what they’ve gained from their experiences, and if they can work together, they will prevail.

The DIsaster Challenge comes from the peculiar minds at 3M and Destination ImagiNation, who designed the event so teams can truly experience innovation. The event is designed to test teams with original challenges set in a hectic environment.

“A natural disaster is a setting that would certainly require innovation to navigate,” says Rusty McCarty, DI President. “We’re separating participants from their teammates to heighten the experience and make the experience more intense. The DIsaster Challenge will force teams to come up with solutions to fun, ramped-up challenges, and how they perform will affect their approach to the final challenge. The teams are going to be amazed by the entire scope of the event.”