Any seasoned conference delegate will tell you, as interesting as exhibitions may be, they can be extremely hard on the feet!

West Midlands-based social enterprise, Health Exchange, decided to test just how far the delegates at the recent "Voice 11" annual conference of the Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC), at London's O2 Arena, were going to be walking. 

The delegates attending the conference were set a 'Pedometer Challenge', to keep track of the number of steps they took throughout the day. Armed with free pedometers, handed out by Health Exchange, the delegates taking part in the challenge averaged a walking distance of just over 4.5 miles during the day. 

Assuming that each of the 1500 delegates in attendance at the conference walked the average of 4.5 miles, this totalled a whopping 6,900 miles! This is the equivalent of the journey between Nelson's Column in London and Times Square in New York, with 190 miles to spare.

The light-natured challenge came hand-in-hand with a serious message, related to Health Exchange's ongoing effort to get people thinking more carefully about their health, and making positive choices for a healthy lifestyle. 

Patrick McCormick, of Health Exchange, explained the rationale behind the unusual challenge: 

"Health Exchange is dedicated to helping people make lifestyle choices to improve their health and wellbeing, and taking exercise is one example of a positive and beneficial choice that people can make. Walking is one of the simplest ways to exercise, and one in which the majority of people can participate, regardless of the state of their health.

"We wanted to get as many people involved as possible, and to focus their attention on their health. The idea of the delegates collectively walking the distance to New York and back seemed a reasonable goal, and on the day it generated a buzz and lots of interest", he said. 

All those who texted or tweeted Health Exchange the number of steps they had taken on the day, were entered into a prize draw for a free 'taster day' of their 'Workplace Wellbeing' program, which was launched at the conference.

The winner, the Social Enterprise Coalition, was announced this week, after its CEO, Peter Holbrook entered by tweeting the whopping 19,204 paces (approx. 9.4 miles) he had recorded on the day. 

Staff members at Health Exchange are now preparing to 'walk the walk' themselves, when they take part in the Global Corporate Challenge, which starts on May 19th and runs for 16 weeks. In teams of seven, they will compete as they face their own pedometer challenges. 

Smiles were raised all round, after one of Health Exchange's most recent pedometer challenges was won by the appropriately named, Denise Walker!