[5] Inspired by his 1989 participation in an around-the-world race called the HumanRace,[6] Chalmers, and his travel companion, Andy J. Valvur,[7] won the one-off event collecting the $20,000 first place prize money in 17 days.

[9] After sixteen successful events, The Ringmaster retired with Chalmers handing The Global Scavenger Hunt over to Charles Brown & Anne Eubanks in 2024.

The event is designed to test the participants collective 'travel IQ'[10] requiring them to overcome language and communications barriers, cultural nuances, logistics, jet lag, team dynamics and 23-days of traveling across 24 time zones through ten countries.

Teams are, at times, prohibited from using any technology to assist them and are limited to using only local modes of public transportation as they attempt to complete the scavenges in the goal of fostering the "trusting of strangers in strange lands."

The funding was used to build schools (mostly co-ed elementary) with organizations like Free The Children in developing nations such as: Kenya, Niger, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, India, Haiti, Ethiopia and Ecuador, and to finance micro-loans in conjunction with KIVA that have assisted over 3,900 families in 80 countries.