If you’ve ever directed even a single race, there’s a good chance you would have received at least one email from a frustrated participant complaining about the distance they ran not matching your race advertised distance. They do have a GPS watch, you know.

And although it’s easy to jokingly dismiss these kinds of demands - most people do - there often is an uncomfortable point to the complaint: How do you know the actual distance of your race course, if it hasn’t been accurately measured and certified?

The answer, of course, is you can’t really know. In fact, if empirical evidence from professional course measurers offer any kind of hint, it is that your actual course distance is likely much more off the distance you advertise than you think - most likely much shorter than the advertised distance.

So what’s involved in getting your race course professionally measured and certified? Why don’t all the other methods we’re all familiar with, like drawing lines on a map or using a measuring wheel, work as well? And, at the end of the day, do participants really care whether your course is actually 10K rather than 9.8?

That’s what we’re discussing today with my guest, Matt Slocum of Precision Course Design. Matt, although a very accomplished runner, is a relative newcomer to the business of races, but what he lacks in industry mileage he more than makes up for in his dedication and obsession with the craft of course measurement. 

And with Matt’s help we’re going to be going behind the scenes of a race course measuring operation to look at how professional course measurement works, why most other DIY methods tend to underestimate the distance of a race course (often by a lot), and how investing a modest amount in professional course measurement can actually benefit your race for years to come.

In this episode:

• Do your participants care about an accurately measured course?
• What types of races is course measurement relevant for?
• The process of professional course measurement: how it all works
• Why the course you've measured yourself on a map is probably short
• Designing a road course to match the race distance you aim for in your event
• How course certification works
• The cost of measuring and certifying your race
• Making small changes to a certified course

To find a course measurer in your region, use the links below:

• USA: rrtc.net
• UK: coursemeasurement.org.uk
• Canada: athletics.ca

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Brooksee, for supporting the podcast:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 28,000 events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Brooksee are the timing technology industry-leader, bringing affordable real-time tracking and timing checkpoints to races with their patented iPhone-sized micro checkpoints. Find out more and get 50% off your timing for your next event at https://www.brooksee.com/headstart.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about course measurement or anything else in our Facebook

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If there’s one thing you can’t have enough of as a race director, it’s race insurance. Particularly - knock on wood - when the unexpected happens and you’re faced with a dreaded lawsuit that threatens to take away your livelihood and your piece of mind.

So how can you best protect yourself and your business from the risks associated with putting on a race? What will your standard event liability policy cover? What does it exclude? And how should you expect to be protected against legal and medical claims should your race be held liable for a participant injury or loss of property?

That’s what we’re discussing today with my guest, Nicholas Hill Group partner and event insurance veteran, Nathan Nicholas. Through Nicholas Hill Group, Nathan has helped develop some of the most robust and widely-used specialist insurance policies for the endurance events industry, and with his help we’ll try to understand where the boundaries of liability insurance protection lie for you, the event organizer; how event liability insurance ties in with other types of business insurance you may be buying; how the type of race you put on affects the cost and availability of insurance cover you might find in the market; and how the diligent use of participant waivers and incident documentation can help reduce the risk of frivolous lawsuits being filed against you.

In this episode:

• Event liability insurance: what it is and what kinds of contingencies it covers
• How event liability insurance differs from Business Owner's Policies (BOPs) and other types of general business insurance
• Will an event liability policy cover me for event-related work outside of race day?
• Will an event liability policy cover volunteers, spectators and third-party vendors on site on race day?
• Negligence and gross negligence in the context of liability insurance.
• Understanding an event liability policy: deductibles, claim limits, additional insured's. 
• Getting insurance for obstacle races, ultramarathons, night races, races serving alcohol.
• Liability waivers: do they work?
• What to do (and not to do) when sued for liability by a participant or other party.
• How are your legal costs covered in the event of a lawsuit? Will you have to pay out of pocket?
• Does a virtual race need liability insurance?
• Race cancellation insurance: what it is and what it covers
• Will a race cancellation insurance policy cover the costs of postponing instead of cancelling a race?

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Brooksee, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 28,000 events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Brooksee are the timing technology industry-leader, bringing affordable real-time tracking and timing checkpoints to races with their patented iPhone-sized micro checkpoints. Find out more and get 50% off your timing for your next event at https://www.brooksee.com/headstart.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about event liability insurance or anything else in our Facebook group,

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On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs planted by brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tarnaev exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. In the devastation that ensued, three innocent people lost their lives, while 281 others were injured, in what was, and still remains, the biggest ever terrorist incident suffered by a mass-participation sporting event.

In the midst of all this, Boston Marathon race director, Dave McGillivray, and his team, working alongside emergency services, had to deal with a situation never before encountered by a race management team, while working under huge stress and personal risk to help runners with very little concrete information to go on on what had happened and what might be around the corner.

Today with Dave’s help, we’re going to be revisiting those remarkable events that took place 10 years ago that brought the horrors of terrorism into endurance events and forever changed the security protocols major mass-participation races around the globe have had to contend with ever since. 

We’re going to be going over the dramatic minutes and hours following the bomb explosions at the 2013 Boston Marathon, the response of the race management team, lessons learned from dealing with uncertainty when every second counts, as well as look at the aftermath of those events on security measures for the 2014 race and other races around the world, the impact these measures have had on race experience, and the legacy of the 2013 bombings on Boston Marathon and beyond.

In this episode:

• The amazing story of the Boston Marathon, the world's oldest annual marathon
• Contingency planning and emergency protocols prior to 2013
• The calm before the storm: going into the 2013 event in an upbeat mood following a near-canceled 2012 race
• Scrambling for answers and loved ones after the bombs went off
• Setting priorities in the immediate aftermath of the bombing
• Stopping the race and redirecting runners
• Working alongside and coordinating with emergency services 
• The importance of team training, planning and efficient communication in handling unforeseen emergencies 
• Improvising in the face of uncertainty
• The impact of the bombing on runners, race staff and the city of Boston
• Increasing security measures at the aftermath of the 2013 race
• The effect of additional security measures on the race experience, race banditing
• The legacy of the 2013 bombing on event operations and the "new normal"

Links:

• Boston Athletic Association - https://www.baa.org/ 
• DMSE Sports - https://www.dmsesports.com/
• Dave McGillivray Finish Strong Foundation - https://www.davemcgillivrayfoundation.org/

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about this episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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If you’ve done the hard work of prospecting and soliciting sponsors, and got some of your prospects to engage with you, you may be forgiven in thinking your job is done.

Actually, that’s where the real work begins - understanding your sponsor’s needs and closing the deal with a sponsorship proposal that hits all the right notes.

So, how do you get into your sponsor’s head? How do you put together a sponsorship proposal that clicks with them, while maximizing the value you get out of a potential deal? And how do you gather clues on what a sponsor might be willing to pay, before you actually submit your proposal to them?

That’s what we’ll be discussing today with returning guest, Green Cactus CEO, Teresa Stas. It’s a pleasure to have Teresa back on the podcast after our very popular chat back in episode 40 last September on finding and approaching sponsors, and today we’re taking the next step on the sponsorship sales journey to look at the challenges and secrets behind researching, preparing and delivering a winning sponsorship proposal. 

Among other things, we’re going to be looking at the all important discovery session, where you get to spend time understanding the sponsor’s needs before submitting your proposal, as well as some very useful tips on efficiently drafting customized proposals, and navigating the negotiations that hopefully will get to follow your proposal submission. 

In this episode:

• The importance of holding a discovery meeting with sponsors before sending out a proposal
• Preparing for your sponsor discovery meeting
• What questions to ask during the discovery meeting
• Getting a feel for a sponsor's budget expectations 
• Easily customizing sponsorship proposals 
• The layout of a comprehensive sponsorship proposal
• Dealing with sponsor radio silence and/or rejection
• Negotiating sponsorship fees
• Drafting a robust sponsorship agreement
• Using sponsorship brokers

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about sponsorship proposals or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Selling merchandise is a great way to increase brand loyalty for participants outside race day, and, of course, a very good way to increase revenue from your event.

So, how do you get started selling race merchandise, both online, on packet pickup and on race day? How do you pick and test merchandise items that sell? And, very importantly, how do you manage inventory well to maximize sales while minimizing the risk of costly leftover items?

That’s what we’re going to be discussing today with my guest, Greelayer apparel President, and merchandising expert, Kim Bilancio. Kim has spent decades in the race apparel industry, where, among other things, she has been running the race merchandise programs for Hood to Coast and other prestigious events up and down the country. 

And today Kim will be helping us get a feel for what race merchandising is, how it works, what types of events it is (and isn’t) best suited for, and how, when implemented right, it can help increase your race’s revenue, while giving your participants a piece of your race to keep, cherish and showcase year-round. 

In this episode:

• What race merchandising can do for your event
• On-site (race day, packet pickup) vs online (registration flow, website) merchandise sales
• Starting out selling race merchandise as part of your registration flow
• Outsourcing merchandise sales to an apparel vendor vs doing it in-house
• How small things like weather can affect merchandise sales
• Guesstimating apparel sizes to order from past data and registration trends
• What types of races merchandising is (and isn't) well suited for
• Working on a commission vs flat-rate basis with merchandise vendors
• Choosing where to set up your merch store on packet pickup and race day
• Choosing products to sell in your merch store
• Picking shirt styles and qualities for your store that work alongside your finisher shirt
• The tech shirt vs tri blend debate
• Including non-wearables in your merch offering
• Including cycling kits and other specialized merch for multisport events
• Printing items on-demand for registration flow merch stores
• Shipping merch to participants pre-race day

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race merchandising, growing your race's revenue or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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From the minute the first participant shows up on race day till the time the last one leaves, responsibility for the wellbeing of everyone on and around your race course rests with you - the race director.

So, how can you make sure your medical preparations are up to scratch? How do you figure out how many - and what type - of resources to dedicate to your race? And where does your duty of care as the race organizer towards your participants even begin and end, practically, legally and morally?

That is what we’ll be discussing today with my guest, Natasha Beach. Besides being the medical director for such prestigious events and organizations as the Manchester Marathon, London Triathlon and Cancer Research UK, Natasha runs her own multi-award-winning event medical cover company, SportsMedics, as well as heading some of the most high-profile efforts to formalize race medical planning in the UK through her positions as Chief Medical Officer of England Athletics and medical advisor to UK Athletics. 

In this episode:

• Understanding the stress the human body goes through during a race
• Why men are at a higher risk of suffering a medical incident during a race than women
• How speed, herd mentality and participant excitement make everything worse on race day
• How the incidence of specific medical issues evolves over the duration of a race
• Duty of care: what is expected of you as the race director
• The pitfalls of relying on public medical resources
• Doctors vs nurses vs paramedics vs first-aiders: what's the difference?
• Using in-house stuff and volunteers as your first-aid team on race day
• Vetting third-party first-aid cover providers and medical companies
• Working out how many and what types of medical resources you'll need
• Sharing your race medical plan with emergency services
• Collecting medical history notes from participants to use in case of an emergency
• Requiring mandatory participant medical certificates: do they help?
• Recording race-day medical incidents and compiling a post-race medical report

If you are based in the UK, you can sign Natasha's petition on extending regulation of health services to medical services at events here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/633938 

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about medical, risk and contingency planning or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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If you’ve been following our industry updates on race and participation growth, you may have picked up on the fact that trail running, and trail races, have been doing particularly well over the last few years. In fact, trail racing seems to be one of the few spots within racing still growing at a healthy enough rate as other areas in racing are stagnating or slowly falling behind.

So, what is fueling trail racing’s amazing growth? How different are trail races to organize, promote and grow compared to your typical road race? And, despite the robust growth, what challenges, if any, does trail racing face as it matures into a more popular sport?

With me today to cover this very interesting ground is veteran trail runner, trail racer and trail race director, John Lacroix. Through his Colorado-based Human Potential Running Series, John has been at the helm of dozens of trail and ultra races through the years, and with his help we’re going to be taking a look at all aspects of the trail racing business, from the culture and community that has been at the core of the sport’s success to the nitty-gritty everyday details trail race directors have to contend with in operations, course maintenance and marking, and, of course, safety management.

In this episode:

• The appeal of trail racing
• Improving diversity and inclusivity in trail and ultra running
• Is ultra running's inability to attract younger participants spelling trouble down the line?
• The lack of dedicated educational materials and accreditation for trail race directors
• The complexities (and costs) of obtaining permits for a trail/ultra race
• The challenge of finding and attracting volunteers
• Marking a trail/ultra running course (hint: it's not for the faint-hearted!)
• Managing risk and keeping participants safe in a trail race
• The economics of trail and ultra races
• The reality of attracting sponsorship dollars in trail races
• Marketing trail races: word of mouth, social media, race calendars, event cross-promotions
• Race director collaboration in trail racing

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about the business of trail and ultra races or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Over the last decade or so, lots has changed in the social media landscape. Facebook has gone from exciting upstart to the mature granddaddy of social media, Instagram has grown by leaps and bounds to become the platform of choice for visually engaging content, and TikTok has emerged as the new contender in the battle for social media supremacy, favored mostly by younger audiences, looking for the next cool and exciting network to join.

So, how should your organic social media presence adapt to this ever-changing landscape? Should you still be spending time on Facebook? Should you be switching to an Instagram-first mentality? And what kinds of content should you post? How often? And with what purpose?

This and many many other questions is what we’ll be discussing today with the help of my guests, digital marketing pros Leigha Pindroh of Pittsburgh Marathon organizers P3R and Alex Ross of the Denver Colfax Marathon. 

With tons of practical experience between them, Leigha and Alex are here to take us from high-level social media strategy all the way down to your everyday content writing tactics, including tips on managing your content schedule, mixing up value posts with marketing content, leveraging user-generated content, as well some off-the-beaten-track stuff you may not even be thinking about, like using LinkedIn to tap into your local corporate wellness market. 

In this episode:

• Is organic social media reach dead?
• Understanding the effectiveness of your social media posts/campaigns
• The most effective social media platforms for races: Facebook, Instagram
• The challenges of making it on TikTok
• Promoting your race to local businesses and corporates through LinkedIn
• Engaging with your audience with Stories, Reels, polls
• Types of content to put out through your social media
• The 80:20 rule: posting 80% value posts (entertainment, education etc), 20% sales posts
• Leveraging user-generated stories and other content
• Hashtags, emojis: where to use and how
• Designing content with an Instagram-first mentality
• Planning your social media content schedule
• Productivity tools: Hootsuite, Canva, Facebook Publishing tools

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about social media, digital marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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In a number of our past podcasts, we’ve touched on the issue of race waste - and specifically a particularly significant and persistent part of that issue which is water cup waste.

In an ideal world - or shall I say in a trail running world - we’d all love to put on cupless races, where racers themselves are responsible for bringing along their own water containers to the race. But, unfortunately, that high standard may be a little ways off still for the majority of road running and multisport races out there.

So what can we do to take some of the strain of water cup waste off of our industry?

One approach, coming out of Florida-based company Hiccup is reusable water cups, that is, durable cups that are collected, professionally sanitized and reused between races. And today I have the great pleasure of talking to the person at the forefront of that movement, Hiccup owner Kristina Smithe.

Kristina started Hiccup in 2019 through her frustration with the rate at which water cups were being consumed in races, and has since had her Hiccup silicon cups used in such great events as Grandma’s Marathon, Rocket City Marathon and Around the Crown 10K. And she’ll be telling us today how the Hiccup service works, from delivery to collection, and how you could potentially bring Hiccup’s reusable water cups to your race next year.

In this episode:

• How Hiccup's reusable cup service works
• What races Hiccup is best (and less well) suited for
• Setting up Hiccup on race day
• Runner's reviews of using Hiccups
• Recovering, sanitizing and reusing Hiccup's silicon cups
• Compostable vs reusable cups
• The cost of bringing Hiccup to your race

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about sustainability, reducing race waste or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Gravel racing has been one of the fastest growing sectors in mass-participation sports over the last decade or so, particularly in the US, where high-profile races like UNBOUND Gravel, Rebecca’s Private Idaho and Belgian Waffle Ride have grown massively in popularity, attracting a broad range of both veteran and newcomer cyclists to the sport.

It’s against this backdrop that in 2019 professional road racer Amy Charity launched her own gravel race around the ski resort town of Steamboat Springs, CO, where she then lived. As Forbes magazine put it, SBT GRVL went on to become a remarkable overnight success, selling out in just 9 minutes in its second year and becoming one of the best gravel racing experiences in the world. 

So what has been the secret to the race’s massive success? That’s what we’re here to find out with Amy’s help - and in the process learn a thing or two about the unstoppable sensation that is gravel racing. 

In this episode:

• An "overnight success": planning and launching SBT GRVL 
• The importance of local infrastructure in supporting a world-class race
• Building community relations and being a respectful "guest" in the local community
• The appeal and insane growth of US gravel racing
• Road racing vs gravel racing vs mountain biking
• How inclusivity helped propel gravel racing's growth
• The cost advantages/disadvantages of organizing a gravel race vs a road race
• Making SBT GRVL a more welcoming event for female athletes and newcomers
• Including a non-competitive e-bike category into the event
• Activating sponsorships year-round through grassroots and team-building events
• Offering a VIP package/experience option
• Bringing the SBT GRVL brand to Europe with FNLD GRVL

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Besides race medals and finisher shirts, the one experience item participants have come to expect from a race, particularly in this digital age, is a good set of professional race photos.

And perhaps because of the cultural changes that have come with the digital age, the purpose of race photography within the endurance events business has been swinging back and forth between race photos as a secondary revenue stream vs race photos as a marketing tool.

So, do you offer paid photos, as a means of boosting your current bottom line? Or do you give photos away for free, as a marketing investment aimed at higher participation growth in the future?

This and other questions is what we’ll be discussing today with the help of my guests, race director, race consultant and general race-jack-of-all-trades Josh Reed of On Path Events, and professional race photographer John Kelly of John Kelly Photos. 

Among other things we’ll look at how modern race photography works, from snap to download, how you can work with your race photographer to create some really memorable shots for your participants, and, as mentioned earlier, we’re going to be looking at the various business models around race photography, how they’ve been trending lately, and which might be best suited for your event.

In this episode:

• The difference between event promotional photos vs participant/race photos
• Enhancing the participant race experience through race photos
• Who buys race photos and why
• The cost of race photography for different types of events
• Looking at your course through the eyes of a race photographer
• Picking good spots to shoot from
• Creating spectator areas
• Working with your race photographer
• The journey of a race photo: from shooting through sorting and tagging to being delivered to participants
• Is delivering race photos fast important?
• Free participant photos: the argument for and against
• Typical purchase rates for paid photos, and impression/download stats for free photos
• Getting sponsors involved in race photos
• The future of race photography

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race photography or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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If there’s one thing that often sets apart races that go on to do really well from others that struggle to gain traction in their community, it’s the ability of the former - and the inability of the latter - to engage with the non-race world. And nowhere is this more evident than the way in which events interact with local media.

The truth of the matter is, very few people participate in races. And very few people outside of those who do care about anything race-specific a race has to say.

So how can races hope to reach out to the broader public? What stories can they tell that are relevant to many more people than the ones who show up at the start line on race day? And how can you, armed with those stories, get out and pitch them to your local paper, radio or TV station?

That is what we’ll be discussing today with my guest Race El Paso owner, Gabriela Gallegos. Gabriela is a triathlon race director, so it’s not totally unfair to describe her audience as a bit niche, by broad-appeal standards. Yet, Gabriela managed to make triathlon the talk of the town in El Paso, TX through a series of media engagements culminating in the live broadcast of her all-female Mighty Mujer triathlon by her local NBC affiliate, an achievement for which she was recently recognized with USA Triathlon’s annual Innovation Award. And today she’ll be helping us break down the art of engaging local media, from finding the story to pitching the people that matter.

In this episode:

• Why developing a local media strategy matters
• Which kinds of stories get the local press excited (and which don't) 
• Being deliberate about bringing out the stories in your event
• Human interest stories: what they are, and how to promote them
• Writing engaging press releases: the 5Ws + who cares?
• Beyond human interest stories: expert advice stories & op-eds
• Matching the tone and content of your story to your target press outlet
• Finding the right press contact and pitching your story to the press 
• Media alerts and monitoring online media
• Working with TV stations on live race coverage

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about engaging local media or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Send us a text

When doors start dropping off planes mid-air or your favorite online retailer gets in touch to let you know your personal details may have been compromised, it’s tempting to think you may have done a better job handling that crisis were you in their shoes.

But how well-prepared are you really to manage the many crises that can come up during the planning and delivery of your race? Anything from a late delivery of medals or an unfortunate slip-up on social media to a full blown race cancellation.

That’s what we’re discussing today with my guest, PR pro Meg Treat of Treat Public Relations. Meg has been on the podcast before, discussing DIY PR strategies for race directors, and in today’s episode she joins me once more to discuss crisis communications, that is, what you should and shouldn’t do when a crisis hits. 

How early should you look to communicate the situation to your participants and stakeholders? How should you go about doing it? And is the much-revered total transparency approach your best bet out of a tricky spot?

In this episode:

• Crises big and small: what constitutes a crisis?
• Are social media making crises worse and more frequent?
• Navigating safely around the culture war minefields
• To comment or not to comment: does acknowledging a crisis make it worse? 
• Getting ahead of a crisis: how early should you start communicating about a potential crisis?
• Turning a crisis into an opportunity
• Are there lesser or "almost" crises you can ignore?
• Balancing financial loss against reputation loss in a race cancellation
• The importance of a well-thought-out refund policy
• Showing empathy towards your participants when something goes wrong that may affect their race
• Taking ownership gracefully and staying out of the blame game
• Writing a crisis communications plan

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Whether you’re putting on races through a for-profit or a nonprofit organization, having a good grasp of your race budget can often make the difference between a profitable bottom line and days of post-race head-scratching about what went wrong to land you in the red.

Admittedly, building and maintaining a race budget is not a lot of fun - not to most people, anyway - but it is something that has to be done, and has to be done right.

So to help us understand what “right” looks like for a race budget, I’ve got the pleasure of being joined in the podcast today by SRSE Sports’ Sean Ryan. 

Sean has been a veteran of the industry with almost 20 years of experience in race directing, marketing, operations and financial planning, and was once hailed as “the most overeducated race director” in the industry, holding an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. And today he’ll be helping us understand the value of good budgeting practices, how to put together a transparent and practically useful race budget, as well as sharing his thoughts on managing budget shortfalls and juggling the complexities of cost cutting while trying to maintain a quality race experience. 

In this episode:

• Why putting on races is a capital intensive exercise that requires sound budgeting
• Where most race budgets fail: over-exuberance and erroneous assumptions
• The importance of keeping an updated working copy of your budget at all times
• Top line revenue vs bottom line revenue vs gross profit vs operating profit vs net profit
• Organizing expenses by category: administrative, operating, marketing
• Fixed vs variable expenses, and why fixed expenses can break your budget
• What you should aim for for a healthy bottom-line profit
• The perils of underspending on marketing
• How to build a budget from the ground up
• Calculating your budget breakeven point
• Managing budget shortfalls
• Transparent vs non-transparent cost cuts, and why, if you have to cut costs, you need to start with the latter
• You can raise prices or reduce quality, but you should not try to do both
• How to treat donations and in-kind sponsorship on your budget
• The true cost of race volunteers

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race budgeting or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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When you want to know what’s happening and trending in the endurance events industry by the numbers, where do you turn to? Well, for me and many people I know, the definitive source of event data for the industry is, and has been for some time, RunSignup’s annual RaceTrends report.

The report leverages RunSignup’s extensive registration data from tens of thousands of events to point to trends in overall event participation, event pricing, participant demographics, registration trends and a myriad other things.

The most recent edition of the report was out a couple of weeks ago, and, despite a weak start to 2022, the data does seem to suggest that the post-pandemic industry recovery is picking up pace with some races recovering better than others and noticeable entry fee increases across the board on all race distances and disciplines.

With me today to discuss the numbers, the trends and their implications for individual events and the industry as a whole, I’m delighted to have RunSignup’s own Bob Bickel and Johanna Goode. Bob and Johanna will be helping me make sense of some of the more interesting data points in the report and offer their own takes on what the numbers might be telling us for where the industry could be heading in 2023 and beyond.

In this episode:

• A few words about the RunSignup Roadshow 
• 2022 overall registrations compared to 2021 and 2019
• The outlook for registrations in 2023
• Why registrations growth for larger events underperformed smaller races in 2022
• Event churn (=percentage of races that haven't returned in consecutive years) since 2019 and 2021
• Repeat participation trends, and why they matter
• Virtual race participation stats
• Increasing inclusivity in races and making the most of the post-pandemic running boom
• Age group participation trends and Gen Z runners
• When people register and how it's changed since the pandemic
• Are higher entry fees having an impact on participation numbers?

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about the numbers in today’s podcast, registration trends or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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It isn’t every day that an entirely new mass participation racing concept emerges that can take the world by storm. But, that’s exactly what’s happened over the past few years with the rise of HYROX, a new racing format, combining functional fitness and endurance in an indoor mass participation race.

Launched in Germany in 2017 by veteran multisport race organizer Christian Toetzke with the help of co-founder Moritz Fuerste and a select team of colleagues, HYROX has exploded in popularity to become the fastest growing mass participation fitness concept in the world.

So what is HYROX? What makes it so special? How does it relate to other race formats out there like obstacle racing? And, how does the highly lucrative business of HYROX work? Well, we’re going to be going through all that and more today with the help of my guest, HYROX USA & UK Managing Director, Douglas Gremmen.

In this episode:

• Combining fitness and endurance in coming up with the HYROX concept/format
• The history of fitness racing before HYROX
• Bringing mass participation racing to gym goers (and giving gym goers something to train for)
• Rolling out HYROX in Europe, the US and the rest of the world
• Obstacle races vs HYROX: differences and similarities
• HYROX in the Olympics?
• Designing a scalable race format: making workouts accessible, safe, easy to monitor and easy to transport between venues
• Race timing in a HYROX race (it's complicated!)
• Getting thousands of people around an indoor racing course
• How large can a HYROX race get?
• What it costs to enter a HYROX event (and what you get for it)
• Involving spectators in the HYROX race experience
• Growing HYROX internationally through franchisees
• HYROX' gym partnerships driving growth and secondary revenue
• A look at HYROX' growing competition

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about HYROX, the business of races or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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When races grow from scratch, particularly as passion projects, there often comes a time where growth grinds to a halt. Participation seems to gradually plateau around a few hundred participants and any progress beyond that seems impossible.

So, how do you break through this resistance point to grow a race from the hundreds to the thousands? What changes should you make to your team and event to take your growth to the next level? And how do you manage this next stage of growth while avoiding the pitfalls that come with growing too fast?

That’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest, Glass City Marathon race director, Clint McCormick. When it comes to systematically scaling up races, Clint has been there, done that and got the T-shirt, having grown the Glass City Marathon from a club race of a few hundred runners to a nationally recognised event of almost 10,000 runners, while increasing revenues for the race by over 20 times in the process. 

In our discussion today we are going to be touching on all the key elements for success in scaling up a race, including race branding and rebranding, building processes and systems for the long run, analyzing and reinventing your product offering to make it more appealing to sponsors, and using sponsorship to fuel your future growth. All this while putting safeguards in place to make sure you don’t grow too fast and get yourself into trouble.

In this episode:

• Moving a race from volunteer staff to professional/paid staff
• Understanding your brand and rebranding your race
• Nurturing local runners from 5K through to longer-distance events 
• Examining your race distance offering and culling/adding events accordingly
• Fueling growth through sponsorships, and building a product that sponsors want
• Tips on scaling up your team
• The pitfalls of growing too fast
• Managing growth sustainably by capping participant numbers
• Investing in race ambassadors and other grassroots marketing programs
• In-house marketing vs employing a marketing agency

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about scaling up and the business of races or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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In RunSignup’s latest RaceTrends report, registration data showed that less than 13% of race participants in 2021 races fell within the 18-30 age group - a number that used to be almost 18% as recently as 2017, and keeps on falling.

So why is it that races fail to attract younger audiences?

That’s what we’ll be exploring today with the help of my guest Pacers Running Marketing Director, Ryan Callahan. Ryan and the Pacers Running team recently pulled off the remarkable feat of getting more than 40% of their DC Half start line made up of 18-30 runners, and we’ll be going over a number of deliberate strategic and tactical decisions the team took to encourage participation within that younger demographic. Among other things, we’ll look at intentional branding and website design as a means of appealing to younger runners, and initiatives undertaken by the team in offline as well as online marketing to reach that target demographic. 

Today’s discussion probably doesn’t hold all the answers to this very complex challenge facing the industry, but there’s some very big clues in there about what races can do to improve their appeal among younger audiences.

In this episode:

• Participation trends in the 18-30 age group
• Why the Gen Z problem is fixable, and some races are doing better than others
• How DC Half managed to attract 3 times more 18-30 runners than the US race average
• The making of the DC Half brand
• Being intentional with your event choices: race name, logo, swag, website, course design
• Why it's important to keep your race website clear of information clutter
• Beyond cliches: building a DC race from the perspective of a DC local
• Checking boxes vs being thoughtful about your race swag choices
• Offline marketing strategies for reaching 18-30 runners
• Building an engaging race brand on Instagram
• Leveraging community and grassroots efforts to reach your target audience

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about branding, marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Today, we are going to be taking a trip down memory lane, looking at some of my favourite podcast highlights from the past year. It’s been an amazing year for Head Start - our second year on the air - and, as we head into 2023, I wanted to say how grateful we all are at Race Directors HQ for your support of the podcast and everything else we do. So thank you guys for continuing to tune in and for your kind words about the work we do here at Head Start.

Of course, there’s a special thanks due to our awesome podcast sponsor RunSignup, so a big big festive year-end thank you to the amazing folks at Moorestown, NJ, helping us bring great content to the entire race directors community. This really wouldn’t have been possible with RunSignup’s support, and we’re very grateful to have such a great company on our side.

If you are looking to make a fresh start with your event technology partner in 2023, there’s no better place to look than RunSignup, so make sure to check out all their awesome technology platform has to offer your race by visiting runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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If you’ve been following the podcast for a while, you’ll know that what we try to do at Head Start is bring you actionable, expert advice you can learn from to grow and improve your race - hopefully, with a bit of entertainment on the side.

Today marks the first episode in a new way of helping you on your race director journey. Spotlight is a new type of episode where we go inside some of the most innovative, best run races and race concepts to learn how the things we touch on in other episodes, like building a sponsorship portfolio, developing a grassroots marketing strategy or elevating the race experience, actually work in practice when executed by some of the brightest leaders in the industry.

And in our first Spotlight episode, we travel to Charlotte, NC to see how race director Brian Mister has been re-imagining the urban 10K with his hugely successful Around the Crown 10K. In the short history of that event, Brian and his team have managed to build an event that is a masterclass in community engagement, practical inclusivity, sponsorship development and grassroots marketing. And I hope you’ll be as inspired by some of the initiatives undertaken by this amazing race as I have been getting to know more about it.

In this episode:

• Putting on a race on the Charlotte inner beltway
• Defining your mission statement - and staying true to it for the long run
• Practical inclusivity: making your start line look like your community 
• ATC's First Timers Club, Pay What You Can, Stroller Division
• Running a large paper-cupless road race
• Rethinking offline marketing
• Engaging a specialist marketing agency that understands running
• The importance of Public Relations (PR)
• Growing a diverse sponsorship portfolio 
• Valuing in-kind sponsorships
• Auction-based marketing (made the term up, but it's an interesting concept)
• The future of ATC10K

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about public relations, earned media or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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• The benefits of switching to solar power
• Energy consumption by hardware, and what a solar-powered system could support, depending on size
• The anatomy of a solar-powered setup: components, connectivity, outlets
• The cost of building your DIY solar-based system
• Panels: what to buy and how to scale up
• Li-based vs acid-based batteries: pros and cons
• Taking care of, maintaining and upgrading your setup

• Off-grid solar power resources: https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/
• DIY solar power forum: https://diysolarforum.com/
• Mobile Solar Power Made Easy (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Solar-Power-Made-yourself/dp/1546567119/

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In a previous episode of the podcast with guest Brian Schmidt of P3R, we saw how it is possible for even a very large race like the Pittsburgh Marathon to achieve zero waste status - that is, the goal of diverting more than 90% of total race waste away from landfill.

But what about carbon emissions? Is it equally feasible to aspire towards carbon neutrality, that is to say, putting on an event with net zero (or perhaps even negative) carbon footprint.

Well, that’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest Porter Bratten, owner of Washington-based Blackfish Ventures and a passionate practitioner of sustainability in all the races he puts on. We’re going to be looking at what makes up a race’s carbon footprint, how to formulate a practically achievable carbon mitigation strategy, and how carbon offsetting can help bridge the gap to carbon neutrality where further improvements in lowering carbon emissions may not always be possible. 

In this episode:

• What contributes to your race's carbon footprint
• Direct emissions, indirect emissions and purchased energy
• Understanding which emissions you can measure and control
• Estimating your race's carbon footprint
• Making participant carpooling work
• Offering a no-medal/no-shirt option
• Green electricity: what it is, how much it costs and how to get it
• Involving your participants in your sustainability strategy
• How carbon offsetting works
• Doing due diligence on and selecting carbon offset projects
• Using carbon offsetting to offset participant travel and shipping emissions
• Are participants wiling to pay a "sustainability premium" for greener races?
• Making the most of sustainability sponsors

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race sustainability or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Most races only come around once a year. So when you’re working to improve a race for your participants, you’ve got precious few opportunities to receive feedback from them. How do you use those opportunities right? And what feedback should you look to gather from them?

Well, my guest today, Laurel Park, has the unique privilege of being both a race director and a PhD in survey design, and has helped countless organizations develop effective surveys that leverage customer feedback to inform strategic decisions. As the President of the Ann Arbor Track Club, Laurel knows running and races inside out, and today she’ll help us understand how to craft an actionable race survey, how to maximize survey response rates, and how to avoid some of the common pitfalls of survey design, like asking things you shouldn’t care to know about or asking things you do care to know about in a way that delivers poor quality or unusable results.

If you do send out a race survey after your event, or have thought of doing so, this is an excellent crash course in getting the most of the one shot you get each year to gather productive feedback from your participants.

In this episode:

• The purpose of a race survey
• Working backwards from what you need to know to what you're going to ask
• Collecting demographic information from respondents
• Do people respond truthfully to surveys?
• Reducing survey friction and question bloat
• Avoiding distractions/cognitive load with clean survey styling
• Types of questions to ask and areas to explore with your race survey
• Avoiding leading respondents with biased question phrasing
• Using open-ended vs close-ended questions
• Best practices for sharing your race survey
• Increasing survey response rates with incentives
• Survey software options for designing your race survey
• Analyzing and presenting survey results

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about designing race surveys or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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It’s that time of the year again. RunSignup’s annual RaceTrends report is out for 2023, and it’s larger and more comprehensive than ever before!

Among the most notable trends highlighted in the report we see registrations for 2023 races up from 2022 and tantalisingly close to 2019 levels, entry fees continuing to climb across most race distances and event types, and encouraging trends in younger runner participation first seen in 2022 carrying through to 2023 numbers.

With me today to go through the data, the trends and their implications, I’m delighted to welcome back to the podcast RunSignup’s Director of Marketing, Johanna Goode. Among other things, Johanna is the person we all have to thank for compiling this invaluable piece of industry research each year, and with her help we’ll try to get a feel for where the industry ended up in 2023 and make sense of what the future might hold for race directors in 2024 and beyond.

As with RaceTrends reports we’ve looked at in the past in the podcast, we’ll only have time to go through the most important highlights from the report, so if you’d like to get your hands on the full set of findings, head over to runsignup.com where you’ll be able to find and download your free report copy. 

In this episode:

• The methodology and data behind RunSignup's RaceTrends report
• Are we back to 2019 registration levels?
• Are race timing companies disappearing?
• Repeat participation numbers across different events and how to increase repeat participation in your races
• The importance of integrated email marketing 
• Why are larger races continuing to lag behind smaller races in participation growth?
• Are virtual events still around?
• Participation trends in the 18-29 age group and how to foster higher participation among younger runners
• Are people registering later than they used to?
• Entry fees are going up, while the number of price increases is going down
• The rise of mobile registrations and how to optimise your race website for mobile users

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Looking into the business of putting on races from the outside, as a passionate runner and racer, you might be mistaken in thinking that putting on races is a fairly straightforward, relaxing, comfortably profitable thing to do. I can hear some of you chuckling there…

Well, my guests today, brothers Jeremy and William Fermo, are exactly the type of passionate runner that would try to make a business out of directing races. Which is why in late 2021, they put aside their medical degrees and took the plunge into planning their first race, Shannon’s Run in Orange, Texas.

Coming into race directing with few preconceptions, they tried everything to make their inaugural race a success - including an early round of crowdfunding for their business, 3 Bros Running, and a go at securing local business grants to support their revenue. 

The result? Not half bad - 366 signups from more than 40 cities across the state, and with that, a growing appetite for directing more and larger races.

If you’re just starting out as a race director, there’s valuable lessons here for you on the challenges and the joys you’ve got ahead of you, and the importance of focusing your planning on the things that matter. And, if you’re well into your long-term career as a race director, there’s a couple of interesting gold nuggets here for you as well - and perhaps a little nostalgia about why you went into this really special business in the first place.

In this episode:

• Taking the plunge into race directing
• The importance of focusing on the race experience
• Launching a crowdfunding campaign to get the race off the ground
• Going after local business grants 
• Putting yourself front and center of your race brand
• Telling your race story through video on social media
• Promoting your race like it's a Hollywood movie
• Reaching out and pitching to local sponsors
• Big learnings from the guys' first year in race directing

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about starting out in race directing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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“A game changer”, “TV on steroids”, “the future of content” and “ridiculously addictive”. That’s just a few ways to describe TikTok, according to my guest today, but, chances are, if you have teenagers in the house, you already knew that.

So what is so special about this app that has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years? Is TikTok really just a place for 12 year olds? And, very crucially, is it worth your time trying to market your race on the platform, and how do you go about it?

Well, we are going to be going through all that and much much more with my guest today, Oli Hills. As the CEO of a dedicated TikTok marketing agency, Nonsensical, Oli is here to tell you why short-form video is the future of content, and why TikTok is the place where it’s all going to be happening.
 
We’re going to be talking about how to produce content on TikTok, what kind of content works best, and how to scrap your preconceptions about TikTok demographics and video editing, and just take the plunge into a brave new world of marketing.

In this episode:

• TV on steroids: how TikTok changed the social media game
• TikTok's fastest growing demographics (hint: it's not teenagers!)
• Nailing your niche and training TikTok to recognize your target audience
• How to produce and publish videos using the TikTok app
• Grabbing your audience's attention with snappy video hooks
• Why short form video is the future (and why TikTok is the place to do it)
• Boosting your video reach with Spark Ads
• Cross-posting TikTok content to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram
• What types of content to post on TikTok
• Paid marketing on TikTok: creating ads, audience targeting, retargeting
• The importance of getting in on TikTok early

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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If you have been putting on races for a while, it probably won’t surprise you to hear that organizing events is one of the most stressful jobs out there. How stressful? According to a 2019 survey by job searching site Careercast, it is in fact the 6th most stressful job you can do, less stressful only to careers like the military and firefighting.

So what makes putting on events so stressful? What toll is it taking on people like you, working every day to make amazing races happen? And what can you do to manage your stress levels long-term and avoid mental health decline?

Today we’re going to be going over all that in a really candid discussion on stress and mental health in our industry with the help of my guest, EventWell’s, Helen Moon. Helen has been working in the event industry in different capacities for decades, and as the Founder and Chief Executive of non-profit EventWell has most recently been focusing her energy on providing mental health support to event management professionals. 

In this episode:

• Why organizing events is an inherently stressful job
• The sympathetic/parasympathetic system balance 
• The three stages of the stress response and how stress leads to burnout
• The social stigma around talking openly about stress and mental health struggles
• Good stress (eustress), bad stress (distress) and mental decline
• Striving for excellence vs striving for perfection
• Stress resilience through the lens of your "stress bucket" 
• The importance of sleep, nutrition and exercise in sustaining good long-term mental health
• Breathing (really, it works wonders)

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about stress management, mental health or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Securing sponsorship is undoubtedly one of the toughest jobs on any race director’s plate. And finding and approaching sponsors, in particular, is probably the toughest bit of it.

Where do you even begin looking for good sponsor prospects? How do you know which person to contact? What do sponsors really want? And how do you make that first approach to maximize your chances of success?

We’ve got some awesome tips for you on all those burning questions and more from today’s guest, Teresa Stas. Teresa is the CEO of event sponsorship consultancy Green Cactus, she is also the author of “Sell Your Event!: The Easy To Follow Practical Guide To Getting Sponsors”, and she has spent her entire career helping events of all shapes and sizes land long-term sponsorship relationships, including Hood to Coast, the world’s largest relay race - now also a growing international relay race franchise. 

In this episode:

• Selling sponsorship = selling an audience
• Figuring out your event's audience 
• How your audience's interests can guide your sponsor prospecting 
• Understanding your audience through surveys, Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, marketing personas
• Putting together an introduction deck (not a sponsorship proposal!) for your event
• Where to look and what to look out for when prospecting sponsors
• In-kind sponsors, sustainability sponsors, media sponsors
• Finding the right contact person inside each sponsor organization
• Cold-calling vs cold-emailing sponsor prospects
• How to cold-call and cold-email sponsors
• Following up on your initial cold/email to sponsors
• Making the most of sponsor rejections

Resources:

• Make sure to visit https://www.greencactusca.com/resources for additional free resources from Green Cactus to help you with your sponsor prospecting.

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about sponsor prospecting or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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90% - keep that number in mind -  that’s how much of your event waste you should be diverting away from landfill to be able to claim that your event is a zero waste event. Sounds tough? Easy?

For most races that’s a pretty high bar to clear - particularly as, when you start adding everything up, it quickly becomes apparent that a race can generate waste in many more ways than may seem obvious at first.

To see how a race might get to that zero waste goal, I’m joined today by P3R’s Director of Operations, Brian Schmidt. Brian and the P3R team have really been at the sharp end of event sustainability, having achieved a zero waste status for the very popular DICK'S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon since before “event sustainability” was even a term!

With Brian’s help we’re going to be looking at a race’s more obvious - and less obvious - sources of waste, waste segmentation, recycling, composting and reusing waste materials, as well as the importance of joining forces with local agencies and businesses that share your sustainability goal.

And since making sustainability sustainable in the long term has to come with a dose of financial pragmatism, and a careful balancing act between respecting the environment and delivering a fun race experience, we’ll also look at things like sustainability sponsors and other ways to take some of the burden of achieving zero waste off your shoulders.

In this episode:

• The biggest sources of race waste
• How much waste does a typical race produce per participant
• What zero waste means and what sources of waste go into the calculation of race waste
• Recoverable vs reusable vs recyclable vs compostable race waste
• Waste materials you may think is recyclable but isn't
• Reducing cardboard packaging waste 
• Donating leftover swag and discarded clothing 
• Working with local sustainability organizations
• Managing race purchases to reduce material leftovers
• Premium giveaways vs tons of giveaways
• Fewer water stations = less water station waste
• Managing the cost of sustainability efforts through sustainability sponsorships

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about event sustainability, zero waste or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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In all walks of life, people love to stress the importance of data - knowing the hard facts and using evidence to make better, more informed decisions.

So, how well do you know your participants? How well do we all in this industry understand who runners are, what they really want out of our events, and what motivates them to choose one event over another?

Well, we’re going to be shedding some light into all that today as we go through the latest findings from Running USA’s 2022 Global Runner Survey with the help of my guest, Running USA COO Christine Bowen. It’s a great pleasure to have Christine join me for this discussion, as we touch on a number of very interesting data points, including how runners choose to enter events, how they perceive the value they receive from events, and how much price and other factors affect which and how many races they’ll be entering in the near future.

In this episode:

• Runners' expected event participation in the next 12 months
• Runners' favourite racing distances
• Top reasons why runners choose a race
• Runners' attitudes on swag, travel to events, VIP race experiences
• Runners' attitudes towards race fees and price increases
• Gen Z runner attitudes and what this means for the future of racing

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race trends, event participation or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Last week, if you happened to join us for part one of our two-part Facebook Ads podcast special, we set the scene by looking at Facebook marketing strategy, understanding sales funnels, planning and structuring ad campaigns, and mastering audience targeting.

This week, in part two of the discussion, it’s time to switch gears a bit and look at some more advanced topics around ad creatives, ad performance monitoring and optimization, and the very important, highly-converting area of ad retargeting.

Joining me again this week to discuss Facebook Ads is EventGrow CEO, Andy Reilly - and what a great pleasure it is to have Andy back on the podcast. 

In this episode:

• Focusing on the desirable "after state" in your ad creatives
• Picking aspects of your race to highlight in your ad copy
• Aligning your ad copy with your ad images
• Creating video ads
• Incorporating important race info in your ad
• Deciding on, allocating and front-loading your ad budget
• Running price-increase ad campaigns
• Understanding your baseline target acquisition cost
• The perils of shutting down your campaigns too soon (in less than two weeks)
• Monitoring your ad KPIs: click rate, conversion rate, ROAS
• Retargeting campaigns: spending little for high returns
• Excluding registered participants from your custom audience campaigns
• Lookalike audiences and why they often don't perform well for events
• Common mistakes people make when running Facebook ads, and how to avoid them

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about paid marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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When it comes to spending money on marketing races, Facebook Ads remains the most popular choice for race directors and professional race marketers, regardless of race size or type.

So how do you make the most of the opportunities Facebook Ads has to offer for marketing your race in 2022 and beyond?

We’re going to be going over all that in a special two-part show on Facebook Ads with the help of my guest, EventGrow CEO, Andy Reilly. You may remember Andy from the very very popular marketing psychology episode - that was episode 25 back in February  - and he’s with us again today and for our next podcast episode to really break down every aspect of Facebook Ads as it pertains to race marketing. 

Today, for part one of the discussion, we’re going to set the scene by looking at Facebook marketing strategy, understanding sales funnels, planning and structuring ad campaigns, and mastering audience targeting. And in our next episode we’re going to delve into some more advanced topics around ad creatives, ad performance monitoring and optimisation, and the very important, highly-converting area of ad retargeting.

In this episode:

• Why Facebook ads still offer the best bang for your marketing buck (even if the landscape has become more challenging for advertisers)
• Facebook ads vs Google ads vs Twitter ads vs Tik Tok ads
• Understanding ROAS (return on ad spend) and customer lifetime value
• Integrating Facebook ads into your sales funnel
• Picking the right landing page for your Facebook ad (website? registration page? Facebook event page?)
• Boosting posts vs using Facebook's Ad Manager
• Picking a campaign objective for your ad: conversions vs traffic vs reach/awareness
• Structuring and naming your campaigns, ad sets and ads
• Choosing between automatic and manual ad placements
• Pros and cons of using the dynamic creatives
• Using demographics, location and interests to target the right audience for your race
• Avoiding the pitfalls of over-targeting

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about paid marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Are you struggling to understand how you should approach and talk to sponsors? Is seeking sponsorship a task you dread or maybe have even given up on?

We’ve got an awesome episode for you today that is going to boost your confidence and reset your entire thinking around sponsorship. It’s going to help you understand what sponsorship truly is about, what sponsors really look to get out of it, and how, through some simple, disciplined steps and a change of mindset, you can transform your chances of securing sponsors for your event.

My guest in today’s episode is an industry leader I’ve personally followed for years. To call Kim Skildum-Reid a sponsorship expert would be something of an understatement. Through her Power Sponsorship consultancy Kim has helped countless blue-chip rightsholders and sponsors plan and execute effective sponsorship strategies, and through her best-selling books and online courses she’s probably done more than anyone to educate sponsorship practitioners on the fundamentals of sponsorship. 

So it is super-exciting to have Kim on the podcast today sharing her insights into the fundamentals of sponsorship, and the mindset you, as a sponsorship seeker, need to adopt to succeed in this challenging arena.

In this episode:

• Leveraging your audience year-round
• Framing your audience reach to sponsors
• Helping sponsors "get" your vision through your sponsorship proposal
• The importance of understanding the sponsor's point of view
• Putting a value on in-kind sponsorship
• Writing a winning sponsorship proposal that "sells" your deal internally in the sponsor organization
• Inventory audits: putting together a list of all the benefits you could offer to sponsors
• Dealing with sponsors as peers
• Overdelivering for sponsors (and getting recognized for it)
• Sharing sponsorship reports with sponsors
• Firing your sponsors when they're underperforming 
• Why you should stop using gold, silver bronze sponsorship packages

Further reading:

• Kim's list of must-read follow-up materials: https://bit.ly/3AFMTx2

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about sponsorship or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Personalized participant video, where a participant receives an edited video of themselves in the race after they cross the finish line (often as soon as a few minutes after), has been a long time coming in mass-participation events.

So how far has personalized video technology really come over the last few years? What does it add to the race experience? How much does it cost? And is the cost worth it, compared to, say, offering just race photos, as most races currently do?

Today we’ll be looking at all these questions and more, through the lense of personalized video tech pioneer iRewind. iRewind has been providing personalized video services to races - either directly or indirectly - for years, including to such high profile events as the NYC Marathon, Paris Marathon and ASICS London 10K. So it’s a great pleasure to be able to hear from iRewind co-founder and COO, Salvador Garcia Zalduegui on how personalized video technology works and how it has rapidly evolved over the last few years to the point of now making it widely affordable for a large number of races.

In this episode:

• A short history of iRewind: from skiing video capture to mass-participation personalized video
• Participant personalized video: what it is, how it's captured, and what it looks like to the end user (=participants)
• Personalized video compared to race photos, and how the two work alongside each other to expand reach and enhance the participant race experience
• The evolution of personalized video technology, and why it's time has come
• Breakdown of a typical perzonalised video capture setup
• Uploading, sorting, tagging and editing participant race videos, using image and motion recognition technology
• How you can set up personalized video in your race, and how much it costs
• Getting your personalized video costs covered by a sponsor
• Engagement statistics for personalized video

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about personalized race vide or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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With more than 2 billion monthly active users (MAUs), Instagram has secured a comfortable lead as the social media platform of choice for the vast majority of online-active almost-30s and 30-somethings out there. And with Instagram’s core audience slowly aging to match running’s demographic sweet spot, it’s really important your race gets its Instagram strategy right soon, if you have an Instagram strategy at all.

So, how do you master Instagram’s highly-visual storytelling to reach new audiences on the platform? How do you build a consistent brand voice with all the tools Instagram has to offer? And how do you leverage running influencers, user-generated content, freelance contractors and free-to-use graphical design tools to make the most of the limited time and money you can commit to the platform?

That’s what we’ll be discussing today with returning guest and resident race marketing expert, Andy Reilly. Through his race marketing agency, Eventgrow, Andy has planned and executed online marketing strategies for some of the country’s top running events, including the Buffalo Marathon, Run Catalina and the San Francisco Marathon, and in his past appearances on the podcast has contributed to some of our most popular episodes, most recently a Facebook marketing two-parter that is a must listen if your race is doing anything on Facebook. 

But, today it’s all about Instagram, and with Andy’s help we’re going to be looking at Instagram from the very high level of strategy and using Instagram alongside Facebook and your other marketing channels, all the way down to the nitty-gritty of image selection, contrast plays, picking catchy headlines and even what types of faces work best on an Instagram ad. Not to mention a very practical 101 crash course on using microinfluencers to extend your brand reach.

In this episode:

• The evolution of Instagram audience demographics over the years
• Instagram vs Facebook from a user perspective
• Easy-win content ideas for starting out on Instagram
• Including (or excluding) Instagram placements on ad manager
• The most efficient way to pick copy/images for your Instagram ad
• Writing copy that works and picking the right creatives
• Picking images that work: leveraging contrast, choosing happy faces, hero images
• Thinking through your Instagram ad funnel, CTAs
• Working with freelancers and contract graphic designers
• Planning your growth path and spending money on marketing
• The importance of using Instagram filters consistently and aligning your style with your brand
• Driving engagement through humor
• Sharing user-generated content
• Microinfluencers: what are they, where to find them, and what to offer them
• Using microinfluencers to generate authentic, engaging content for your race
• Assessing ROI for your microinfluencer spend

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group,

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Have you ever thought about trademarking your race’s name or logo? Trademarking your race and brand could help protect your business against trademark infringement, and the risk of getting someone else’s event confused with yours, whether that is done through malice or ignorance.

Today we’re going to be looking at all aspects of trademarks and the trademark registration process, with the help of no less than three distinguished guests - Brian Gallant of Sinister Sports, who had to defend his race trademark against a competing claim not too long ago, and intellectual property lawyers Suzanne Sjovold and Jon Deppe who will be bringing the legal expertise in today’s highly technical subject.

We are going to be looking at the process of registering a new trademark, defending a registered trademark you own against infringement, as well as the many protections afforded to your brand by law even in the absence of a formal trademark registration, through the concept of common law trademarks. So stick with us to have all your trademark-related questions answered.

In this episode:

• Trademarks as a consumer protection device
• What aspects of a race can (and can't) be trademarked
• Trademark geographical limitations: federal vs state/regional protection
• Common law trademarks: what they are, and what protection they already provide for your race even without trademark registration
• Resolving conflicts between common law trademarks and registered trademarks
• Defending your common law trademark against a competing trademark registration
• Why using your trademark in trade is crucial for establishing trademark protection
• Registering a trademark, trademark registration classes, and trademark search best practices
• Establishing registration priority with intent-to-use trademarks
• The cost of registering a trademark
• DIY trademark registration: is it worth it?
• (R) vs TM: Understanding trademark symbols and when/where to use them 
• Renewing and defending registered trademarks

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race trademarks or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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When it comes to marketing your race, email marketing is the granddaddy of all marketing channels. Forget TikTok, and Instagram and Facebook Ads, if you don’t have a sound email marketing strategy, you could be passing on a huge opportunity to grow your race - and also falling short of delivering the highest quality experience you can for your participants.

Today we are going to be taking a very close look at all aspects of email marketing strategy, from the types of emails you should be sending, and when and how often you should send them, to exactly what you should be saying to your participants and prospective participants through your email copy. And we’ll be doing all that with the help of my guest, marketing pro, and very passionate email marketing advocate, Hollie Light - or “Hollie from the emails”, as she’s come to be known.

In this episode:

• Why email marketing is so important for marketing your race
• Are you emailing your audience too often? 
• Segmenting your audience into converted (signed-up participants) and unconverted (everyone else) subscribers
• Newsletters: whom to send them to, what to put in them, how often you should send them
• Sticking to a regular emailing schedule: creating a content calendar, repurposing content 
• The importance of rewarding your email subscribers
• Selling your race through your newsletter
• Tips for engaging email subject lines (hint: it's not about you, it's about them!)
• Nurturing subscribers to signing up through staged email sequences
• Using email as a customer service/upselling channel for existing participants
• Marketing your shorter races as training events for your longer races
• Growing your mailing list with freebie/giveaway funnels
• Email design for optimal open rates and reader friendliness
• Using testimonials and social proof in your emails
• Productivity tools, email templates and other tips to help you optimize your email marketing

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about email marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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It is May 2022 and whatever hopes and expectations we’ve all had of 2022 at the end of last year have started to materialize - or have they? It’s difficult to say how strongly our industry’s recovery towards pre-pandemic levels has fared so far this year, particularly when we all individually get to see only parts of the bigger picture.

Well, today I’m delighted to be joined by two industry insiders who get to see as much of the bigger picture as any in our industry - Bob Bickel, Founder of US registrations market-leader RunSignup and Chris Robb, CEO of Mass Participation World and a passionate advocate for the endurance events industry.

Chris and Bob come armed with data and a deep understanding of our industry and where it’s currently at, and they’ll be discussing with me the latest data on event numbers and registration trends, as well as more profound questions, like “Is it time for race directors to be raising prices?” - a question I’m sure many of you are asking yourselves.

In this episode:

• Market recovery continues, but lagging prior expectations for 2022
• The effect of Omicron and erosion of trust on race participation
• Have people fallen out of love with racing?
• The knock-on effect of losing early sign-ups on overall registrations
• Race director sentiment: from optimism to survival mode
• The risk of operational know-how loss for the industry
• Why are runners not getting back to start lines? 
• Update on participant no-show rates
• The effect of local authority staff turnover on race permitting and event support provision
• Is local business and local community support for races waning?
• Industry lobbying efforts throughout the pandemic
• Non-returning race rates before and during the pandemic
• Financial stresses for mid-tier organizers and the tough 6 months ahead
• Is it time for race directors to raise prices?
• Bridging the disconnect between events and participants through year-round participant engagement
• Sponsor sentiment and the shift towards performance-based sponsorships
• Market forecasts for the next two years

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about today’s discussion or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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When it comes to marketing events, text marketing - or SMS marketing, as it’s often known - is just about as controversial as it gets. Some people have used it and absolutely love the high engagement rate and ROI SMS marketing campaigns provide, others don’t want anything to do with it and positively cringe at the idea of marketing their event over so personal a channel.

Well, over the next hour and a half we are going to be going deep into the technology, the arguments and the facts around SMS marketing with my two expert guests, Gerry Perez of RunGP and Endurance Marketing Founder Beth Salinger. We’re going to be looking at how SMS marketing campaigns work, the pros and cons of using SMS over, or alongside, other marketing channels like email and social media, and how SMS can be used to reactivate customer databases like your unproductive mailing list.

In this episode:

• SMS marketing as another tool in your marketing stack
• SMS marketing's spectacular open rates and how to compare them to email open rates
• Examples of SMS campaigns: when to send them, how often, and what to include in them
• Getting the most out of your SMS campaigns with limited-time offers 
• Responding to customer replies, following up and nurturing people through conversations
• SMS marketing conversion rates and how to interpret them
• Integrating your SMS marketing with your registration platform, Zapier for better attribution, ROI-tracking
• Reactivating customer databases through SMS
• SMS copy best practices: identifying yourself as the sender, using clear calls-to-action, using emojis, personalizing your messages
• Funnelling cold leads from Facebook ads into SMS nurturing campaigns
• Building up your SMS marketing list: subscribing website visitors, obtaining user consent, drawing users from social media, using incentives, using QR codes
• The cost of running SMS campaigns

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Does your race employ a race announcer? Chances are probably not. You may think that your race is not big enough to have one or that the money spent on a race announcer could be better spent elsewhere - or not spent at all, if you run a for-profit race or raising money for a charity or cause close to your heart.

Well, today we’re going to try and give you some reasons to reconsider with the help of my guests, professional announcers Fitz Koehler and Steve Fleck. We’re going to be looking at the many things race announcers do on race day, how they contribute to the race experience, and how they can make your race an event to remember.

In this episode:

• The difference a voice can make: how race announcers elevate the race experience
• Should even smaller races have a race announcer?
• From start to finish: what a race announcer does throughout race day
• Expert tips on race announcing: gathering participants' background info/stories, pacing yourself, engaging spectators
• Name pronunciations, mis-gendering and avoiding finish line faux pas!
• The importance of hiring announcers who understand races
• Hiring a race announcer: where to find one, what you get and what it costs

Links:

• Find and hire a race announcer: https://www.racedirectorshq.com/us/emcees-announcers/ 

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race announcers, the race day experience or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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What do the Marine Corps Marathon, Air Force Marathon and Army Ten Miler all have in common? They are, of course, amazing races put on to celebrate branches of the US Military that attract tens of thousands of participants every year.

Well, there’s a new race in town for 2022, set to celebrate the youngest of all military branches: the Space Force. The aptly named Space Force T-Minus 10-Miler is set to take place this December 10th at historic Cape Canaveral, and we’re going to be hearing all about it from the event’s own race director Brandon Hough in today’s star-spangled bonus episode. 

So get ready for some military race history, rockets, alligators, more rockets, and some very interesting insights into working as a race director within the US government.

In this episode:

• Military races: how it all begun with the Marine Corps Marathon
• NAFIs and the legal structure of military races
• The challenges of putting on a race inside the US government/military
• The birth and mission of the US Space Force
• Conceiving and launching the Space Force T-Minus 10-Miler
• Mapping out a race course around historic Cape Canaveral
• What to expect from the inaugural race (hint: more than rockets and alligators, although there's definitely plenty of those!)
• The Sea, Air & Space Challenge

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about today's discussion or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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It is by now abundantly clear that some of the ways we have all been used to doing things, including organizing races, are just not sustainable for the planet in the long term. And it is increasingly obvious to race directors and participants alike that traveling long distances to and from events, going through scores of single-use plastic bottles, and sending tons of waste to landfill is taking its toll on the environment and the communities we all strive to support.

For over a decade, the Council for Responsible Sport has supported mass-participation sports’ sustainability transition through its industry-leading certification program and the development of the industry’s first responsible sport standards.

And today, I have the pleasure of catching up with the Council’s Executive Director, Shelley Villalobos, on the Council’s recent initiatives to encourage even more race directors to take their first steps towards environmental sustainability, including the launch of ReScore, a free app that can help any race organizer plan, track and achieve their sustainability goals step by step through a single online platform.

In this episode:

• The origins and mission of the Council for Responsible Sport
• How the Council of Responsible Sport is governed and funded
• Race sustainability efforts around the world
• Developing sustainability standards and best practices
• Responsible event certification, what it costs and the process for getting your race certified
• Getting certified with the help of a corporate sustainability sponsor
• Leveraging your race's environmental credentials to promote your event's purpose
• Mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon offsetting
• Incorporating the cost of reducing GHG emissions from participant travel into the event registration cost
• Reducing single-use plastic waste: using and effectively disposing of compostable water cups, allowing water backpacks, cupless racing, Ooho!
• ReScore: the free app that helps you collaborate, track your progress and access relevant resources as you work towards making your race more sustainable

Links:

• CRS Responsible Sport Standards: https://www.councilforresponsiblesport.org/standards
• CRS Responsible Events Guide: https://www.councilforresponsiblesport.org/runrad
• ReScore: https://portal.sportrescore.org/
• Project Drawdown: https://drawdown.org/

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/

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It’s probably not an overstatement to say that volunteers are the backbone of every successful race. They are the people that make much of race day happen and, yet, recruiting and managing volunteers, training them properly and retaining them for the long run remains a constant headache for race directors of all levels of experience.

Well, today we’re going to try and make everyone’s life a little bit easier by going over some great tips and strategies for streamlining your volunteer recruitment and fine-tuning all aspects of your volunteer management. We’ll discuss tips for balancing your volunteer load across volunteer shifts, creating mega shifts with enough buffer to make sure you’ve got all the people you need on race day, and some tried-and-tested tactics to mitigate volunteer attrition.

My guest for today’s discussion, Tim Bradley, is the volunteer coordinator for the McCourt Foundation, organizers of the Los Angeles Marathon and other marquee races. Tim has recruited and managed thousands of volunteers over the years and, as you’ll see, he has developed a very specific approach to running volunteer programs, based on evidence and experimentation. 

In this episode:

• What motivates volunteers to volunteer for a race
• Volunteer recruitment for for-profit vs nonprofit races
• The cost of recruiting and managing volunteers: donations, free entries, shirts, meals, transportation
• What volunteers can and can't do for your race
• Organizing your volunteer force: flat vs hierarchical team structures
• Qualities to look for in your group captains and super-volunteers
• Tim's detailed volunteer recruitment plan/schedule
• Recruiting individual volunteers vs recruiting volunteer groups
• Load balancing, mega shifts and diversification: making sure your shifts fill up evenly across the board
• The importance of mega shifts and shift buffers/padding for mitigating volunteer attrition on race day
• Working out how many volunteers you'll need for your race
• Recruiting volunteers through email, social media, paid ads, text messages, cold calling, volunteer marketplaces
• Building a volunteer mailing list 
• Signing up volunteers from your past race participants 
• Recruiting groups of volunteers from high school service clubs, sports teams
• How to link to your volunteer program/sign up page from your website
• Reducing friction throughout your volunteer signup process
• Singing in and briefing volunteers on race day
• Practical food/snack ideas for volunteers and how to distribute them on race day
• "Thank you" emails and issuing volunteer service verification letters

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

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On February 17, former president of the Portland Marathon, Lester Smith, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of wire fraud and tax evasion. In the indictment, Smith, who has led the Portland Marathon as both president and race director since 1982, is accused of embezzling more than $1 million dollars from the race’s coffers to fund his personal luxury lifestyle.

Today, we’ll be looking back at the story of Lester Smith and his time at the Portland Marathon, the legal cases brought against him and the impact events have had on the Portland running community and the Portland Marathon.

With me to discuss the facts and implications from the case is Jeff Manning, a runner and veteran investigative reporter from the Oregonian who has followed the Lester Smith case closely since it first broke in 2018. So stick around for a fascinating dive into the Portland Marathon story.

In this episode:

• How Lester Smith evaded detection to misappropriate more than $1 million from the Portland Marathon from 2012-2018
• Smith's track record at the helm of the race
• Details of Smith's $850k settlement with the Oregon in DoJ in 2018
• The allegations in the federal grand jury indictment brought against him in Feb 2022
• The impact the legal turmoil has had on the local community and the Portland Marathon

Thanks to our sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode.

To learn more about RunSignup's awesome all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events, supporting more than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events, visit runsignup.com.

And, to see how Racecheck's Review Box can help your race increase registrations by a massive 20%, using the power of race reviews and social proof, make sure to visit organisers.racecheck.com.

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What’s in a brand? Is it the sleek logo with the matching color palette and catchy tagline? Is it your organization’s mission statement and your event’s core values? Or is it every single thing that makes your event a memorable experience for your participants on race day?

Well, according to my guest today, event branding expert Peter Abraham, your brand is all of the above and a whole lot more. It is the heart and soul of your event, and what it aspires to be for your team, your participants, your stakeholders and the rest of the world. And, at a practical level, your brand is the North Star in every decision you make about your event, from your logo and the contents of your swag bag to your choice of sponsors and the design of your race course.

Today,  we have a lot of unpacking to do. We’re going to be looking at understanding what your event’s brand is and how you can develop it, we’re going to be discussing your organization’s mission statement (and how to come up with one, if you don’t have one already) and we’re going to be tying all that back to laying out your marketing plan and finding your event’s unique voice.

In today's episode:

• What makes up a brand
• Why your brand needs a point of view
• Avoiding the trap of being all things to all people
• Consistency as a cornerstone of your branding
• Don't be different for the sake of it - be different for a reason
• How is your brand solving you participants' problems?
• The importance of having a robust mission statement
• Using your mission statement to make decisions on everything you do: designing a logo, mapping your course, conducting yourself in public
• Writing a good mission statement: What do you do? And how do you do it?
• Going from your mission statement to a marketing plan
• Telling the story of your race experience through your marketing campaigns

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 25,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about branding, marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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As a race director, few things in the race planning lifecycle can be as exciting and enjoyable as designing a brand new race course. From picking a start area to mapping out race distances and figuring out where to place amenities, such as aid stations, race course design constitutes an important first step in shaping your race’s identity - one that will likely affect all aspects of your race experience, safety planning and logistics for years to come.

So, how do you nail this critical first step in making your race a reality? How do you design a course that is as enjoyable for participants on the main stage, as it is safe, practical and easily accessible for you, your team and emergency services behind the scenes?

That’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest, DMSE Sports’ Director of Events, Meryl Leventon. As industry people go, Meryl’s a Swiss army knife when it comes to race planning and race day ops, and with tons of experience and a plethora of events under her belt, Meryl will help lay out for us the most important principles of effective race course design, from designing for speed and a great race experience to delivering a course that respects host communities and works well in emergencies, should things happen to go wrong around the race.

In this episode:

• Deciding on a type of course: know your town, know your market
• Working with local authorities on approving your course
• Picking and planning out your start/finish areas
• Designing your course for a specific distance
• When you should (and needn't) certify your course
• How to combine different race distances on the same course (and how to think about start times)
• Fixing course bottlenecks with a good wave start plan
• Responsible course planning: communicating with and minimizing disruption for local communities
• Publishing race day road closures through Google Maps, TomTom and other popular mapping sources
• Incorporating spectator zones in your course plan
• Designing for safety: emergency planning, access lanes and coordinating with emergency services
• Laying out alternate course contingencies in case of weather disruption
• Designing your course on Google Maps

Meryl's lululemon 10K Scottsdale Google Map:

• Public version: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Ousob6UVaQdHUBuUDL6tByBZfwdPx_A&usp=sharing 
• City, police and internal team version: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1M9T2BNTHaEo-6JIMmRZkgjuXlXfwx6g&usp=sharing

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Why do some of your marketing campaigns work and others don’t? Why do you yourself as a consumer respond a lot more favorably to some types of messages and not others? At the end of the day, what makes us all take our wallets out and pull the trigger on that next purchase?

The answer to all those questions more often than not comes down to psychology. We are programmed to respond to certain queues - what our peers say about a product, how scarce that product feels, or how likeable the brand selling to us appears - in ways that we ourselves often don’t fully understand.

Today we have an absolutely fascinating discussion for you on all those triggers that make marketing campaigns work, and how you can bring the best of those lessons to your event marketing. We’re going to be touching, among other things, on using race testimonials as social proof, early-bird pricing & price increases, the role of influencers and celebrity runners, and how you can use freebies to increase your registrations and grow your mailing list.

My guest today is Andy Reilly. Andy is the CEO of event marketing company EventGrow and the President of race listing site, Raceplace.com, and he is super-passionate about the subject of marketing psychology and its foundational importance in developing an effective marketing strategy. 

In this episode:

• Why do people buy stuff? What influences their purchasing decisions? 
• Robert Cialdini's 6 psychological influence triggers: reciprocity, commitment & consistency, social proof, authority, scarcity, likeability
• Reciprocity: winning over participants by giving something of value to them for free 
• Reciprocity in practice: leveraging free training plans and exclusive discount codes to grow your mailing list; using freebies to increase your race survey response rate by 20%
• Commitment & consistency: aligning your messaging with your participants' goals 
• Commitment & consistency in practice: supporting people's fitness aspirations; promoting your race's PB potential
• Social proof: converting people through the power of peer influence
• Social proof in practice: making the most of past participant reviews; showcasing testimonials on your site; including social proof stats in your ad copy
• Building social proof: collecting testimonials from race surveys; encouraging participants to leave reviews on race review sites
• Authority: recruiting authority figures to promote your event
• Authority in practice: leveraging the power of celebrity participants; using influencers to promote your race; projecting brand authority through high-profile sponsorships; showcasing event awards
• Scarcity: using loss-aversion (aka FOMO!) to drive registrations 
• Scarcity in practice: early birds & price increases; the "100 spots left" playbook
• Likeability: making your brand more likeable
• Likeability in practice: speaking your audience's language; aligning your event with good causes; recruiting likeable personalities to your event; engaging with your participants online 

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 25,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about marketing or anything else in our Facebook group,

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When you want to know what’s happening and trending in the endurance events industry by the numbers, where do you turn to? Well, for me and many people I know, the definitive source of event data for the industry is, and has been for some time, GiveSignup|RunSignup’s annual RaceTrends report.

The report leverages GiveSignup|RunSignup’s extensive registration data from almost 60,000 events to point to trends in event participation, event pricing, participant demographics, marketing effectiveness, technology adoption and a myriad other things.

The most recent edition of the report was out just last week, and the data does seem to point to a strong, but partial, recovery from 2020, with some numbers starting to converge to 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

With me today to discuss all the numbers, the trends and their implications for individual events and the industry as a whole I’m delighted to have GiveSignup|RunSignup’s own, Johanna Goode. Johanna is the driving force behind many great things coming out of GiveSignup|RunSignup, including the ever-improving annual RaceTrends report, so she is just the person to walk us through the insights and recommendations coming out of the 2021 numbers.

In this episode:

• A return to normal? What 2021 registration rates are suggesting for market recovery and 2022
• Event attrition/churn through the pandemic
• The impact of event cancellations/postponements on participant loyalty, and ways to mitigate it
• Repeat participation numbers and trends
• Participation by event type
• The rise and fall of virtual races through 2020-2021
• Participant demographics by gender, age, event type
• Solving the lagging Millenial/GenZ participation puzzle 
• Registration pattern shifts (are participants registering later than usual?)
• Event pricing trends, and the effect of price increases on registration rates
• Mobile adoption trends 
• Facebook, social media and participant acquisition breakdown

*** To download your free copy of the RaceTrends 2021 report go to: runsignup.com/trends ***

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about about the numbers in today’s podcast, registration trends or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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When you think of race expos, what kind of thing comes to mind? Well, if you’re like me, you’re probably thinking huge pre-race expos like New York or London, where you go to pick up your bib and race packet, and where you get to stroll around hundreds of booths from high-profile running brands showcasing their latest thing.

Race expos are actually a lot more common than you think, and, according to my guest today, absolutely every event can and should have one. And why wouldn’t yours? Race expos are an amazing way to elevate your participant’s event experience, a good way to add an additional revenue stream to your race, and just about the best way to activate sponsorships and expand the roster of your commercial partnerships.

My guest today, industry veteran Craig Mintzlaff, has been working on races and race expos for more than 20 years. Through his company, Endurance Sports Marketing Group, he’s been managing expos for some of the best-known events and event series in the industry, and he’s with us today to share some of the many things he’s learned from setting up, promoting and selling out hundreds of race expos on both sides of the Atlantic.

In this episode:

• How all events - not only larger races - can put on a successful race expo
• What vendors are looking for from attending a race expo 
• Figuring out how many vendors your expo can support
• Types of vendors to invite to your race expo
• The benefits of expo booth-swapping with other events in your region
• Putting a price on your race expo booths/space
• Balancing in-kind vs cash contributions from expo partners
• Negotiating partnerships with local vs national brands
• Unlocking the right contact to reach out to in vendor organizations
• The importance of securing a retail partner before going after the big brands (e.g. Brooks, Nike, Asics etc)
• Selling your race expo to vendors: understanding your event demographics, CPMs, focusing on race experience
• Making your expo partners' lives easier: offering to staff their booths on their behalf!
• How to lay out your expo for maximum lingering time (hint: put all the freebies, drinks at the back)
• Raffles, stamps, competitions and other tips for increasing participant engagement with vendor booths
• Taking your expo to the next level with music and an announcer

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race expos, sponsorships or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Public relations (PR) is an integral part of running a successful brand and business. It is the art of communication and storytelling. It’s about appealing to communities and stakeholders, forging relationships with media and playing the marketing long game.

Yet, as my guest today - PR pro, Meg Treat, of Treat Public Relations - rushes to acknowledge, it often gets a bit of a bad rap. 

Well, hopefully we’re going to be challenging those perceptions for you today, with a really insightful take on public relations, earned media and the power of storytelling, that definitely opened my eyes to the vast opportunities events can unlock through a thoughtful and carefully implemented PR strategy.

In this episode:

• Public relations: what it is about and how it relates to your work as an event owner/director
• Paid vs shared vs owned vs earned media
• The importance of securing media exposure for free (=earned media)
• How every race is intrinsically newsworthy and can have a story to tell
• Understanding newsworthiness and unlocking/developing your race's unique story
• Leveraging newsworthy topics: human interest stories, event milestones, brand partnerships.
• Distributing your story/content through online and offline media outlets
• Deciding when to send out (and when not to send out) a press release
• Writing engaging press releases: quotes, the inverse pyramid approach, calls-to-action that work
• The four ways of mining media contact information!
• Crafting effective cover emails to journalists for increased media outreach success
• Understanding journalist lead times and planning your PR content accordingly
• Inviting media to your race using media alerts
• Post-race press releases
• Being your race's spokesperson: making yourself available for interviews and how to conduct them successfully

Resources:

• Meg's media alert template/example  & press release template/example for race directors: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jzw8jv0qr21xfmd/AACdD1sj72NhEf3RMJk-jjaAa?dl=0 (make sure to listen to Meg's audio intro in the folder)

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about public relations, earned media or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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