The GiveSignup|RunSignup Symposium series has grown from modest beginnings of just a few dozen people to be the industry conference most race directors and timers will attend during the year.

And this January 25-26, the Symposium series returns to Orlando Florida after a two-year hiatus for an awesome two days of education and networking, and all race directors, timers and nonprofit professionals are invited - not just GiveSignup|RunSignup customers.

So, it’s great to have with me today, Johanna Goode, from GiveSignup|RunSignup who has the unenviable job of putting the whole thing together to tell us a little bit more about what you can look forward to both at and around the Symposium this coming January.

In this episode:

• The history of the GiveSignup | RunSignup Symposium series
• Why the GiveSignup | RunSignup Symposium is not your regular race director conference/expo
• What you can look forward to in attending if you're a race director, timer or nonprofit
• How you can attend the Symposium as a vendor
• The Demo Room, the Suite Run, and other training and networking opportunities at this year's Winter Symposium

To learn more about the GiveSignup | RunSignup Winter Symposium, and to register visit: runsignup.com/wintersymposium

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If I told you “race marketing”, what kinds of things come to mind? Facebook ads maybe, maybe Google Ads. But what about your race website? Is that optimised for search engines? When people search Google for your race - or, even more importantly, for a race like your race to enter - is your race website the one they find at the top of Google search results?

Today we’re going to be talking about SEO - a huge missed opportunity to get more qualified people to discover your race on Google. Why is this so important? (A) Because it’s free, (B) because it can get you tons of traffic and potential participants, and (C) because very few people are doing it as well as it can be done. And that’s the opportunity for you.

My guest on today’s episode, Cory Jennermann, knows a bit about SEO, having spent countless hours ranking his awesome race listing site, RunGuides.com, to the top of Google search results pages. 

And, as you’ll see, Cory loves geeking over keywords and structured data and the like - as do I, to be honest - so, stick with us for a fun-filled SEO chat.

In this episode:

• What is SEO all about?
• Getting found by people looking for your race vs getting found by people looking for races similar to your race
• How you can't - and shouldn't try to - game Google
• What user behavior tells Google's RankBrain algorithm about your website
• Technical SEO vs On-page SEO vsOff-page SEO
• Backlinks, site authority and link juice(!)
• Technical SEO: URL architecture, content discoverability, sitemaps, internal linking, data markup
• Structured data: marking up your website content for rich snippets and winning more Google real estate
• Event schema markup: marking up your race date and start line location
• Ranking for relevant "near me" search queries
• Marking up for your site's FAQs
• Understanding and targeting user search intent
• How keyword research can help improve your race website content
• Blogs: should your site have one?
• Creating content to win backlinks and draw in qualified traffic
• Building backlinks to your site: targeting local running clubs, race calendars, other local event sites.

Useful links:

• Google Search Console
• Google Structured Data Markup Helper
• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Trends
• Moz - SEO tools
• Ahrefs - SEO tools
• Moz Beginner's Guide to SEO
• Backlinko blog - in-depth SEO and backlink-building articles

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 building your own website, SEO or anything else in our Facebook group,

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It’s very fashionable these days to hear people speak of “influencers” - people who work with brands to promote their products and services to a niche audience in which they have a strong following.

Well, our industry has had that for a while. They’re called race ambassadors and they can be your race’s special influencers, going out into the community and spreading the word for your event in their running club, weekly group run, or the next race or expo they attend.

Today I have the pleasure of talking with William Dyson, Communications Manager for High Five Events. William manages the race ambassador programs for such prestigious events as the Austin Marathon, 3M Half Marathon, CapTex Tri and Kerrville Triathlon, and he’ll be sharing his thoughts with us on how you can launch, grow and manage your own race ambassador program, including tips on using incentives, keeping track of your ambassadors’ performance and ways to come up with unique ideas to make the most of your ambassadors’ community reach.

In this episode:

• What a race ambassador program is about and how it works
• The benefits of running a race ambassador program: expand your brand reach in your target community
• Inventivizing race ambassadors: comp codes, event gear, networking opportunities, and other perks
• Building a race ambassador program that effectively represents the local running community
• Deciding how many ambassadors you should have, based on your budget and human resources
• Sharing content/ social media posting schedules with your ambassadors
• Recruiting non-local race ambassadors to expand your race reach in neighboring markets
• Bringing your team together: social meet-ups, happy hours
• Over-communicating!
• What makes for a good race ambassador and how to pick a good mix of race ambassadors for your program
• Making the most of celebrity race ambassadors
• Pros and cons of basing ambassador perks and comp codes on performance
• Offering prizes for your best-performing ambassadors
• Mixing up returning and new ambassadors
• Advertizing your race ambassador program in the community
• Race ambassador program ROI: what return/results you should expect from your race ambassador program

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 launching and growing your race ambassador program or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Today, we have a bonus episode for you. And it’s all about Tyvek. Yes, that wondrous paper-like, fabric-like material, that is actually neither paper nor fabric, that our industry uses to make race bibs.

Well, that wondrous material is now in a bit of a supply freeze. That’s right - the owners and exclusive manufacturers of Tyvek, DuPont, have informed printers that no more printing-grade Tyvek shall be made available until the end of the year, in an effort to divert production to medical-grade Tyvek, used in PPE and medical supplies, which, not surprisingly, is in high demand lately.

So what is to become of Tyvek race bibs? I sat down with Marathon Printing President and third-generation bib printing specialist, Ryan Zirk, to find out. 

In this episode:

• Tyvek's special properties making it ideal for race bibs
• Tyvek's (many) other industrial uses: PPE, packaging, weather barriers
• Printing on Tyvek bibs: from bulk Tyvek sheets to finished bibs
• Printing Tyvek at home: can it be done?
• Recycling Tyvek bibs: where and how you can recycle your Tyvek bibs
• DuPont's announcement of halting production of printer-grade Tyvek
• Alternatives to Tyvek for printing bibs, if printer-grade Tyvek inventories are exhausted 

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 bibs or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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At the tender age of 24, with no prior experience or any interest in running, Matt Trevett decided to take a gamble and launch a new 10K in his hometown of Weybridge in Surrey, UK.

Matt promised local business groups and the local council he’ll bring 1,000 people to the race in its first year. As you can imagine, everyone was very supportive of the idea - in between thinking Matt was crazy.

Fast-forward a few months, and Matt delivered his 1,000 people inaugural Weybridge 10K, as promised, and went on to produce more award-winning races in his hometown, putting the former through-town firmly on the regional running map.

Beyond the amazing story of Matt and the Weybridge 10K, today’s episode is not about Matt or the Weybridge 10K. It is an episode about attitude, persistence and - more importantly - taking a lean approach to putting on races that focuses on building community, forging partnerships with local businesses, and marketing smart online, often with little more than a bunch of pictures of empty roads to go on. 

If you’re starting out as a race director you’re going to love this episode, and, if you’re a more seasoned race director, getting the perspective of a young millennial colleague will hopefully help trigger a lightbulb moment or two for you. 

In this episode:

• The Weybridge 10K story
• Planning a new race in the town you grew up in
• Coming into race-directing with the perspective of a non-runner
• Picking your race distance: the merits of a 10K for a new local event
• Not cutting corners on health & safety
• Pitching your vision for your event to town officials 
• Being bold, making mistakes and learning from them
• Focusing on race experience, rather than profits in your first couple of years
• Being transparent and genuine with the content that you share with your audience
• Canvassing residents and local businesses before the launch of the race
• Making advocates of your biggest local critics
• The digital-first approach: launching lean, launching online
• Do organic promotion first (Facebook groups, running clubs), paid later
• The importance of remarketing to "warm" audiences
• Using Facebook Events as part of your race promotion strategy
• Marketing your race on Instagram
• Giving away free race photos and using event photos to market your race online
• Managing a participant death in Weybridge 10K's inaugural race
• Email marketing: less is more
• The future of content marketing: switching from long-from written to short, sharp video content

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 launching and growing your race or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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It’s probably fair to say that when it comes to a race director’s calendar, it doesn’t get much bigger than race day. It’s the day your race comes alive and a day you and your team have been working towards for months.

Whether it’s your first race or your hundredth, everyone goes into race day a bit like a standup comedian walking on stage for their first gig - with a mix of excitement and, well, dread is probably a good word for it.

A million things are going through your head. Does everyone know what they have to do? Are we going to run on schedule? And what do I do if this or that happens?

Today I have the pleasure of being joined on the podcast by Crisp McDonald, a race director and timer with more than a thousand races under his belt. Crisp is also RunSignup’s RaceDay Expert and, as such, has been training race directors and timers on what to expect on race day and how best to prepare for all the curve balls a live event might throw at you. 

In this episode:

• Planning your event site and start/finish line 
• Setting up a clear line of communication with your event team
• Balancing how much you do on race day vs setting things up in advance (e.g. pre-marking your race course)
• Figuring out how long tasks take on race day and when to start setting things up
• Sharing resources across different tasks throughout race day
• The importance of team leads
• The effectiveness of seasoned volunteers, and how to inspire loyalty among volunteers to your event/brand/cause
• How to reduce volunteer no-show rates, by recruiting volunteer groups instead of individuals
• Inspiring volunteers to take ownership of their work, through fun race day volunteer competitions
• The importance of recognizing and thanking volunteers before race day
• Contingency planning: being prepared for switching your in-person race to a virtual race
• Emergency planning: figuring out what to prepare for
• The role of onsite EMS units, and where to station them
• Having a protocol for tracking runners who drop out of the race
• Putting together a key person contact list 
• Anticipating weather changes and what to do when the weather shifts rapidly
• The role of cancellation insurance for races in higher-risk locations
• The task matrix: who's doing what when on race day
• Setting up a race command center
• Communicating with your team: phones vs radios vs apps
• Race day registrations: what you need to be able to take registrations on race day
• Dynamic bib assignment: what is it? how does it work? 
• Packet pick-up: pre-packing packets vs putting them together on the fly
• Setting up your race course: what order to do things in
• Tearing down your race course: the benefits of a rolling tear-down
• Shipping out race results to participants after they finish the race
• Debriefing after the race

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 day prep or anything else in our Fac

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Ask yourself this: when was the last time you bought something without checking out reviews for it online?

Experiences, like races, are no different. When you have a dozen 10Ks to choose from, you’ll want to hear what others have to say about each race before making your decision.

And that’s where race reviews come in. Whether they’re hosted on your website or a third-party site, reviews are the mirror of your race to the world. It’s the best social proof you have and the most effective way to communicate to prospective participants what’s great and unique about your events.

Well, my guests today, Alex Tanti and Katie Ho, know a thing or two about the power of race reviews. Through Racecheck.com and RaceRaves.com, they’ve helped thousands of races make the most of the huge missed opportunity that is race reviews, and they’ll be sharing with us today all the tips and tricks that can help you make the most of your race reviews in your marketing and PR communications.

In this episode:

• The importance of race reviews in race marketing and the participant sign-up journey
• Race reviews vs race surveys as feedback and marketing tools for organizers
• Why even mediocre reviews are better than no reviews at all 
• How to win over participants by addressing negative reviews
• Medals, goodie bags, porta potties: common things people focus on when reviewing a race
• How a participant’s race performance will bias their review of the race
• How to use strong race reviews in your race marketing, social media and with local media
• How to address negative reviews and win over participants
• How to encourage participants to leave more reviews for your race
• Using incentives to solicit more reviews and how to do it right

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 making the most of your race reviews or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Have you ever thought about timing your races yourself? Building your own RFID timing system? Perhaps even building a small race timing business on the side as a way to diversify your income?

Well, doing your own race timing is certainly not for everyone. For most race directors, managing their own race timing is the last thing they need on race day. Nevertheless, DIY race timing is exactly the route many race directors choose to go down, either to save money, try their hands at building a race timing side-business or simply for the enjoyment of building their own RFID timing system.

Today I’ll be talking to Brian Agee of Agee Race Timing, a man very well-known among DIY race timing enthusiasts not only for his very popular race timing software, but also for his willingness to share with others everything he’s learned building and operating DIY race timing.

Over the next hour or so, we’ll be touching on a few things with Brian, from choosing the right components for your race timing system to bringing everything together, setting up your system correctly, and avoiding some common race day pitfalls. 

In this episode:

• What is an open hardware timing system and who is it suitable for
• Pros and cons of open timing systems vs branded/proprietary systems (MYLAPS, Chronotrack, IPICO etc)
• How proprietary systems use password-protected tags and what that means for the ongoing operating cost of your branded system.
• The main components of a DIY timing system: reader, antennas, cables, tags, software
• Mat antennas vs panel antennas
• Passive vs active RFID tags
• 2-port vs 4-port RFID readers
• The cost of building a DIY RFID timing system
• Chip starts/chip times: when you need them and when you don’t
• Recommended RFID tag placement: bib tags vs shoe tags vs wrist tags
• Double tagging: pros and cons of using two tags per runner
• The cost of buying RFID tags
• Making disposable tags reusable 
• Programming/encoding your RFID tags
• Inexpensive backup systems for your main RFID timing system: camcorders, capturing backup times manually, using secondary RFID systems

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, where you’ll also find a 5% discount from Atlas RFID Store for all your RFID timing equipment needs and a 15% discount from Agee Race Timing on timing software you can use with both your DIY and proprietary timing system.

If you are building and operating your own system, Race Timing Hub is our Facebook group dedicated just to race timing and building race timing systems, so come join that and people, including Brian, will be glad to help out with any questions you may have.

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Making races more sustainable is on more and more race directors’ radar these days - which is awesome. But when it comes to moving from theory to practice, working to affect actual change in your race that has a meaningful impact on your event’s environmental footprint, things sometimes get a little bit confusing.

Where do you even start? How do you benchmark where you’re currently at with your event, so you can measure your progress going forward? What things should you focus on? And what does making progress even look like, when it comes to making your race greener?

These questions and more is what we’ll be discussing today with the help of my guest, Bruce Rayner. Bruce is the Chief Green Officer at Athletes for a Fit Planet and has been working at the forefront of event sustainability for years, having helped countless races, major road races and triathlons as well as local events, become more sustainable by reducing their environmental footprint. 

So if you’re ready to work on making your event more sustainable today, you’ll get a great head start out of the next hour or so.

In this episode: 

• A look at the progress the endurance events industry has made towards greater sustainability
• The reasons still holding back race directors from committing more strongly to the sustainability effort 
• How to start benchmarking your waste and carbon footprint
• Primary vs secondary waste: what counts as your race’s waste and carbon footprint?
• Who should cover the offsetting cost for participant travel, the event or the participant?
• What is carbon offsetting and how can it help events get to carbon neutrality?
• Asking participants to cover their carbon footprint through their registration fee
• Are participants willing to pay a “green” surcharge to cover the offsetting cost of their travel?
• Why it’s important for races to be transparent with participants on what their carbon footprint is
• The marketing benefit of promoting your race’s environmental credentials
• How to avoid recyclable waste contamination by getting your volunteers to sort it
• Recovering and recycling discarded water cups and bottles at aid stations
• The advantage of using compostable cups vs recyclable paper cups
• Is cupless racing possible for road races?
• The role of businesses and local government as sustainability sponsors for races

Links:

• What are Carbon Offsets and How Do They Work?

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 free resources on planning, promoting and organizing  races on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

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

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Have you ever wondered how the choices you make about your race start procedure can affect every aspect of the rest of your race? Even simple things, like choosing a wave start over a rolling start, or changing the order and size of each wave, or the width of your start line, can have a significant impact on your race’s safety, congestion on the course, and even your staffing requirements for aid stations and your race finish area.

Today I have the pleasure of having as my guest Marcel Altenburg, probably the world’s foremost expert in crowd dynamics for mass-participation events. Marcel is a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and has helped countless races optimize their participant flows from start to finish. Marcel has so much experience in this area and we’ll be going over some simple rules Marcel has come up with from his research that you can use to optimize your race start procedure - whatever the size or type of your race.

In this episode:

• What is crowd science and how it can be applied to the study of participant flows during mass-participation endurance events
• How your start line procedure affects everything that happens downstream at your race race course
• Always try to order start waves by pace (faster runners at the front, slower runners at the back), even if you can't do it perfectly
• Make your start line 30% narrower than the narrowest point on your course to avoid congestion
• Aim for a max 3 people per sqm in your start pen for a safe, comfortable race start
• Keep start waves of slower runners at the back smaller than start waves of faster runners at the front
• Prefer rolling starts over open starts to eliminate the uncertainty of people arriving at random times
• For socially-distanced races, keep participants sufficiently socially-distanced at the start and they will only spread out further during the course

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 free resources on planning, promoting and organizing  races on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about start line procedures, participant social distancing or anything else in our race directors Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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