Elevating endurance and fundraising communities with the art of technology.
Have you heard about the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee? They opened registration on RunSignup in April thinking they would get 200 participants, and ended up with more than 19,000 registrations. When we saw the demand for virtual challenges, we built a challenge platform that handles everything from participants logging and tracking their activity to […]
Please see RunSignup.com/ChallengePlatform, RunSignup.com/GoVirtual, Looking Forward: Guidelines for Races, and RunSignup.com/Coronavirus for recommendations and tools. Things continue to evolve as of May 17, 2020 from Week 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2 of the Coronavirus. The transaction volume we saw the past week is 18% lower than the same week last year. The 18% is a very good improvement from the 25% the previous […]
We recently launched the RaceJoy’s race anywhere feature for virtual events offering location independent events. With such a high interest from race directors and timers across the country, we held a Webinar this week to go over the capabilities and how virtual events can get the most of them. As the industry has shifted to […]
Elevation has been added as a new type of challenge. This is very useful for cycling as well as mountain trail running. It allows challenges to collect both distance and elevation along with time all at once. Note the columns for Time, Distance and Elevation in this example: Individual results will show details: Let’s show […]
Another interesting example of challenges is a race car track (of course you can do a regular 400 meter running track but we thought this was kind of fun to try). Note how the goal is on laps – in the case 200. The map works as well – even though this is a map […]
The free RunSignup – Facebook Fundraiser Integration is now even easier for your nonprofit to enable to raise more and save money with an automated set up and approval process. Previously, a manual whitelisting process meant that nonprofits had to wait several days to weeks to begin using the RunSignup – Facebook Fundraiser integration while […]
After thousands of people logged their miles this weekend for challenges like The Jersey Virtual Challenge and the Buckeye State Challenge, we accelerated the release of a new user interface to make it even easier for people to log their activity. There are 3 major updates: Log a single activity screen Activity Timeline Component Don’t […]
Real races continue to happen as timers lead our industry into the “new normal”. This past weekend, the Social Distance 5K provided a truly competitive racing experience for the participants while adhering to all local and state regulations and CDC social distancing and safety guidelines. Please note that all states and communities have different reopening […]
We sent out a short survey last week to help create a snapshot of revenue expectations of races in 2020 and 2021, and look at how organizations are adjusting to their expectations. The survey closed on Monday, but we expect to do follow-ups throughout the year to track expectations within the industry. Top Takeaways 2020 […]
High school and college cross country teams use the challenge platform to not only track summer training, but also for fundraising. We have created two examples that Bob is in the process of getting approval to use at the high school he used to coach at (Moorestown) and where he ran in college (Bucknell). You […]
The next release of our Challenge software is now available – live map tracking. You can see it live on some challenges already – for example the Buckeye Challenge (yes, the challenge is to run around the perimeter of Ohio). This results page will be improved by the end of the week, but the map feature is […]
As more and more events go virtual, we’re seeing an increase in conversation around the role of sponsors with virtual or modified events. We have collected some of the best ideas we’ve seen, and will break down our insight on sponsors during COVID-19 in this blog. Note: while most of these ideas are universal, many […]
Every morning, we wake up to a Google Alert with all the news that includes “RunSignup”. Occasionally it’s news about us; more often, it’s local news about races that use our platform and link to their registration. Lately we’ve seen a shift: all the races popping up are virtual, and the local news is learning […]
There were 4 updates to virtual race bibs and finisher certificates this week, improving the virtual swag that you can offer to your race and challenge participants for free. Virtual Race Bib Email Marketing Replacement Tag There is now a replacement tag in RunSignup’s free email marketing platform to send participants the link to their […]
This year we made the decision to convert the 36th annual Scott Coffee Rotary Run to a virtual race. As the biggest fundraiser for the local Rotary Club, it was important to make money this year. We also wanted to engage our participants with a fun event while ensuring that they come back next year […]
Please see RunSignup.com/Coronavirus, RunSignup.com/GoVirtual and Looking Forward: Guidelines for Races for recommendations and tools. Things continue to evolve as of May 17, 2020 from Week 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2 of the Coronavirus. The transaction volume we saw the past week is 25% lower than the same week last year. The 25% is a very good improvement from the 37% the previous week […]
The next release of our Challenge software is now available – multiple activities. This blog will use a Triathlon as an example, but think creative. Gyms will be able to use this to track multiple challenge activities – maybe pushups, sit-ups and pull-ups. Yoga studios might want to have challenges based on the amount of […]
Official Mobile Race Experience From Any Location We are incredibly excited to announce RaceJoy is now available for location independence events. Virtual event organizers can now offer RaceJoy for both location independent and defined course route race experiences for participants of running, walking, cycling, and water events. RaceJoy delivers an official interactive race experience that […]
You can now add a description that shows next to your Giveaway items. This is very useful for adding details about when your shirts are expected to ship, or any information about an in-person packet pick up. You can add a description in Step 4 of the Race Wizard or by going to Race >> […]
Many people dismiss the idea of a virtual race – “It is not a real race”, “People might cheat”, “We would not want to taint the brand of our race with virtual”, “oh, the market is saturated and there aren’t enough who want to run virtual”, etc. This attitude is holding back many customers from […]
We’re checking in regularly to see what the endurance community is doing to keep the industry running forward in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. For more ideas, view you can find all the previous highlights archive here. Today’s creative events look at virtual events or challenges that have been created by organizations that normally put […]
Wow! Eventbrite said yesterday that transaction volume in March was down 90% and was still down 85% in early May, 2020. Before we get into the analysis, here are the links: Q1 Earnings Press Release Q1 Letter to Shareholders Earnings Call Transcript The news they shared was simply extraordinary, and made us feel good about […]
We have a quick, 8-question survey to create a snapshot of revenue expectations of races in 2020 and 2021 and look at how organizations are adjusting to their expectations. Whether you organize one or many races, we’d love your input to help us create a complete picture of the endurance industry. Notes: 1 – There is […]
Please see RunSignup.com/Coronavirus and RunSignup.com/GoVirtual for recommendations and tools. We also released Looking Forward: Guidelines for Races this week as well. Things continue to evolve as of May 3, 2020 from Week 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2 of the Coronavirus. The transaction volume we saw the past week is 37% lower than the same week last year. The 37% is a pretty good improvement […]
This is a guest post from sodisp. For a limited time all sodisp virtual events are free to create, up to 1,000 participants, with events using RunSignup for their registration able to have their virtual event on sodisp for up to 10,000 participants. The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has a very real and immediate effect on […]
This year is the 36th Annual Scott Coffee Rotary Run (yes, that’s the race that inspired Bob to start RunSignup). It’s a big fundraiser that the Moorestown Rotary Club relies on and it serves an important role in bringing our community together. Cancelling the race wasn’t a great option – so we decided to make […]
Many of the newly formed virtual events want to offer their participants the chance to re-do a route to improve their performance time, accumulate miles, or simply for a repeat experience. RaceJoy is now offering the ability to re-do a course for virtual races and will transmit the newest finish time automatically to official race […]
We are quickly adding features to our Virtual Challenge Event capability (for the growing list of challenge event capabilities see here). We will be doing a set of pretty major revamps of the dashboard pages for setting all of this up over the next week or two. But we thought it might be useful to talk about each […]
As areas of the country are preparing for the gradual lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, RunSignup is working on ways we can support the industry through technology. We are pleased to share that RaceDay Scoring and The Race Director now have the ability to capture both start and finish reads with overlapping start and finish time […]
We have added another feature to our Virtual Challenge Event capability (for the growing list of challenge event capabilities see here). This time we have added the capability to add goals – either one the director sets for everyone for each activity, or allow each participant to select their own goal. This is then displayed as a % […]
We have added another feature to our Virtual Challenge Event capability (for the growing list of challenge event capabilities see here). Overall Totals for challenge events are now easily available on cover pages. It sums up all of the activities all of your participants have done – miles, kilometers, dance time, pushups, even cat nap […]
This webinar was a high level look at some ideas you can use to make money and save money right now. If you want to dive deeper into any of these ideas, we have a ton of resources below to get you started: Webinar Recording Slides https://runsignup.com/GoVirtual State of the Industry Where are we today? […]
Note: Check out all the new features by seeing all of the blogs we are posting as we release new capabilities to Challenges. One of the growing types of virtual events are challenges. For example, there are currently challenges to run (virtually) across Tennessee, New Jersey, New York, oh and another New York. But there […]
We added a new section to the Looking Forward Guidelines: Real Race Examples with Social Distancing. Races will look different in the weeks and months to come, but technology and creativity are letting us get back to racing in a way that complies with social distancing. The examples that we add in this section are […]
Please see RunSignup.com/Coronavirus and RunSignup.com/GoVirtual for recommendations and tools. We also released Looking Forward: Guidelines for Races this week as well. Things continue to evolve as of May 3, 2020 from Week 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2 of the Coronavirus. The transaction volume we saw the past week is 40% lower than the same week last year. The 40% is a pretty good improvement from […]
As you go to open up your virtual race – whether it is a brand new idea, or a virtual version of your traditional race or fundraiser – you will need to learn some new things. We give you a ton of increasing engaging technology to put on your virtual fundraiser like free websites, cover […]
Crisp McDonald walked through the reasons to use corrals to ensure social distancing, and the setps to get setup. Catch up on the webinar and slides! What is a Corral? – Also known as a wave or a time trial, corrals divide people into a variety of start time. Why Would You Need Corrals? – As Races begin returning, […]
Make Money, Save Money The novel coronavirus has rocked the endurance industry, freezing in-person events and the income stream that comes with them. While the future is unknown, we are seeing a rebound – not because things are returning to normal, but because the industry is full of innovative and resourceful race directors, timers, and […]
We usually do a Race Registration Market Analysis twice a year. We usually include a bunch of stats from different sources to compare the various registration platforms and track general industry trends. Usually, we publish the spring one in March. This year is obviously different because the Coronavirus really started impacting normal life in the […]
We are excited to share that auto result submission for virtual events is now available in RunSignup’s race day app, RaceJoy. Those participants using RaceJoy for GPS tracking and cheer sending, will have their GPS-based results automatically submitted to the race as they cross the finish line. For events using RunSignup’s Virtual Results, this data […]
A bit late for this past quarter, but we have been busy adjusting to the Coronavirus crisis as we have been helping the endurance community find solutions to postponement, cancellation, going virtual, and finding ways to make money and save money. But we want to make sure we continue to record what is happening as […]
We’re checking in regularly to see what the endurance community is doing to keep the industry running forward in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. For more ideas, view you can find all the previous highlights archive here. Today’s creative events are a mashup of longer virtual events – a four 5K series, a 50 hour […]
Please see RunSignup.com/Coronavirus and RunSignup.com/GoVirtual for recommendations and tools. We also released Looking Forward: Guidelines for Races this week as well. Things continue to evolve as of April 11, 2020 from Week 8, Week 7, Week 6, Week 5, Week 4, Week 3 and Week 2 of the Coronavirus. The transaction volume we saw the past week is 44% lower than the same week last […]
Timers, like many businesses, are facing difficult times in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet more people are getting outside and running than every before. We expect there will be a surge of interest for running events as things begin to open up. We also expect the need to have virtual race options is […]
Nonprofits are dealing with canceled fundraising events and a severe decrease in donations. It’s time to go back to basics: engage your communities while saving money and making money for your nonprofit. People need connection more than ever, and free virtual events (or a small registration fee) with donations and fundraising are a perfect way to […]
Over the past few weeks, we have had to put out a LOT of information quickly. We wanted to do that with a website. However, our main website has a lot of restrictions on it for PCI compliance purposes where every line of change requires code review and special deployment procedures. This put several people […]
We have added another feature to cover pages – Custom Countdown Clock. Like all cover page components, it is simple to add and set up – and takes effect immediately. Yet another reason to use free RunSignup Websites to help save money, improve your brand, and offer participants all the information in one place.
We added a race status survey that helps us understand the status of your race in determining the appropriate reserve, especially post race, several weeks ago. It is available on your race dashboard: We recently added a place to upload a Government Order that states that your race has been cancelled or postponed. We will […]
We’ve been seeing some social media posts and press releases about industry vendors who are changing manufacturing goals, repurposing products, and supporting virtual races. If you’re an endurance industry vendor with something to contribute, email us and let us know! Manufacturing PPE PPE (personal protective equipment) is in short supply across the country. These vendors […]
We are excited to share that events are now able to issue Virtual Bibs to participants for traditional and virtual events. These pre-race bibs are an effective way to communicate bib numbers and add another tangible component for virtual event experiences. Participants can share their official bib on social media, which in turn helps promote […]
