Thanksgiving Day is the largest running day in the United States! Are you ready to stand out from this crowd?
Today’s webinar covered the path to Turkey Day Greatness:
- Bib Assignment: Simplify the bib assignment process
- RaceDay Registration: Increase race revenue and decrease workload
- RaceDay CheckIn: Improve participants’ onsite experience
- RaceDay Photos: Provide free participant RaceDay photos efficiently and economically.
- RaceJoy: Live GPS tracking and cheer sending
For a checklist of detailed steps and links to how-to’s for specific topics, download the Turkey Trot RaceDay Guide!
Bib Assignment Highlights
Determine who will assign bibs (timer or race director), and give access to your timer as needed.
https://help.runsignup.com/support/solutions/articles/17000064216-add-a-timer-to-your-race
Decide if you will pre-assign bibs, dynamically assign bibs, or a combination of the two (recommended).
Tip: Always test your dynamic bib assignment prior to RaceDay, and make sure that your volunteers are familiar with the process.
RaceDay Registration Best Practices
Keep online registration open until the start of the race to maximize revenue and reduce lines by allowing participants to register on their phones!
- Ensure that there is a reliable internet connection
- Verify that you have computers/chromebooks/tablets to use
- Confirm that online registration is OPEN on RunSignup
- Enable Private Expo Mode and make sure your volunteers know the Expo Mode password and the Offline Payment password.
- Make sure your Giveaway Inventories are set
- Enable Fast Registration for Expo Mode to speed up the registration path
CheckIn App Best Practices
- Ensure that there is a reliable internet connection
- Verify that you or your volunteers have tablets or phones to use
- Enable the CheckIn App and set access password & dates
- Download CheckIn App on devices being used for check-in
- Open CheckIn App, log in, and update the settings for the event
- PRACTICE, and ensure that volunteers/staffs have the app downloaded, the presets set, and have practiced themselves
- Review CheckIn Reports post-race
CheckIn App Suggested Presets:
RaceDay Photos Best Practices
- To extend the RaceDay excitement, upload professional or volunteer photos
- Photos can be auto-tagged by bib number using Google Vision. To increase the accuracy of auto-tagging, use 4-digit bib numbers and exclude the tagging of numbers under 1,000.
- Upload photos and add locations
- Add logo (race or sponsor) to the photos
- Share the photos by email and social media
Finisher Certificates Best Practices
- Reward all participants with custom finisher certificates that can be included in each finisher notification sent out by email, as well as the individual results link for each participant
- Customize your certificate with your own image to ensure the branding reflects your event! We recommend Canva (775px x 600px) if you don’t regularly use design software.
RaceJoy Best Practices
- Check with your timer to see if they are certified in RaceJoy
- Enable RaceJoy 2-4 weeks out (if not going through your timer)
- Brand your RaceJoy experience by customizing content sections, add custom banner ads, race schedule, FAQ, event & info page, sponsor logos, and content.
- Load course map (within 2 weeks of RaceDay)
- Promote RaceJoy to your participants!
- Share tracking instructions with your team to monitor all RaceDay operations.
Q&A Highlights
Can you check participants in on a laptop (instead of a tablet or phone)? Yes, you can use web checkin by going to Go Race Day -> RaceDay CheckIn -> Web CheckIn. Two caveats to going this route: you need to have very reliable internet, and you need to use delegate access for volunteers to protect the privacy of your account. For these reasons, the CheckIn App is generally recommended when possible.
What is the benefit of the CheckIn App: No paper! 1) The CheckIn App creates a direct connection between RaceDay Registration and CheckIn, ensuring that your list for check-in is alway updated and correct. 2) The CheckIn App allows you to dynamically assign bib numbers on-site, or easily correct any erroneous bib numbers. 3) Reporting from the CheckIn App helps you to better determine your volunteer needs by showing how many people still need to be checked in, and allowing you to review the flow of participants checking in on previous years.
Can credit cards be used in expo mode? Yes, but not with a card swiper. The participant will manually enter the credit card number.
What is a RaceDay Certified Timer? Timers are able to be certified through a full day training in RaceDay Scoring and RaceJoy. Once they have been certified, that timer is able to offer RaceJoy to the races they work with. Timers and race managers interested in getting certified can do so at the upcoming RunSignup Winter Symposium in Orlando, FL.
And that’s it! You are officially…
