Head Start

Race Directors HQ

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Head Start is a podcast for race directors and anyone involved in the business of putting on races. It doesn't matter where you're based or how many years experience you have or whether you're putting on a running race, a triathlon, an obstacle race or whatever. If you’ve got an interest in planning, organizing and growing endurance events, this is the podcast for you.The focus of the podcast is twofold: 1) we bring you the latest and coolest innovations hitting the mass-participation endurance events industry, and 2) we bring you tips and actionable advice from industry experts to help you im...

Race Trends 2024

RunSignup’s annual RaceTrends report is the closest thing we get in the endurance events industry to a market-wide survey of what is happening in events and event participation. And the latest RaceTrends report for 2024 is out, shedding a unique light into the long-term trends taking shape in the race management industry.So, how are we doing? Is the COVID-era hangover well and truly behind us? What do the numbers say for current and future participation growth in endurance events? And are the bu

Feb 19, • 1:29:32

Permits

When it comes to putting on races, obtaining a permit (or permits, as the case may be) is one of the most fundamental aspects of the race planning process. However, with increasingly busier local event schedules and ever-changing permitting requirements, obtaining a permit for any event is becoming both costlier and more complicated than ever.So, how can you best navigate the event permitting process? What things do you need to prepare for and focus on before reaching out to your local council o

Jan 20, • 1:10:29

2024 Global Runner Survey

Running USA’s annual Global Runner Survey has always been an important gauge of runner attitudes and trends for the endurance events industry. And in 2024, following some key content additions, the report is more valuable than ever. So, how can you leverage runners’ fitness and social habits to increase the reach of your event? What is it that runners really value in a race? And how can you remove obstacles holding back your race’s growth from its full potential?That’s what we’re discussing toda

Oct 22, 2024 • 1:31:22

Waivers

A couple of episodes back, we looked at event liability insurance: why it’s important that your race is covered by a robust liability insurance policy, the circumstances under which a liability policy would kick in, and what happens when it does. But there was a significant part of that discussion we only briefly touched on in that episode, and that was the importance of supporting your liability protection with the use of a liability waiver.So, what is a liability waiver? What needs to be in it

Sep 17, 2024 • 1:14:17

Course Measurement & Certification

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 ce

Jul 17, 2024 • 1:02:36

Race Insurance

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 medic

Jun 10, 2024 • 1:26:18

Crisis Communications

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.

Apr 22, 2024 • 1:16:22

Race Trends 2023

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 t

Mar 5, 2024 • 1:05:52

Instagram & Influencer Marketing

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

Feb 6, 2024 • 1:21:29

Designing a Race Course

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

Dec 12, 2023 • 1:14:25

Building a Race Series

Building a race from the ground up, as anyone who’s done it will know, is a tough business. But what about planning, coordinating and growing a whole series of races, all with a common theme and brand identity? How do you finance and grow multiple races from scratch? How do you choose when and where to launch a new race? And how can you make use of local delivery partners to deliver new races on a budget, while ensuring your quality standards and vision are adhered to?That’s what we’ll be discus

Nov 8, 2023 • 1:19:22

Spotlight: Hood to Coast

First run on a whim in 1982 by Oregon Road Runners Club president Bob Foote with only 8 teams participating in the inaugural race, Hood to Coast has grown from modest beginnings to become a huge success story. More than 40 years on, the race that has come to be known affectionately as “the mother of all relays” now attracts more than a thousand teams from over 40 countries to what is one of the most spectacular 200 mile courses from the top of Mt Hood to the Pacific Ocean. So what’s the secret s

Oct 16, 2023 • 1:19:55

Supporting Female Athletes

Racing has come a long way since the days when women were being told that running the marathon would cause your uterus to fall out. And with women now making up 54% of all race registrations in the US, according to RunSignup’s 2022 RaceTrends report, you’d think there’d be very little holding women back from racing in this third decade of the 21st century.That, however, is not the reality for most women out there, according to today’s guest, SheRACES founder and GB team ultrarunner, Sophie Power

Sep 19, 2023 • 1:36:37

Spotlight: Boulderthon

Nestled in a valley in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Boulder, CO, is often referred to as the fitness capital of the US. So it was a bit surprising to Phil Dumontet, a young East Coast entrepreneur moving to Boulder in 2017 to launch his smoothie bar business, to realize that Boulder, in all its glorious outdoorsy-ness and obsession with fitness, lacked a first-rate city marathon.For most people, that would have been just a passing thought. But not to Phil, who made giving Boulder the do

Aug 23, 2023 • 1:20:55

The 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing

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

Aug 1, 2023 • 1:40:49

Sponsorship Proposals

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

Jul 12, 2023 • 1:33:11

Race Merchandise

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 gu

Jun 26, 2023 • 1:01:47

Race Medical Planning

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?Th

Jun 12, 2023 • 1:29:41

The Business of Trail & Ultra Races

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 compa

May 29, 2023 • 1:43:07

Mastering Social Media

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 t

May 15, 2023 • 1:31:59

Hiccup: Reusable Water Cups

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 ra

May 2, 2023 • 59:06

Spotlight: SBT GRVL

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,

Apr 17, 2023 • 1:33:46

Race Photos

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

Apr 3, 2023 • 1:17:44

Race Photos

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

Apr 3, 2023 • 1:17:44

Engaging Local Media

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 ho

Mar 20, 2023 • 1:24:00

Building a Race Budget

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 bu

Mar 6, 2023 • 1:25:18

Race Trends 2022

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 myria

Feb 20, 2023 • 1:09:59

Spotlight: HYROX

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 beco

Feb 6, 2023 • 1:29:08

Scaling Up

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 th

Jan 23, 2023 • 1:08:11

Cracking Gen Z Runners

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 4

Jan 10, 2023 • 1:27:28

2022 Podcast Highlights

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 o

Dec 26, 2022 • 52:27

Spotlight: Around the Crown 10K

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,

Dec 12, 2022 • 1:49:03

[Bonus] Going Solar

It’s another bonus episode for you today, and as we were discussing reducing your race’s carbon footprint last week, this week’s episode falls quite neatly in the same area of sustainability and decarbonization. Today, I’m joined by race director, race timer and solar power enthusiast Lowell Ladd, of 2L Race Services, to talk about how you can switch your race day headquarters over to solar power, so that your entire race day operation runs on sun juice instead of diesel. We’re going to be looki

Dec 5, 2022 • 43:37

Carbon Neutral Race Production

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

Nov 28, 2022 • 1:04:30

Designing Actionable Race Surveys

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 strat

Nov 14, 2022 • 1:14:09

Starting Out as a Race Director

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 t

Oct 31, 2022 • 1:21:36

TikTok Marketing

“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?

Oct 17, 2022 • 1:23:03

Managing Stress

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

Oct 4, 2022 • 1:29:38

Finding & Approaching Sponsors

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. Tere

Sep 19, 2022 • 1:39:42

Getting to Zero Waste

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 Ope

Sep 5, 2022 • 1:05:58

2022 Global Runner Survey

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 Su

Aug 22, 2022 • 1:02:14

Facebook Ads II: Creatives, Budgeting, Optimization, Retargeting

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

Aug 8, 2022 • 1:15:55

Facebook Ads I: Strategy, Funnels, Campaigns, Targeting

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 psych

Jul 25, 2022 • 1:20:52

The Sponsorship Seeker's Mindset

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 o

Jul 11, 2022 • 1:24:59

iRewind: Personalized Race Videos

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

Jun 27, 2022 • 1:18:51

Trademarking Races

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 rac

Jun 13, 2022 • 1:27:48

Email Marketing

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,

May 30, 2022 • 1:36:36

Market Update: Are We There Yet?

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 r

May 16, 2022 • 1:24:32

SMS Marketing

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

May 2, 2022 • 1:42:33

Race Announcers!

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 m

Apr 18, 2022 • 1:24:46

[Bonus] The Space Force T-Minus 10-Miler

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 abo

Apr 12, 2022 • 1:01:04

The Council for Responsible Sport

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 Counc

Apr 4, 2022 • 1:18:55

Recruiting & Managing Volunteers

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

Mar 21, 2022 • 1:06:57

[Bonus] Fraud at the Portland Marathon

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

Mar 10, 2022 • 23:58

Building Your Brand

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, yo

Mar 7, 2022 • 1:02:34

Understanding Marketing Psychology

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 selli

Feb 21, 2022 • 1:23:27

Race Trends 2021

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,

Feb 7, 2022 • 1:00:38

Race Expos

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 expo

Jan 24, 2022 • 1:01:57

DIY PR & Mastering Earned Media

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

Jan 10, 2022 • 1:17:50

Looking Ahead to 2022

If you’re listening to this episode as it comes out, it’s the middle of the holiday season and, hopefully, you’re recovering from some excessive meal or other - so, Merry Christmas to you!Today, we have a very special end-of-year episode for you where we’re going to be looking back at a fairly challenging 2021 but also looking ahead to a - hopefully - much brighter, more optimistic 2022. We’re going to be talking about your expectations for the new year, and also touching a bit on the ongoing su

Dec 27, 2021 • 49:55

Marketing Your Race Internationally

Sports tourism - you’ve heard the phrase, people traveling to places to participate in sporting - that’s a whole thing these days. And a very fast-growing thing at that. So, how can your race capitalize on this trend and how can you position your event to attract more overseas or out-of-state participants?That’s exactly what we’ll be getting into today with my guest, George Kakourides, Marketing Director for the Logicom Cyprus Marathon. As you’ll hear, George has worked really hard on growing in

Dec 13, 2021 • 1:10:38

Buying and Selling Races

If you have built a business putting on races, chances are you would have thought of maybe selling some or all of those races at some point in the future. You may also have toyed with the idea of buying races from others as a way to grow your event portfolio. Buying and selling races still remains a big mystery for most race directors - even very experienced ones. How do you go about it? How do you find events to buy, if you’re a buyer, and where do you turn to sell your event, if you’re a selle

Nov 29, 2021 • 1:19:09

[Bonus] GiveSignup | RunSignup Winter Symposium

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

Nov 18, 2021 • 34:07

SEO for Races

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 thi

Nov 15, 2021 • 1:33:49

Running a Race Ambassador Program

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 t

Nov 1, 2021 • 1:18:44

[Bonus] The Big Tyvek Squeeze

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 T

Oct 29, 2021 • 32:05

Growing a Digital-First Race

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 wen

Oct 18, 2021 • 1:27:30

Nailing Race Day

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 kno

Oct 4, 2021 • 1:53:41

The Power of Race Reviews

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 c

Sep 20, 2021 • 47:02

Building an RFID Race Timing System

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 t

Sep 6, 2021 • 1:03:48

Improving Race Sustainability

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

Aug 23, 2021 • 1:08:22

Managing Participant Flows

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,

Aug 9, 2021 • 1:05:07

Selling Sponsorships

Selling sponsorships is arguably the biggest chronic challenge race directors face. Many race directors simply don’t like doing it, others don’t know where to start, and perhaps some have even given up after multiple frustrations and disappointments.My guest today, Ben Pickel, is the Director of Sales and Strategy at Life Time Events. Ben has been working for years in the front lines of sponsorship sales, and knows a thing or two about the ups and downs of event sponsorship. His advice? Know you

Jul 26, 2021 • 1:37:13

Race Trends: Summer 2021

With races starting to come back, and at least a hint of normalcy slowly returning to the endurance events market, it’s a good time to take stock of where we currently are on the road to recovery. Are more participants signing up for races? Are they signing up later, as some race directors have suggested? Are in-person races making a strong comeback? And what about virtual races which dominated events for most of last year? We’ll be answering these questions and more today with the help of my gu

Jul 12, 2021 • 46:37

Kids Runs

Does your race offer a kids run alongside your main events? If not, you could be missing out on a great opportunity to make your race more attractive for families, as well as getting a few more sponsors on board that may not normally take an interest in sponsoring your race. Lucie Murray of specialised kids run production company Run Kids Run has been managing kids runs for some of the largest races on the West Coast, including the LA Marathon, Surf City Marathon and Santa Monica Classic. She is

Jul 5, 2021 • 1:04:03

Ooho: Edible Water Bottles for Races

When it comes to waste in the endurance events industry, water bottles are the big plastic elephant in the room. So it’s no surprise that a great deal of effort has recently been going into finding ways to tackle the problem of plastic bottle waste in races. Today, we're talking to Lise Honsinger, CFO & COO of Notpla, a UK-based company pioneering the use of edible packaging. Notpla’s flagship edible sachet, Ooho, has been used in the London Marathon and many other races across the worl

Jun 28, 2021 • 48:15

Charity Partnerships

Having a charity partner is sometimes a bit of an afterthought for many race directors. And yet, there’s so many benefits to getting a charity involved with your event, from increased participation and volunteer recruitment opportunities to even higher likelihood of closing sponsorship agreements. Well, today, I’m talking to industry veteran Susan Hurley, Founder of CharityTeams, about how to approach charities, what to expect out of a charity partnership and how to make the most of this underap

Jun 21, 2021 • 44:21

Bluetooth Timing

Professional race timing is one of those things everyone’s come to expect when entering a race. And, for more than three decades, RFID has been the undisputed gold standard when it comes to timing races.But, with new technologies coming on to the market, cheaper and more widely available alternatives to RFID timing are fast becoming a reality. Alternatives like Bluetooth, which can be programmed to deliver highly accurate race times at a fraction of the cost of RFID.Does that mean you could soon

Jun 14, 2021 • 52:24

Trail Race Safety

On May 22nd, tragedy struck when severe weather hit the Huanghe Shilin Mountain Marathon in China. Caught between checkpoints along the 100km race course, runners found themselves exposed to hail and freezing rain at 3,000ft. When rescue teams finally reached the area, 21 people had died. Today we're talking to Lindley Chambers: race director, first aider and former Chair of the UK Trail Running Association, about what went wrong in that fateful race and how trail race directors (and race direct

Jun 7, 2021 • 1:19:19

How to Market Your Race in 2021

2021 is shaping up to be a year of two halves for the endurance events industry. The first half, like most of 2020, has been an almost total write-off. The second? That is shaping up to be one of the busiest race seasons ever, with oversaturated race calendars and intense competition among events for participants making their return to racing.So, what should you be doing to promote your race in this market?  And what channels and strategies should you focus on to stand out from the competition?

May 31, 2021 • 56:23

Trees not Tees: A Green Alternative to Race Swag

Waste is a big problem in the events industry and endurance events are no exception. And it’s not only about water bottle waste. Sometimes the things we offer our participants, like medals and T-shirts, end up discarded or in a cupboard somewhere never to see the light of day again.Change may be just around the corner though. In today's episode we'll be hearing from Chris Zair on how UK-based Trees not Tees is helping race directors offer participants the option of planting a tree instead of (or

May 24, 2021 • 58:08

Race Cancellation Insurance in the Age of Pandemics

To say it's been a challenging year for the endurance events industry would be an understatement. So what can we learn from what we’ve been through to help us improve the way we manage risk in the events industry going forward? That’s what we’ll be exploring in today's episode with the help of our guest, Nathan Nicholas, Managing Partner at specialist insurance broker Nicholas Hill Group. When it comes to 1-in-1,000-type risks in the industry, Nathan has dealt with it all, from severe weather an

May 17, 2021 • 53:27

Welcome to Head Start!

Welcome to episode zero of Head Start, the podcast for race directors and the business of putting on races. In this first short episode, Panos sets out what you should expect from future Head Start episodes, namely: 1) The best and coolest innovation happening in the mass-participation endurance industry that you may not know about2) Top tips and actionable advice from industry experts to help you better plan, manage and market your race.Stay tuned and subscribe for the roll-out of our first 6-e

Apr 20, 2021 • 4:16