Boston, Our Thoughts Are With You

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Shannon Fiack

In the wake of Monday’s tragedy at The Boston Marathon, we wanted to send a message of solidarity and support to the running community and all Bostonians. We are humbled by the strength of spirit shown by the organizers of the marathon, the runners participating in it, the first responders, and the thousands of spectators involved. We are so incredibly proud to be part of the endurance community and we’ll do everything we can to support it.

Ways You Can Help
Donate – here are three worthy organizations to provide your support: Continue reading →

ACTIVE Works News: “Sold Out”/”On Hold” Category Messaging

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Shannon Fiack

For this week’s edition of Product Talk, we’ve got an update to ACTIVE Works that will make things a lot clearer to your participants.

What’s New: Updated “Sold Out”/ “On Hold” Category Messaging
Previously if you had a category that was sold out or on hold, those notifications would appear in tiny gray print that was on the opposite side of the page from the price. That confused some people, especially when they found out late that they couldn’t enter these categories…which is not a good customer experience and naturally upset some folks. Continue reading →

What ACTIVE’S New Deal with IRONMAN® Means For You

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Shannon Fiack

ACTIVE is very excited to announce that we will continue to provide our online race registration and race management solutions…to all 180+ IRONMAN races worldwide! Technically, we’ll be the official registration partner and global sponsor of IRONMAN, but unofficially, we’d like to be known as the biggest supporter of all of these triathletes.

Mike Reilly, whom you may recognize as the Voice of IRONMAN, also happens to be our VP of Sales and has paid close attention to the expansion of these events: Continue reading →

ACTIVE Works News: VIP Email Customizations

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Shannon Fiack

A few customers have told us that they want more ways to find out what’s new in ACTIVE Works (aka everyone’s favorite race management software). Yes, emails are sent but I think we all know what most inboxes look like and it ain’t pretty. So we’re going to start posting more regularly about our product updates on this blog. Whenever you see the title “ACTIVE Works News,” you know it’s about a new feature we added to our software. And you can simply click on “Product Talk” in the navigation bar to read through a list of the latest and greatest additions.

Here we go for this week… Continue reading →

Oh the Places You’ll Go: ACTIVE World 2013

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Shannon Fiack

In exactly one week, the ACTIVE World user conference will begin! We’re pretty excited about it. We have hundreds of our customers across all markets attending, including 50+ of the endurance industry’s best and brightest. It will be quite an adventure.

The conference will be held in sunny San Diego, April 9-11th. Here’s are five things we are most looking forward to:

1. The endurance-focused sessions (of course). Nine sessions are dedicated to the endurance industry, including a State of the Industry Report, the Future of Endurance Technology, Creating Win-Win Sponsorships, and Best Ideas Show & Tell. READ about the sessions or VIEW the schedule Continue reading →

Sell-Out Cycling Events Produced by the Great Scot(t)s (Event Director of the Month)

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Shannon Fiack

Founded in 1997, Rocky Mountain Events promotes and produces quality cycling events throughout Colorado, including the Elephant Rock Cycling Festival, The Copper Triangle, 24 Hours of ERock, and Tour of the Moon. Elephant Rock celebrates its 26^th year in 2013 and, with about 7500 participants, is an “everyman’s” ride offering six different courses and a kids race. The Copper Triangle is in its 8^th year and has sold out at 3000 riders for the past six years running. Tour of the Moon, in its 2^nd year, is anticipated to sell out at 2000 riders.

Scot Harris (top), Event CO Director, and Scott Olmsted (left), Sponsorship and Event Manager, talked with us recently about how their events have earned the reputation as some of the best cycling events in Colorado:

How did Rocky Mountain Events get its start?
Harris: I was hired to start the promotions department of the Rocky Mountain Sports Magazine back in 1987. Fairly soon after than we came up with the idea for the Elephant Rock Ride because we saw a need for a good early-season century ride and also wanted more promotional opportunities for advertisers. Continue reading →

7 Ways To Promote Your Event With Facebook

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Shannon Fiack

Promoting your event or race with social media can be really effective – helping you attract more participants and get your current registrants fired up – if you do it right. It takes some work, but the good news is that you can have some fun because these social channels are so casual and interactive.

If you’re looking for some inspiration, here are seven Facebook ideas and examples from other events who are doing it well: Continue reading →

What are you missing in your confirmation emails?

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Shannon Fiack

Figuring out what to say in your event emails, particularly in your confirmation emails, can make you feel like a mad scientist trying to invent the perfect formula. It’s a no-brainer to include basic information like the race date and expo details. But what else should you add to the mix?

Keep in mind that a confirmation email is something that gets HUGE open rates and is much more likely to be read “cover to cover” than your marketing emails. This is an email participants are tapping their feet waiting for. In other words, a confirmation email is a felicitous opportunity to get help for your event in a variety of ways—from revenue to volunteers to exposure. Here are seven ideas on messages you can include in your confirmation emails: Continue reading →

5 Ways to Make Your Event a Family Experience

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Shannon Fiack

“It’s all about the event experience.” We’re hearing that from more and more race directors – creating a unique experience is becoming a top priority. It’s not enough these days to just have a race course and a finisher’s medal…there’s too much competition. So how do you make your event fun and memorable for participants?

One big way to do that is to involve the whole family. The #1 post-race activity for triathletes is spending time with family and friends and 43% travel with their families.* Looking at other types of endurance events like marathons and bike races, it’s easy to see that these stats hold true across the board. Events are becoming more social and family oriented.

It’s important for event directors to capitalize on this trend and engage the entire family. Here are five ways you can do that: Continue reading →