Head Start
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 improve your race - one episode at a time.
Head Start is produced by RaceDirectorsHQ.com, an online resource platform and community network for race directors and race management professionals.
Head Start
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 bullish pricing trends we saw in 2023 still holding up in 2024?
With me today to discuss all this and more is RunSignup’s Director of Marketing, and person responsible for this very important piece of research, Johanna Goode. And with Johanna’s help we’ll be making sense of the numbers, diving deep into some of the most important factors driving industry trends, and thinking through some of the implications of these findings for the future of endurance events.
In this episode:
- On the right track: strong growth in participation carries through to 2024
- Repeat participation across different event distances
- What is holding back growth in larger events?
- Understanding regional differences in event participation growth
- Promoting locally: reaching out to local running clubs, other events and timers
- Using referral rewards to grow your race
- Are events getting better at attracting younger runners?
- Registration patterns: are runners really procrastinating in signing up?
- The importance of keeping registrations open as long as possible.
- Year-on-year entry fee changes across different event distances
- Keeping race costs down through optional swag
- Could introducing more price increases lead to more registrations?
- Mobile registrations: using Apple Pay vs storing credit card details
- Price transparency laws: what they are, and how they will affect the presentation of registration prices for your race
- The decline of social media traffic to race websites
You can download the full 2024 RaceTrends report for free: https://runsignup.com/trends
Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Brooksee, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:
RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 28,000 events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.
Brooksee are the timing technology industry-leader, bringing affordable real-time tracking and timing checkpoints to races with their patented iPhone-sized micro checkpoints. Find out more and get 50% off your timing for your next event at https://www.brooksee.com/headstart.
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 liability waivers or anything else in our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/racedirectorshq/