RETURNING TO LIVE EVENTS | What We’re Doing

Being Proactive

We’ve always believed in the importance of being proactive within our industry and have done so over the years in numerous ways.

Due to the current environment because of the COVID-19 virus, Spectrum Sports Management President, Mike Bone, has launched the California Coalition of Endurance Sports to actively lobby state and county elected officials to help create a roadmap back to safe, live running, cycling and triathlon events. We are working with regional health departments and safety officials and have created a statewide COVID safety plan for runs of various sizes. As the return to live running becomes clearer, you can rest assured that Spectrum Sports Management and Spectrum Timing Services will be on the forefront of those guidelines and notices.

Adapting your Event

We must adapt. In light of the pandemic and the health and safety regulations put in place we have re-evaluated and rethought most every aspect of what and how we do things. From registration and packet pickup to the Start and Finish line, course layout, and results and awards, we have come up with a comprehensive plan that ensures safety measures are taken.

Below is a list of a few of the ways we adapted this specific event:

• Offering virtual race registration options in addition to the live event. Downloadable bibs and certificates were made available for all virtual options.

• Online registration until the start of your event. We leave online registration open until the race is over allowing participants to register on their own phone even up until they start the race. This is one of the many ways we breakdown any high touch-point locations.

• Dynamic bib assignment - this helps in that volunteers aren’t searching through a stack of bibs touching each one over and over. Dynamic bib assignment has also proven to great increase participant flow and cut down on long lines at pickup.

• Open start line or assigned wave starts - for this race we did an open start allowing participants to start anytime over the course of 2 hours. This ensured there was no mass start and participants were able to start the race socially distanced.

• Results - Rather than having a results tent we create signage with event specific QR codes that participants can scan with their smartphones as soon as they cross the finish line. The QR code takes them directly to the online results where they can instantly find their ranking, time, and placement.

• We have plans and processes for shipping if your event chooses to go that route and send swag by mail.

Coming out Stronger

There’s not much the the pandemic has not affected. Our industry, particularly in California, has been on hold with everything else. As we emerge from this, we know things will look different for a while, much of how we do events will be done differently, but we do believe that there is much we can learn from this.

Virtual events, whether you’re a fan of them or not, are a great asset and should probably be continued after the pandemic along with your live event. There’s little to no additional cost for doing a virtual event in tandem with your live event and is a great opportunity to capture a much larger and broader audience.

If nothing else the pandemic has taught us how to put on a strong and successful virtual run like never before. So why not keep it going.