Achieving the Dream

This has been a really tough week emotionally for me as my father of 73 years old passed away this past Sunday night (May 5).  He had been fighting cancer for a long time but it finally got the best of him.  It's been painful to watch him the last couple of years as the cancer had metastized into his bones and was excruciating for him.  Amazingly, he always maintained a positive outlook and just kept hoping that a cure or at least relief would be around the corner.  The doctors finally gave us the word a little over a month ago that all treatments and options had bee

Website Update

Some of you may have noticed (but hopefully in a good way) that we have upgraded our website this week.  The success of our business over the last couple of years just dictated that we upgrade to a larger and faster server.  I've been noticing over the last several months that the site had really started to get bogged down and at times would actually temporarily seize simply because we we couldn't handle the demand.  It's a nice problem to have but at the same time required making some big changes to accomodate the traffic.  Along with the move I've also

Keeping it in Perspective

This has been an incredible year for racing and I've had the opportunity to participate in many events either as a director, timer, and sometimes participant.  As someone who spends a lot of time behind the scenes of events, I really appreciate the hard work and dedication of those people who take the risk, do the work, and conduct these events.  I can say without a doubt that every one of these people have a desire to have a fun and successful event.  Unfortunately that is not always the case.  If you've ever worked behind the scenes as a director or volunteer,

What happened to my time?

This is from a blog that I wrote several months ago, but thought it important enough to rehash.  We've been timing a lot of races this year and I continue to see some of the same problems we've been dealing with.  I believe having this information out there will help improve the timing.

Ain't Technology Great

I've been thinking a lot about technology lately; namely the use and misuse of technologies.  As a software engineer for over 30 years now, I've seen my share of technologies come and go.  Some have been really cool while others needed to go.  Each new innovation though has its uses and I constantly try to stay on top of what is new and how it can be applied to the business.

Awards and more awards

One of my jobs as a race director and race consultant is to determine the type and number of awards for an event.  The awards for most of the events that I direct were established long ago, but I still find occasion to tweak them a little.  When working with new races or even existing races that want to grow, one of the most often questions that I get asked concerns awards;  what type of award should it be and how deep?  Do we offer top overall or just age group awards?  How about a masters or senior masters category?  Are the age groups top one overall or thre

Location, Location, Location

Location, Location, Location is a mantra that every real estate agent sings and preaches to their buyers especially when looking at business property.  As it turns out, the same mantra can be said for events.  Have you ever thought about what goes into site selection for an event?  It is actually a lot harder than you might think.  There are so many variables to weigh when selecting the particular venue for an event.

Award and Growth

Every year, the company that Athlete Guild acquires its timing software and hardware from hosts an annual conference.  This year the conference was in St.

Putting on a Race

Have you ever considered putting on a race?  Or just wondered what went on behind the scenes to host the race that you just ran?  I know that personally I was really surprised the first time that I directed a race as to how much work was involved.  The end results can be great but it is also not without a lot of risk.  You see races popping up all over the place and while the big name races can do quite well, most of these small races barely break even. 

Behind the Scenes

I just got back from the Fiesta Bowl for an awesome game between Oregon and Kansas State.  My son and I went out together and had a fantastic time.  We participated in as many of the activities as possible so as to take it all in.   As an event planner myself, I stood in awe thinking about all the planning and coordination that went into that event.  It's hard to fathom the amount of details that would have to be managed to make sure that everything goes smoothly.  Even with all of that planning though, I am certain that there were some hiccups somewhere.&n