How have you been handling your packet pickup and race day registration? Are you still doing it the way you have been for the last x number of years? Many race directors find themselves struggling with this every year trying to find the best and most efficient way to handle packet pickup. It is a constant exercise in trial and error to see what works best. Athlete Guild now offers multiple tools to help streamline your operations. If you like the old way of putting packets together with bags and labels and stuffing all of your material into the bag, then we can support you. If on the other hand, you want to experiment with newer concepts such as dynamic bib assignment, or automatic bib assignment, then we have the tools to support that as well.
Our newest website upgrade now has several new features that may excite you. First and foremost, our software does NOT require any external app. Everything we support can be done directly in your browser. This has the added feature of not requiring your volunteers to download an app to support your race day operations.
First is the ability to assign bibs online with multiple options for sorting. Suppose that you want to sort your bibs by division, but you also want to sort by age groups. Our tools will allow you to do that. In addition, you can setup automatic assignment rules with bib ranges for both online and manual entries. This means that as participants register for your event, they are automatically assigned the next bib in the sequence. We can also support relays so if you have a team of participants that all get the same number, then you can handle that as well. The rules can be defined so that each division can have a separate range or you can group them so that all participants in multiple divisions get assigned from the same sequence. This is useful for races where you might assign all short distance runners such as 5K and 10K one range while everyone in the half marathon gets another range. You can also define the rule so that it doesn't automatically assign it, but does enforce the rule during packet pickup or manual updates.
Second is the ability to print labels for your participants. You can define the fields that go onto the label and then export all of your participants into a document that can be printed directly. There is no need to do a mail merge with a spreadsheet and document. We can support it directly from our site.
Lastly is the ability to handle packet pickup and checkin. The website is designed with mobile in mind. This means that it works well on your laptop, desktop, tablet, or phone. You can search for the athlete and then view their entry. The important thing is that rather than having to go to a separate screen to update any information, you can simply click on the athlete and it becomes an editable athlete entry. You can update the bib number, shirt, etc. and then save. The participant is then checked in.
One final note regards online registration. You can keep your registration open up until race time if you desire. This allows your participants to use their mobile device and register for your event. If you prefer to take cash or check on race day, you can enable a cash option for race morning and your participants can use their mobile device to enter their data and then simply checkout using cash. When you pull up their information, it will highlight that money needs to be collected. You can then take their money and update their entry.
We want your race to be successful and are constantly looking for ways to improve the experience. Let us know how we are doing.
See you at the race!
