RACE DAY EFFICIENCY REIMAGINED

MATTHEW WEST/DAVE MCGILLIVRAY

Imagine not having to close online registration until the start gun fires. Imagine only needing five volunteers to manage number pickup for 10,000 people. Imagine ZERO data entry for your timer!

Sound like a Race Timer’s miracle? Nope! It’s ACTIVE On-Site registration.

DMSE Sports, along with the Merrimack Valley Striders, managed the registration and check-in process for the 10,000-participant Feaster Five 5K and 5-Mile Road Races in Andover, Massachusetts, this past November using ACTIVE On-Site to dynamically assign bibs for over 8,000 of our participants. The system is easy to use, saves you time and requires less of you and your team!

4 Ways ACTIVE On-Site impacted our event day operations:

1. Fewer volunteers, less training, less oversight, less equipment

ACTIVE On-Site made volunteer management so much easier. We needed fewer volunteers because there were fewer boxes of pre-assigned bibs to manage. We went from 50 boxes to 5 boxes. We needed less time to train our volunteers because the app, both on iOS and Android, was easy to use and easy to show volunteers what to do, with a one- page tutorial guide.

Less oversight was required for volunteers because it was easy to deputize them to use their own devices to check people in. The participant would walk up to the volunteer and give their name. The volunteer checked them in, assigned the next bib number in the stack, gave the participant their number…and off they went!

2. Less hassle with getting information to the timer

By utilizing the ACTIVE On-Site app, the Timer was able to use the ACTIVE API connection and grab all the data needed to score the event with no manual entry. That’s it! There’s no need for you to be in the middle of the process. Our Timer was able to manage without the two people who normally do data entry. This is a cost saving right away!

3. No early registration cut-off

People were able to register on their cell phones up until the starting gun fired. All they needed to do was walk up, check in, get their number assigned and off they went. This could not be any simpler!

4. Real-time check-in updates

A very simple graphic shows the number of check-ins versus registered runners.

Additional Considerations

The only thing we wish we’d done differently is adding a QR code to our bibs and using the On-Site app to scan them, thereby eliminating any keying mistakes and speeding up the check-in process by 5 to 10 seconds per volunteer.

While the On-Site app works in both online and offline mode, it’s highly recommended to secure a stable internet connection for processing on-site registrations. Fortunately for us, we were able to secure Comcast as a sponsor. They brought a wireless hotspot truck to our event to supply us internet connections.

ACTIVE On-Site was a dream for us. Less data-management, fewer volunteers, less equipment, less stress!  As one of our volunteers said, “ACTIVE On-Site is so fast, it will give you a new PR!”