Event Planning

BILL CULLINS: Well-planned events are successful ones

SAN ANGELO, Texas — There has been a dramatic upswing over the past several years in the number of local fitness events such as cycling, running, triathlon, walking, and variations such as adventure races and mud runs.

Many of these events have a dual purpose — they provide fun and healthy recreational activities for area residents and also raise money for good causes.

When I’m contacted by groups wanting to put on an event, there’s a consistent message that I convey to them.

Start early with your event planning, research other scheduled event dates to try and avoid conflicts, market your event using multiple forms of media, and above all — make safety a high priority.

If those key steps are followed, you’ll significantly improve the odds of your event being safe and successful.

A good overview of event planning is outlined in the “Race Director’s Handbook” available online at angelo.edu/content/files/18986-race-directors-guidebook.

The important first step is to determine where you want the event to take place (start/finish location and route). To accomplish this, your planning group will need to check with appropriate agencies to see if the specific facilities are available on the date you want.

Secondly, you’ll need to research other events to determine if there are conflicts on your planned date(s). Whenever possible, you want to select a date and venue that is open to maximize the participation in your event.

Do this by checking websites or contacting other event-promotion groups such as the local running club (roadlizards.org in San Angelo), the cycling club (sanangelobicycleassociation.com), and organizations on the ASU campus such as the ASUFit program (angelo.edu/asufit).

Once you’ve selected a date and location, the next step is to develop an event budget that includes estimated expenses and projected revenues.

Doing this will force you to think realistically about the fees, services and supplies you’ll need to conduct the event and also how many participants (at a given entry fee) you’ll need to break even or generate revenue.

To develop the budget, you’ll have to research things like facility use fees (example: city parks or other fee-for-use areas), street use permits, portable toilet rental, course marking supplies, timing equipment, safety cones, awards, race numbers, T-shirts (if applicable), medical support, and items such as water, Gatorade and after-event snacks for participants.

You’ll also need to think about liability insurance and the associated waiver form to protect you and your organization in the event that someone is injured and files a lawsuit. McKay Insurance (silentsportsinsurance.com) is a good source for event-specific insurance.

Two of the largest expenses involved in putting on an event will be awards and event T-shirts (if you choose to hand out shirts to participants).

Plan how many award categories you’ll have and what the award for each place will be, determine how many shirts will be ordered, and then get quotes from potential vendors.
There’s a fine balance between having nice awards and T-shirts for participants (increased cost) and attracting more participants (increased revenues).

Two good strategies for T-shirts are to have shirts for only preregistered participants or to simply state that shirts will be available for the first (insert number here) people to sign up.

The revenue side of your event budget will be based on two sources — the entry fees paid by participants and funding provided by sponsors.

You’ll need to approach potential sponsors well before your event and have a specific and reasonable request identified.

Keep in mind that individuals and organizations provide sponsorship support for two primary reasons — they may want to support your event’s cause and they expect a marketing or public relations return-on-investment for the sponsorship dollars they provide.

After you have a good grasp of the estimated expenses and revenues, you can do “what if” scenarios to see what happens to the net revenue based on increasing or decreasing the entry fee or having a certain number of participants.

After selecting the date, location, and creating an event budget, your next (and very important!) step is to advertise, advertise, advertise.

The marketing of your event should begin several months before the event date. Create an eye-catching and informative event flyer in PDF format, get it posted on as many websites as possible, spread the word via a Facebook page, place flyers in businesses and health clubs, and try to get the event advertised by local news media (newspaper, radio, TV).

Create excitement by posting Facebook updates or creating a video preview of the event and posting it on Facebook and websites as a YouTube video. Try to find the marketing “hook” that will attract people to your fun, unique or support-a-good-cause activity.

Your event registration method can serve a dual purpose that both makes it easy for participants to sign up and helps market the event. Consider using an online registration service in addition to day-of-event registration. Some good choices include active.com, signmeup.com and bikereg.com.

The final (very important) steps in planning your event are to develop a safety plan and obtain all applicable permits. If participants will be cycling or running on public roads, you may need a Street Use Permit from the city. Contact the San Angelo city permit office at 657-4421 for details.

Although the city charges a permit fee based on services needed, that fee will pay for police officers to stop traffic at major intersections and (in some cases) patrol the route where the event is taking place. These officers, along with your volunteer course marshals, will help ensure risks are mitigated for event participants.

If you have a good planning committee and follow the guidelines described above, you’ll have a great start toward making your event safe and successful.