Your Reason to Attend RunSignup University: Workshops

With the third annual RunSignup University coming up in just a few months, we’ll be taking a look at the best reasons to take the leap and attend in-person. We already dove into Study Hall, and this week we’re taking a look at RunSignup University Workshops.

RunSignup University Workshops: Real Work in Real Time

Workshops are what truly sets RunSignup University apart from digital learning like Webinars. If you’ve ever been to a conference, you know the challenge of spending two days not working, and lots of ideas you don’t know how to implement. While we can’t promise your email won’t be neglected, at RunSignup University we want you to leave feeling ahead in your work, with new skills you’re actually confident using.

With workshops, we get away from slideshows and us talking at you, and give you significant amounts of time to start actively working in class – that’s why you need your laptop! But unlike working alone, you have the RunSignup team and your peers around you to help answer questions, overcome road blocks, and provide inspiration.

What Workshop Options are Available?

Marketing Workshops

• Email V2: Process, Efficiency, and Content: Have a basic handle on Email V2, but looking to improve your emails and automate more of the process? This workshop will help you create your own email templates (and share them across races). Then, you’ll enable and customize automated emails to work for your race even while you sleep.
• Create a Marketing Plan: Have a lot of marketing ideas, but not sure how to put them altogether into a comprehensive plan? This workshop will help you prioritize your marketing strategies and build out a year-round plan that’s easy to automate.

Website V2 Workshops

• Website V2 Setup: Putting off moving to Website V2? This workshop can help you build the bones of V2 Website before the bell rings.
• Websites V2 Enhancements: Have a V2 website built, but want to make it look like a custom website? Explore options for fonts, colors, variable columns, image displays, and more.

RaceDay Workshops

• Using the RaceDay Mobile App: Looking for a more interactive race day? Download the RaceDay Mobile App and get familiar with it’s uses for mobile timing, on-site photo uploads, and more.
• RaceDay CheckIn App: The basics of the CheckIn app are simple: scan QR code, check-in runner. But if you’re looking for a better process, this workshop will help you build presets and configurations that make sense for your use-case, and create a better check-in flow.

AI Workshops

• AI Chatbot Setup: Tired of answering repetitive customer support questions? AI can do that for you. In this workshop, you’ll start by creating a comprehensive FAQ, and then enable (and optimize) your own AI Chatbot for Customer Support.
• AI for Everyday (Parts 1 & 2): AI-curious, but looking for ways to make it useful in your daily workflow? Each of these workshops will walk through 2-3 AI tools that are actually applicable for race directors, and give you the opportunity to try them for yourself.
• Vibe Coding: Vibe Coding makes development accessible to non-coders, but that doesn’t mean there’s no learning curve. Get started with an approachable project and our team’s vibe coding expert and get excited about what else you can build.

Memberships and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Workshops

• Building Out a Fundraising Campaign: Want to make fundraising more engaging, but tight on time to setup anything beyond the basics? In this workshop, you’ll build out an engagement plan, setup milestones, create badges, and configure notifications that reward and encourage your fundraisers.
• Membership Setup & Enhancements: Start from scratch and build a new Membership organization. Already have a Membership organization, but want to enhance it? Our Memberships lead developer can help you with next steps, too.

Ticketing Workshops

• Simple Ticketing Workshop: Want to make a little extra revenue from parking or spectator tickets, or make it easier to run a pre-race training program? Set up your first ticket event in class (you can use your RunSignup payment account).
• Calendar Based Ticketing Setup: Hosting events beyond races, or just want an easier way to manage repeating training session sign-ups? Walk-through the setup of TicketSignup’s calendar-based ticketing.

How Do Workshops Work?

RunSignup University Workshops are open to anyone attending RunSignup University. For most workshops, RunSignup Professors will start with a short introduction or demo, and then get you started working on your project, with intermittent updates to get you to the next step. Bring your laptop and your questions!

Workshops are just a part of the schedule. You can see a preliminary list of all classes below.

Why RunSignup University is Intended for In-Person Attendance

One of our most common questions is “will you offer University Virtually”? The answer is no. It’s not because we want to gatekeep content – we will convert applicable content into webinars throughout the year – it’s because the hands-on nature of University does not translate across a screen. RunSignup University Workshops are a good example of this. With webinars, we typically only answer questions that are broadly applicable to many events. With a workshop, it’s all about your specific use-case, and what’s best for your event.