Customer Snapshot
- Events managed: 60+
- Total participants: 5k+
- Tools used: RunSignup, TicketSignup, RaceDay
When Julia Jorgensen, her husband, and a close friend, decided to open a triathlon store in their hometown (Velocity Multi-Sport and Cycling), they never imagined they’d become race directors. But sometimes life takes unexpected turns.
After a successful launch in 2020, COVID-19 forced them to pivot. They were able to stay open during the pandemic – with a lot of restrictions. Things were going okay, but they were new in the community and people were still discovering them.
Shortly after opening, a local nonprofit approached them to help organize a 5K run for their local Girls and Boys club.”We saw it as a great way to promote our business and give back to the community,” Julia recalls. They were contacted in February, and the event was planned to happen in March. So, time wasn’t on their side.
With no background in events, Julia did what many do. She turned to Google and found RunSignup. “We were able to get the event up and running in just two weeks using RunSignup.” With RunSignup’s guided setup wizard and intuitive tools creating an event is easy, even for people new to the platform.
“We were able to make the platform work for that first event without any background, or prior knowledge of how to do it, which speaks to how user-friendly it is.” That first event had 120 participants. From there they were, as they say, off to the races.
A new venture
As their reputation grew, Velocity Multi-Sports and Cycling began organizing more races. “Once we got into this community of runners and bikers, we just kind of started picking up business.” They added a marathon (Run the Rock) and a few other community events.
As they moved from hosting events, to managing them for others – and added more services like race directing and timing – they were continually impressed with the RunSignup platform. “It’s one whole company with everything integrated. I don’t have to piece things together. All my data is in one spot, which is incredibly convenient.”
The whole ecosystem approach is certainly something that makes RunSignup unique in the market. Few platforms offer all the different marketing and online registration tools – like websites and free email – along with more endurance-focused products like the RaceDay technology suite. That line of products has been incredibly helpful as Velocity Multi-Sports and Cycling is doing more for different races and events.
For example, when they’re hired to time a race RaceDay Scoring lets them publish results directly to a dedicated page on the event’s RunSignup website. They also use the CheckIn App to manage day-of logistics. Having a smooth check-in process is especially important for their larger events like the local Turkey Trot they act as race directors for, which has over 1300 participants each year.
Along with results, they also regularly use the RaceDay Photos feature, which lets them share pictures from the event on the results page. Photos are autotagged based on bib number and added directly to participants’ individual results page. Events can also choose to allow participants to upload their own photos, adding a social element.
More than races
Through their success with races, Julia and team also added a few non-endurance events. When they looked for a platform to manage ticketed events, the choice was easy. “Being familiar with RunSignup made the transition to TicketSignup really easy for us.”
TicketSignup has a similar setup to RunSignup, and now even shares the same website builder experience since Websites V2 launched for RunSignup. Another benefit to Velocity Multi-Sports and Cycling with the RunSignup platform is the ability to create an organization website. Their organization website serves as a central hub showcasing all the events they manage – both endurance and tickets.
Having the site also acts as a living record of events they’ve done as it shows both upcoming and past events using the event list component in the website builder. That way they can show potential clients the events they’ve done, helping build confidence in their company. It can also serve as a promotional tool, allowing them to cross-promote events.
In fact, they like the site so much that they chose to make it their permanent website. It’s something that’s increasingly common and speaks to how flexible, and powerful websites on the RunSignup platform are.
Building a bright future
Velocity Multi-Sports and Cycling offers various packages for businesses and nonprofits. Having all of RunSignup tools at their disposal helps them stay flexible when working with clients. “Really, we work with the different organizations and find out what their needs are and what their goals are, then develop a plan to meet those.”
In some cases they build the website, in others they act as race directors or event organizers. Sometimes they manage the event from end-to-end. No matter the case, RunSignup gives them access to the tools they need to provide those services.
Along with the flexibility RunSignup provides for offering a variety of services to clients, it also helps create a level of trust with clients, too. “Another positive for the platform is that the money for the event goes directly to them and doesn’t funnel through me. They get a deposit weekly or monthly.”
It’s something top-of-mind, as she has one client who had a less-than-ideal situation with another registration platform. “I have a client who used a different platform previously and they’re still waiting to receive funds from years ago.”
Outside of trust, the immediate cash flow RunSignup allows is also incredibly beneficial to clients. “Having that steady flow of money is really important for organizations that don’t have a lot of free cash to spend upfront. They can start generating revenue from registrations and use that money to fund other parts of the event because they get the money right away.” By default funds collected on RunSignup are paid out weekly but events can choose a different schedule if they prefer.
Staying the course
RunSignup has been a great tool to help Julia and team get their event management and timing business up and running. With it they’ve had the ability to serve customers and offer a variety of services. Julia’s now seen a few other registration platforms managing events, but she’s keen to stick with RunSignup for the long haul. “I fully bought into the RunSignup platform.”
We’re proud to have partners like Velocity Multi-Sport and Cycling using our platform to the fullest and look forward to many more years working together.