Event Information
WHEN
ON DEMAND
Discover practical ways AI can help automate and improve race day and event operations. Join us for a live webinar to learn how you can use AI tools within RunSignup (and beyond) to simplify operations, save time, and create a better experience for your participants.
We’ll cover:
Real examples of AI streamlining registration, communications, and race day tasks
How RunSignup’s AI-powered features work
AI tools you can start using today — no coding required
Tips for integrating AI into your workflow without sacrificing quality
Summary of Webinar
Overview
This webinar focuses on practical AI workflows for race and event operations—less “future talk,” more “here’s what works right now.” The presenters explain what AI is good at, what it still needs from humans, and how race directors can use tools like ChatGPT and Google AI Studio to speed up planning, marketing, sponsor outreach, and data-heavy tasks. A major highlight is the RunSignup AI Chatbot, designed to reduce customer support load by answering participant questions from race FAQs and documented race info.
How to Think About AI
What AI is good at
Pattern recognition + recommendations
Example: spotting demographic participation trends across multiple years
Fast calculations
Helpful for non-Excel experts (still requires verification)
Searching and synthesizing info
Unlike Google links, AI can summarize and explain
Content creation
Email drafts, schedules, messaging (with editing)
Automating repetitive tasks
Especially useful for checklists and routine ops
What AI needs from you
Good prompts (clarity and specificity matter)
Your creativity and objectives (AI doesn’t create goals on its own)
Judgment: verify accuracy, avoid hallucinations, apply ethics/common sense
Working AI Into Your Day
Key recommendation:
Pick one AI tool and use it consistently for a few weeks.
Google Workspace users: Gemini / Google AI Studio
Microsoft users: Copilot
Many still default to ChatGPT due to flexibility
Most effective approach:
Use AI against specific tasks from your weekly race checklist:
marketing calendar
sponsor outreach
FAQ improvements
race-day comms
visuals (banner/logo variants)
AI for Customer Support: RunSignup AI Chatbot
What it does
Answers common participant questions (e.g., packet pickup, parking, start times, shirts, course)
Uses your documented race content + FAQs
If it doesn’t know, it says so (not guessing) and can escalate to the race via email capture
Where it can live
Embedded/linked from:
race website (Website V2 required)
social pages (Facebook, Instagram)
direct link anywhere you share
Customization
You can name the chatbot (example: “Gobble Bot” for a turkey trot)
Expected impact
Targeting a 70–80% reduction in support emails
Early user quote cited:
~80% email reduction
5–10 hours/week saved
responses feel like a “trained team member”
Current capability described as “trained intern” level—improving over time
Example: Negative Split + “Texi”
Used for a complex event with lots of parent questions (Houston Kids Tri, ~1,200 kids)
Especially valuable in the last 24 hours when questions spike (parking, logistics)
Rollout timeline & pricing
Not an add-on cost: planned to be included like email marketing
Goal: broader availability late fall / early winter
Beta rollouts prioritize smaller upcoming races to reduce risk and improve reliability
Daniel emphasized the rollout needs to become more automated before scaling to hundreds/thousands of bots
AI for Race Optimization
Paid AI accounts can be worth it
Team members at RunSignup use paid plans (~$20/month) for consistent value
Paid plans reduce daily usage limits and provide stronger models
ChatGPT Projects
A “folders for AI” approach:
Create Projects per:
company
individual races
Benefits:
keeps relevant chats together
lets you upload files (plans, exports, docs)
lets you add instructions (“this is our event voice,” “these are our goals”)
Sharing limitation: Projects are shareable only inside the same ChatGPT Team workspace.
AI for Marketing, Website & Email Content
Warning: “Univoice” content
Many new races are copy/pasting AI-generated descriptions directly
Risk: everything sounds the same (same tone, emojis, phrasing)
Better approach:
write your draft first
ask AI to refine in your voice
selectively adopt improvements
Strong use case: visual assets
AI can help generate or refine:
banners
color schemes
logo concepts
resized/cropped assets
Caution:
Fully AI-generated people/faces/hands can look “off”
Best results come from editing real photos (adding text, resizing, variations)
Practical Design Workflows Using AI
Color palettes
Ask for palettes based on:
season
event theme
participant vibe
Output can include hex values ready to paste into Website V2 themes
Logos
AI can draft concepts quickly
If revisions “get worse,” restart the prompt rather than iterating endlessly
Banner creation (high value)
Example prompt pattern used:
Upload photo
Specify:
event name text
subheader (date)
exact dimensions (e.g., 2000×800)
preferred hex colors
Image resizing/cropping
Cropping down works well
Upscaling small images to large banners reduces quality (manage expectations)
Canva + AI (optional complement)
Canva is recommended if you do frequent visual work
Especially useful for:
background removal
polished layouts
short video + assets
AI for Data Analysis
What AI can do
Compare multiple data sources (exports, reports, spreadsheets)
Identify trends:
repeat participants
age shifts
registration timing patterns
giveaways/shirt sizing trends
Help benchmark against “average race” type patterns (depending on your data inputs)
Google AI Studio “Stream” feature
A standout tactic:
Share your screen into AI Studio and talk through tasks live
Useful for:
fixing spreadsheet formatting (dates, columns)
step-by-step report creation
learning unfamiliar software
analyzing race exports
Example used:
Download 5 years of giveaway data
Ask AI to compute averages by size and detect changes over time
Internal Playbooks & Automation
Scheduled tasks (ChatGPT)
Set recurring research/reminders:
monitor competing events on a certain date/location
recurring ops checks
Note: described as Pro account capability in this session
AI Agents (newer capability)
“Agent mode” can run longer multi-step tasks autonomously (10–40 minutes)
Example use case: sponsor prospecting
Find 10 non-competing local sponsors
Identify decision makers + contact info
Then generate tailored cold emails per sponsor
Best practices:
Ask for 10–25 targets max (100 is too broad)
Consider running in rounds:
find companies
find best contacts/roles
Q&A Highlights
Can Projects be shared?
Yes, but only inside the same ChatGPT Team plan.Will RunSignup publish prompt “cheat sheets”?
Yes—suggested as a blog series idea (ChatGPT, AI Studio, etc.).Should race directors use outside AI vs RunSignup AI?
Both: RunSignup AI Chatbot is for participant-facing support; external AI tools help with planning, marketing, sponsor outreach, and analysis.Chatbot waitlist timing?
Rolling out gradually, focusing on smaller races first; automation and engineering improvements will accelerate access.
Key Takeaways
AI is most valuable when applied to specific, real tasks in your weekly race workflow.
The RunSignup AI Chatbot is positioned to meaningfully reduce participant support load with race-specific answers and escalation paths.
Use AI for:
marketing planning
sponsor prospecting
content refinement (careful of unoriginal tone)
graphics/banners/palettes
spreadsheet and report analysis
internal playbooks + repeatable checklists
Invest time in prompt quality and verification—AI accelerates work, but humans still own accuracy and judgment.