2020 came in and turned the world inside out and upside down. The global pandemic seemed to disrupt everything. Offices shut down in favor of the "work from home" option, dine-in restaurants suddenly did take out and deliveries, brick and mortar retailers flexed their muscles and showed they could compete with the large online retailers with even better service.
Virtual Growth?
Closer to our hearts (and homes), the event industry was especially hard hit. With federal and local restrictions on how many can gather at a time, races as we knew them would be on hold until it was safe again. Rather than hold our breath and wait, we turned to the virtual option. What we found was that the running community is as strong as we hoped. Many participants accepted that virtual events were the only game in town, and they wanted to be apart of it. And guess what...we found out more. We found out that there was more to our communities than we thought. In addition to our "regulars"; the people who sign up year after year, the running group regulars, and the swag collectors, we found that there were many more people who wanted to be there for us. Two critical groups are the out-of-towners and the crowd averse.
Remote Chances
The out-of-towners are those that have watched our events from wherever they were, wishing that one day they could be a part of all the fun. Virtual events finally gave them a way! Now they could be supportive and earn some swag / bragging rights that they too were involved in your event.
Crowds May Present Other Problems That Virtual Can Solve
Perhaps the biggest group, and arguably the biggest surprise was the crowd averse. These people have always been there. Right in our back yard, and in any cases, they were at our events but not participating. The reasons for not participating vary, of course, but we have found that many feared being the last to finish, others feared they would be mocked for what they felt was their lack of athleticism, and others just don't like being around crowds of people. Virtual options gave them all a way to be involved by alleviating their fears.
Can This Be A Good Thing?
This is great news for our events. In person events will return, and when they do, we have the opportunity to have our community of runners expand both geographically by having the out-of-towners remain involved but also by including those that felt uncomfortable with the typical race environment.
A New Challenge
So the challenge moving forward is to find a way for these new found participants to find their way to our in person events. How do we do this? By nurturing them and make them either feel the trip to our area is worth it or that their fears are unfounded. Our events are a lot of fun. And now more people know about them.
If you want to learn more about how Race Day Professionals can help create a better experience, either in person or virtual, let us know. We are part of your community it's and look forward to helping it grow again.