Participant Interaction
It’s really important that you communicate with participants effectively. Not only will this help to enhance their experience but it will also make the event run more smoothly from an organiser’s perspective.
Sign-Up/Entry Processes
For some events you may not need a sign-up process that operates in advance. If it’s a club activity or something that people can just turn up and take part in, then it may not be necessary.
You may, however, wish to get an understanding of how many participants you will have at the event, this will allow you to:
Confirm any competition or activity schedule
Identify any provisions required, e.g. catering, toilets, changing facilities
Identify the amount of equipment required
Make any necessary provision for anyone with particular medical or accessibility needs
It’s important that participants understand the sign up process and that this is well advertised in advance. Consider whether it is better to create an entry form online, have an electronic form for people to complete and return (e.g. via email) or a paper based system. Make sure people are aware of whether or not they can sign up on the day and what they need to do to enter.
Depending on your event, you may need to collect a range of different data as part of the entry process. This may include:
Name and contact information
Emergency contact information
Relevant medical information
Sign up to any particular races or activities - e.g. what race category people wish to compete in
Any necessary consent - e.g. to participate, minimum competency, to have photos taken, data protection, etc.
Any loaning of equipment if being provided by the event
Additional information on entry forms and data collection is available in the safety and compliance sections of the toolkit.
Pre-Event Communication
Once people have registered for the event you then need to communicate with them to make sure they are aware of the plans for the day.
Depending on the nature of the event, you may want to include:
Venue information - including address, site map, directions, parking, catering, boat storage
Schedule and timings
Registration and briefing details
Activities available and associated key information
What they need to bring and/or access to equipment if provided by the event
Competition rules
How to access results
Timing and location of any post-event presentations
Key safety information and first aid
Contact numbers for key staff/volunteers
If you are running a larger event such as a competition or tour, there is more detailed information on providing information to participants in the safety section of the toolkit.
It’s also important to consider how best to share this information. If you have contact details for all participants you may be able to email those involved, however, if you have an event website or Facebook page then you can also share the key information through those channels to make sure it can be accessed by anyone who needs it. Just bear in mind what information is included in the communication and that it’s all OK to be made public, e.g. phone numbers.
Useful Downloads
Event Guide
An event guide may be the easiest way to collate all of the information needed for participants and those involved.
It may look similar to the event plan (see project planning section of the toolkit) and can pull most of the information from it, although it may need adapting slightly to be more participant focused. It may include information such as:
Venue - including address, site map, directions, parking, catering, boat storage
Schedule and Timings
Registration and briefing details
Activities available and associated key information
What they need to bring and/or access to equipment if provided by the event
Competition rules
How to access results
Timing and location of any post-event presentations
Key safety information and first aid
Contact numbers for key staff/volunteers
This can also be a good place to acknowledge and recognise any event partners or sponsors, as well as the volunteers who have made the event possible.
Useful Downloads
Feedback Collation
It’s really important to get feedback from participants at the end, or after, the event. It’s worth considering how this will be done prior to the event and creating anything you may need to collect this.
The ways you may collect feedback are:
At the event, either anecdotally or via a feedback form
Through a social media post
Using an electronic feedback form, e.g. through survey monkey
There are pros and cons to each of these methods and the most suitable ones for your event will be dependent on what you wish to do with the feedback and how likely you are to deliver something similar in the future.
If you are planning future events, then understanding what has worked and what could be improved from a participant perspective will be really useful.
Once you have this it can help to feed into the overall post-event follow up process, which is detailed in the project planning section of the toolkit.
Post-event follow up
After the event it’s worth contacting participants to continue the engagement with them.
The type of information you provide will vary depending on the event but may include:
A thank you for attending
Encourage them to share photos on social media with the event hashtag
Links to results, photos or articles/posts about the event
Links to any follow up activity - e.g. if it’s a club open day, when and how can they paddle again
Information on any future events
A thank you to volunteers and sponsors, etc.
Requests for feedback or links to online forms
Housekeeping - e.g. lost property