11 Pieces of Advice from 11 Motorsport Event Organizers

Date

September 16, 2014 by Jennifer Ghidinelli

A_rising_tide_lifts_all_boatSWe're big fans of this quote. The more we can help our community grow, the bigger the community becomes. And that benefits us all. 

So I searched through our blog and pulled out some sage advice on how to run great events, straight from our organizer's mouths.  Maybe you can pick up a trick or two from our experts?

GoPro Motorplex

"Organizing events over the past year has taught us that we can never be too prepared and that we always need to have a plan in place with great communication as the key to success."

Carol Wong- VCMC Motorsport Club

"The biggest lesson I've learned (and am still learning) is to delegate!  Most people are willing to help out in some capacity.  While not everyone wants to commit to a role or title, many are willing to take on small, focused tasks.  All you need to do is ask."

Norm Nelson- MINI Thunder

"When it comes to promotion, I target a specific market, MINI Coopers.  I use Facebook a lot.  It seems to be the best for getting the word out, but you need to work at it and build up a friend base.  I also target several of the major MINI Facebook pages.  I have joined many of the MINI Clubs and post on their websites.  There are a handful of MINI specific forum pages and I am active on them as well."

Amy Smith- SCCA Atlanta Region SOLO

"Every year we look back at the previous year and make any necessary changes to keep moving forward and keep our region one of the best."

Michael Handelman- PCA Potomac, The Founders' Region

"Be transparent and let everyone know as soon as you can the positives and the negatives.  Open communication keeps everyone happy and reduces the amount of hearsay that often blows minor issues out of context."

Bill Correll- SCCA Kansas City Region

"Running an event is a total team effort.  One of the things that is easy to forget is that all of the team members are volunteers.  And they're trying their best to make the event the best possible for the entrants."

John Ewald- Audi Club Northwest

"Do little things all the time versus allowing tasks to build into a desperate time robber."

Tom Franges- The Classic Sports Racing Group

"There are two branches in our promotion efforts: one targets racers, to get good grids, and the other targets spectators, to get new people interested in vintage and historic car racing.  We are just beginning to understand promoting to spectators and are doing a lot of experimenting."

Bill Wade- Tire Rack's Street Survival

"It truly takes a village to run an event!  It takes volunteers an incredible amount of time to put on any event and this takes time away from their families and adds to their load at work.  But working with a team of volunteers and feeling their same passion is what gets me up in the morning."

Sydney Davis- MSR Houston, Houston Region SCCA

"Probably the single biggest thing I've learned over the years is structured delegation.  I had 10 people working on an event, as opposed to last year's 4.  We had meetings where I set goals and expectations, and they reported back with progress.  It was a load off everyone's back."

Heyward Wagner- Tire Rack SCCA Starting Line

"Running a successful event, whether it is a school or competitive event, is all about building a quality team and it has to be fun.  It takes a lot of dedication and it takes more than one person to get it right.  The pay off, however, is huge."

7 Event Promotion Ideas

Topics: Organizers

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