MotorsportReg.com Blog (23)

Webinar Reminder- More Automation with Validation Rules

August 14, 2013 by Jennifer Ghidinelli

There's still room to register for our upcoming webinar on mastering validation rules! These rules help steer your attendees through your registration form and remove unnecessary work on the back end.

They are most commonly used for:

Enforcing race compliance fees

Requiring valid membership or preventing non-members from registering

Enforce base and indexed/PAX classes for auto cross

Verifying that a race transponder is on file

Checking the vehicle make for marque-specific events

Making sure guest names are filled out for additional tickets

And more!

If you want to learn more, join our free webinar:

More Automation with Validation Rules
Friday, April 19th
10am PST/1pm EST
We'll teach you everything you need to know!

Topics: Features, Webinar

Pit Stop- Free Refunds

August 12, 2013 by Ann Boss Maycock

photo by Bambi851 @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bambi851/

Q: Are refunds really free now?

A: Yes, refunds are indeed free! This means that you are not charged a credit card processing fee when refunding an attendee payment online. However, the credit card processing fee assessed on the original transaction is not refunded.

When you process a refund, you are prompted to enter the amount, allowing you to decide exactly how much to refund. Depending upon your cancellation policy, you have the capability of deducting the original credit card processing fee from the refunded amount.

Q: I went to refund an attendee, but I don’t see the red refund button. I know it was there the other day. Why can’t I see it now?

A: In order to process a refund, you need to have money in your “kitty” to refund with. If a pay period has just ended (on the 15^th and last day of the month), your money is no longer in your kitty as it’s in the process of being sent to you.

For example, if it’s May 1, the pay period just ended on 4/30 and your money is in transit. There won’t be any money in your kitty to refund with. As soon as you receive enough in new registration fees to cover the refund, the red refund button will appear.

Topics: FAQ

Webinar: More Automation with Validation Rules

August 12, 2013 by Jennifer Ghidinelli

Ever get frustrated with your attendees because they don't read your registration form and ignore all your directions? Good news, setting up validation rules can help steer them down the right path and save you time. Bad news, we still haven't cracked the code on making your attendees read what's in front of them!

Validation rules are a powerful way of checking for registration conditions and taking action. A broad selection of rules let you enforce specific rules and policies with great precision. They are most commonly used for:

Enforcing race compliance fees

Requiring valid membership or preventing non-members from registering

Enforcing base and indexed/PAX classes for auto-cross

Verifying that a race transponder is on file

Checking the vehicle make for marque-specific events

Making sure guest names are filled out for additional tickets

And more!

If you want to learn more, join our free webinar:

More Automation with Validation Rules
Friday, April 19th
10am PST/1pm EST

We'll teach you everything you need to know!

Topics: Features, Webinar

Are Your Attendees (Even the Older Ones) Using Social Media? YES, YES, YES!!!

August 12, 2013 by Jennifer Ghidinelli

Our customers are always looking for creative ideas to promote their events and increase attendance. Back in February we hosted a webinar called 7 Killer Tips on Filling Your Events and it was our best-attended webinar to date. Some of the cheapest and most effective promotion tools out there are through social media. Is this a good idea for your organization?

Let’s face it, attendees at the types of motorsport events our customers put on, in general, skew a little older. We hear it all the time, “my attendees don’t use computers.” Or “my attendees don’t look at Facebook.” In fact the opposite is true. According to a report released by the PewResearch Center, as of December 2012

67% of online adults use social networking sites!

That number is staggering! And if you looker deeper into the numbers you’ll find that it’s not just young people cruising these sites. Here are the stats for the number of internet users by age that are using social media networking sites:

Ages 30 to 49- 77%
Ages 50 to 64- 52%
Ages 65+- 32%

So the next time you consider forgoing Facebook or Twitter to promote your event because your attendees aren't on these sites, think again!

Topics: Marketing

It's Driver's Buying Season- Are You Listed On Our Calendar?

January 15, 2014 by Jennifer Ghidinelli

It's that time of the year! The weather is getting a little warmer, the flowers are blooming, and drivers are dreaming about their upcoming season. The vast majority of drivers have a set budget and set time limit dedicated to chasing that checkered flag each year. And where do they look to determine which events they'll attend? The MotorsportReg.com National Calendar.

Last year over 500,000 people viewed events on our website and at the writing of this post, nearly 1,800 events were listed on our calendar! If your events aren't listed, you're missing out. And it's best to list all of your events for the entire year. NOW. Why? Because drivers are making their buying decisions today for the whole year. If they don't see your event, they're choosing an event from another organization.

Topics: Marketing

Pit Stop- Setting Limits on Items

August 14, 2013 by Ann Boss Maycock

Q: How do I set a limit on the number of items available?
A: You can set limits in two ways:

Per event- ie: the total number of lunches available at the event is 100
Per registration- ie: the total number of lunches each person can purchase is 2

To set a per event limit you change the purchase limit at the inventory level. To set a per registration limit you change the purchase limit at the package level. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Per Event Limit- Change Inventory Level

We want to limit the total number of lunches we’re selling at the event to 100. We have already created a package called Lunch and linked the inventory item Lunch to that package. In order to set the Lunch inventory limit to 100, we do the following:

Select the Lunch package from the parts bin.
Use the Edit tab in the right-hand part of the screen.
Change the quantity of the Lunch inventory item to 100 and click Save.

Per Event Limit

Topics: Pit Stop

Pit Stop- Fixed-Answer List Event Questions

August 12, 2013 by Ann Boss Maycock

Q: What type of question should I use on the registration form to get the data I need to make decisions about my event?

A: To make your data collection more fool-proof and increase the likelihood of getting the information you are after, consider using an event question that has a fixed-answer list. This question format has a pick-list of pre-determined responses rather than allowing free-form text answers.

Here's an example: Let's say you are tying to gauge the level of experience a driver has so that you can assign them to the correct run group and determine whether or not they need an instructor. If you simply ask what their driving experience is, you'll get answers that are all over the map because the attendee isn't sure what you're looking for. Their answers might range from "I started driving when I was 12" to "I've done a lot of track days and I autocross regularly".

A more accurate way to capture the decision-making data you need is to set some parameters around the responses you are seeking. In the example above, you might set up a fixed-answer list that looks like this:

How many track days have you participated in during the last 18 months?

0-1 track days
2-5 track days
6-10 track days
11+ track days

These responses will give you quantifiable data in order to assign run groups and instructors. You can find instructions on setting up a question with a fixed-answer list in our help section

Topics: Features, Pit Stop

Winning Big at the SCCA National Convention in Vegas

June 11, 2013 by Jennifer Ghidinelli

Last week we attended one of our favorite conventions of the year, the SCCA National Convention, in Las Vegas! This was our 6th return visit and each year just keeps getting better and better. As usual, our team manned the MotorsportReg.com booth alongside our friends Ryan Staub from Lockton Affinity HPDE Insurance and Bill Wade from Tire Rack Street Survival.

The reason we love this convention so much is because we LOVE meeting our customers and talking to them in person. It’s the best opportunity to answer questions and get feedback that we use to make our service even better. And let’s be honest, our customers are our biggest cheerleaders and hearing how we help them make their events easier and more fun to organize is music to our ears! So thank you for your enthusiasm!

Founder Brian Ghidinelli gave two presentations this year, his normal MSR Training presentation (which we’re happy to say had more attendees than ever) and a live version of our popular webinar, 7 Killer Tips on Filling Your Events. Both were very well received.

This year was special for another reason. The SCCA inducted some very big names into their Hall of Fame including Bobby Rahal, Skip Barber and Carroll Shelby. Check out the write up and some great pics here.

A big thanks to the SCCA for having us and being such a cooperative and valuable partner. See 'ya next year!

All images thanks to Stacy King

Topics: Travel

[Webinar Recap]- 7 Killer Tips on Filling Your Events

January 22, 2025 by Jennifer Ghidinelli

A few weeks ago we hosted our most successful webinar yet, 7 Killer Tips on Filling Your Events. And this past weekend we presented it again before a very enthusiastic crowd at the SCCA National Convention. In case you missed it you can check out the recording here. And you can download the slides here.

If you want to be notified of upcoming webinars sign up below!

YES! I want to hear about future webinars and training courses.

Topics: Marketing, Webinar

Pit Stop- Assigners

August 14, 2013 by Ann Boss Maycock

Assigners (also known as the little blue car) are a useful tool on any registration form. Due to their flexibility, determining when to use them and what information to collect can be confusing. Not using them correctly can generate phone calls from attendees wondering why their name isn’t appearing on the Attendee List even though they thought they had successfully completed registration.

Q: Do I need an assigner on my registration form?

a)     Yes
b)     Almost always
c)     If you want to collect entry information like vehicle, like class, group, number
d)     It can’t hurt
e)     All of the above

The answer is e) all of the above. When in doubt, use an assigner.

An Assigner performs an extremely valuable function -– it determines what data to collect about an attendee’s registration. At a minimum, it captures the attendee’s name. For competitive events it can also collect the attendee’s vehicle, number, class, PAX/modifier, group, instructor, as well as indicating which segment the assignment should be put into.

The information collected in the Assigner can then be displayed on the public Attendee List. Many attendee’s check this list as a means of verifying that their registration was successfully completed. So, even if you are holding a social event and don’t need to capture any information about the vehicle they are driving, you will still want to use an Assigner on the registration form so that registrant’s names will display on the Attendee List.

BONUS: If you are running a competitive event and collecting the class, etc., the information collected in the Assigner will also show up on reports and the Assignments Lists.