Quick Start Guide: Online Registration with Event Manager for Races

East Coast Running Club

Event Manager
Quick Start Guide

Copyright © 2008 Compete-At.com v5.2008

Event Manager Quick Start Guide

The Compete-At platform helps transition organizations from historically manual processes to a streamlined online
process to create maximum business value to you and your event participants. Unlike most solutions available,
Event Manager is more than an online cash register. It is a powerful tool to help you manage entries, runner
notifications, create event photo galleries and more.

For admin technical support visit www.compete-at.com/support.

EVENT WIZARD
The event wizard walks you through six short steps to establish the basics of an event. You can change
any configuration you set during the wizard later using the administrator interface.

CREATE A NEW EVENT
After logging into your account, begin by clicking the “Create New Event” on the home page of your
club account. You then are asked to start from scratch or clone a previous event.

TIP: To save time, you can clone an
existing event. This will create a duplicate
event and pre-fill the wizard steps for
you. Then you simply need to modify
dates, fees etc.



STEP 1: ENTER BASIC EVENT INFORMATION

The next screen provides a short form to enter some general information about the event; Name, Dates,
Location, etc. Itʼs important to set the correct Time Zone to ensure your registration is turned on and off on
the dates you specify at the correct time.

TIP: The Event URL ﬁeld is a
pointer to where your event will
reside on our system. You should
not enter a website address here.
Example: If your event is called the
“2008 Invitational”, you should enter
“2008invitational” in this ﬁeld.

TIP: “List Event” will publicly display
this event. It is suggested that you
do check this so you can preview
your event but then later disable it
until you are ready to go live.



STEP 3: CREATE EVENT DIVISIONS
Divisions allow you to logically group participants, apply different fees for each division and also restrict
entry based on age and gender. Event Manager will check the registrant during the entry process to make
sure they can enter based on your criteria. Divisions often correlate to scoring packages and are also
available during export.

TIP: Using the division form on the
left will suggest a division name for
Marathon
you to help you keep them
organized. You can always edit
division names later.

TIP: Using age and gender
restrictions will verify that the user
can enter that division.



STEP 4: ESTABLISH REQUIREMENTS
Decide which information is important for your event and simply turn-on the appropriate forms. You can create and
edit custom waivers if needed. This info can be edited at any time.

TIP: “Needs Approval” means that you
want to check each individual entry for
this requirement. This essentially
places entries in a pending state until
you approve each one. In most cases
you do not want to check this.



STEP 5: CONFIGURE YOUR EVENT WEB SITE
Next, you can simply click to turn on speciﬁc web pages. You can always change this later if you needs
change. After you have completed the wizard, you can then edit the content for each page.

TIP: Signup Page - this enables new
registrants to enter your event.

Login Page - this enables existing
registrants to login to update their entry
and fulﬁll requirements.

TIP: We encourage you to use the
online gallery. You can enable it so that
anyone can post images from your event.



STEP 6: CREATE YOUR EVENT FEES
The fees page in the wizard allows you to set up payment type and basic event fees such as entry fee,
late fee, optional fees, etc.

TIP: In “Payment Type” enable “Allow Skip
Payment at Signup” during testing. This will
allow you to register for your event to test,
without having to pay. Be sure to uncheck
this before going live with your event.

Endless Fee Options:
With Event Manager you have complete control and ﬂexibility when establishing your event fees.

• Simple fees
• Multiple Entry Fees - user must select one or more (e.g. multi-day event)
• Divisional Fees - different amounts for each division entered
• Discounts
• Late Fees - triggered by date
• Donations
• Optional Fees
• Grouped Fees
• Quantity Fees - for tickets, apparel, etc.



WIZARD COMPLETE
After the last step you will see a conﬁrmation page and a link to the event homepage. The wizard is
designed to walk you through the basics of the event. Now you can spend time editing web page
content, adding advanced fees, custom requirements or waivers etc.

East Coast Runners Club
East Coast Yacht Club

Chesapeake Marathon TIP: The Setup menu will present screens to further
conﬁgure fees, requirements, etc.

TIP: Just click a webpage to start adding
content or change visibility.



CREATE CUSTOM FEES
On the “Fees” page in the “Set Up” Menu you can create additional fees, that werenʼt available via the wizard.

TIP: “Custom Fees” gives you great flexibility to
establish fee options for users that are unique to your
event. With Custom Fees, you label the name of the
group and then add the options for the user to choose.
If you select “Req” then the registrant must choose
one option before completing their registration.

NOTIFICATIONS
Notifications allow you to send
emails to groups of registrants
based on any requirement or
payment status. You can send
notifications on-demand or set them
up to run at a predefined date.
Example: Create a balance due
notice and send it two weeks prior to
your event to all registrants who
have not paid in full.


Event Manager FEES

Costs and Payment Options for Registrants
Standard Events - 3% of Entries
Compete-At offers a very simple fee structure that requires NO up-front costs, maintenance costs or confusing
tiered pricing. This cost can be passed directly back to the entrant during their registration as a “convenience fee”
or “processing fee” so in essence, you can use the system at virtually no cost.

Example: You charge registrants $100 to enter your event. Compete-At retains $3 and distributes $97 back to
your organization. Your collected entry revenue are distributed every 2 weeks.

Event Manager Fees 3% of entry fees
Setup Costs Free
Website Hosting Free
Technical Support Free
Online Photo Gallery Free
Crew Finder Forum Free
Online Store 2% of sales plus credit card fees
Budgeting & Reports Free
Email Notification Engine Free

Online Credit Card Processing
If you decide to offer online credit card payment as an option to registrants, you simply turn it on. Unlike most
online systems, you do not need your own merchant account. Credit card processing fees will be passed back to
you and average approximately 3%.

Offline Payment Types - Check and Cash
You can offer one or multiple payment options for registrants; credit card, mailed check or and event cash at the
event. With offline payment types such as a mailed check, Event Manager allows the registrant to enter the event
and indicate that payment has been mailed. Once you receive the check, you simply update their payment status
in the system and their entry is complete.

Accept Donations
Additionally, you can configure online donations to help increase contributions during the registration process.
Allow for open dollar amounts OR predefine contribution levels.



SUGGESTIONS FOR RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL EVENT WITH EVENT MANAGER

1. Test your event. If the fees, divisions, requirements etc. make sense to you, then it will make
sense to your registrants. To register yourself as a test, simply click “Allow Skip Payment at Signup”
on the fees page. When youʼre done, delete your entry and donʼt forget to uncheck the skip payment
box before going live.

2. View Help Videos. Check out these short video clips that review basic functionality of the system
here: http://www.compete-at.com/support

3.Enable Signup and Login pages early. Make sure to enable the Signup and Login web pages
when you are ready to start receiving entries. Setup > Website > Site Setup > check quot;showquot; on the
desired buttons > Click Update

4.Create a link from your existing website. To find all friendly urls for your event go to Setup >
Website > Site Setup > and you will see friendly urls on the right of the page.

5. Use the gallery. Turn on the photo gallery page and set up a specific gallery for public posting.

6. Create a buzz. Send out a press release announcing your event and let the public know that
registration is open.

7. Simplify when possible. Only ask for requirements that are absolutely necessary. Event Manager
makes it very easy to capture a lot of data on multiple forms for your event. First time users often turn
on all forms to capture a lot of registrant data. Although this may sound like a great idea, the effect
can be frustration from your registrants.

8. Combine waivers. If you have more than one custom waiver we encourage you consolidate them
into one to make the registration process less cumbersome

9. Create and post events in advance. Create your events in advance, and have a complete
season schedule online. On each event site the registration buttons will appear automatically on the
date you specify so you can set it and forget it.

10.List your event. Once the basics of your event are configured, go ahead and list it online. While
your event is listed, you can continue to configure requirements notifications, etc. Make sure to check
off “List event” in general setup to your event on our calendar and our partnerʼs website calendars.
Setup > General Information > check quot;List eventquot; > Click Update

11. Keep everyone informed. Provide as much information as possible in a timely manner by
uploading documents and adding news items to your event website.

12. Upload Results ASAP. We recommend you publish your results ASAP, even preliminary results.
The system allows you to overwrite an existing document, or hide a previously uploaded document.
So, adding results in stages or as they become available is a simple process


Event Manager for Running

Feature-rich software to manage
marathons and races online.

Hassle Free Online Management for Your Next Race
Compete-At offers a new approach for race organizers to accept online
registrations and manage race logistics more efficiently. Event Manager is
designed to alleviate the headaches of managing any type of race.

The Compete-At platform helps transition organizations from historically
manual processes to a streamlined online process to create maximum business
value to you and your event participants. Unlike most solutions available, Event
Manager is more than an online cash register. It is a powerful tool to help you
manage entries, runner notifications, create event photo galleries and more.

Self-Service Registration Point & Click Easy Nothing to Install No Up-front Costs
Participants enjoy the benefits of Everyone, regardless of their 100% hosted solution so there Compete-At offers a pay-as-you-
a secure online profile and simple computer skills, can set-up a fully are no headaches for you to deal go payment service. A small
streamlined registration to all functional race website online in with. Support is available to you convenience fee is retained for
races and events in the system. just a few minutes. and your athletes for all events. each registration you receive.

How much will it cost my race to use Event Manager?
In reality, Compete-At’s Event Manager can be used at no cost for your next race.
Compete-At offers the complete system with no up-front costs to you. We provide a pay-as-you-go payment service,
whereby a convenience fee is processed at the time of race registration. It's up to you whether to pass this convenience
fee back to registrants, absorb the cost yourself or split it in any proportion.
This fee is three percent (3%)* for all event registrations. In effect, online registration through Compete-At can be set up at
absolutely no charge to you. Unlike other solutions there are no hidden costs, per entry fees or confusing tiered pricing.

• Set-up Costs & Support - Free
• Online Photo Galleries & Storage - Free For more product information and to
• Race and Club Specific Websites - Free schedule an online demo, contact:
• Monthly Hosting Costs - Free Dave Cook 719-592-1349
• Technical Support - Free (Yes, we will actually call you back) dcook@compete-at.com
• Email Notification and Promotion Tools - Free
• Budgeting and Reports - Free
• Online Event Message Boards - Free

* If you choose to accept credit cards additional fees apply.

www.Compete-At-Running.com Dave Cook 719-592-1349

Event Manager for Running

Feature-rich software to manage
marathons and races online.

CONTACT US TODAY

Personal demos can be scheduled with you or a larger group and
conducted via a web browser.

Dave Cook
dcook@compete-at.com
Tel: 719.592.1349

Sign Up Your Club Today:
http://www.compete-at.com/signup

www.Compete-At-Running.com

Quick Start Guide: Online Registration with Event Manager for Races

Recomendados

Recomendados

Más contenido relacionado

Último

Último (20)

Destacado

Destacado (20)

Quick Start Guide: Online Registration with Event Manager for Races