A little over a year ago I began to feel like I, Kami Ellsworth the Race Operations Manager for the St George Marathon, was in need of some outside help, opinions if you will on how to improve our event. Opinions, ideas, suggestions from others not directly associated with the marathon, so I started researching Race Directors Conferences that are offered around the country. I soon learned that in order to attend any of these conferences it was going to cost me, the City, a pretty penny and with the economy in its current state I knew that was not going to be an option for me. After talking to Kent Perkins, the Race Director of the St George Marathon we decided it would be a great idea to hold our very own Race Management Roundtable with the hope of building long lasting relationships with other race management staff, Race Directors and runners and creating associations not only state wide but within the Intermountain area.
So in January of 2010 the St George City Leisure Services department held its 1st annual “Intermountain Race Management Roundtable” in conjunction with the 28th annual St George Half Marathon.
With nearly 50 in attendance and 10 vendors we introduced topics, such as, Race Essentials, Growing Your Event, Current Trends and many others. We, as a group discussed ways to improve, expand, provide a quality experience for each runner and how to gain support from your communities as well as local businesses and sponsors.
Here is what some of our 2010 attendees had to say...
"Your event changed my mind set. Although our focus is on sponsorship right now, your event helped me develop the tools necessary to make good on my promise to the corporations that will sponsor the event."
"I enjoyed the conference and can't think of what I would change about it off hand. I do feel that over time it has the potential to grow and prove even more successful. "
"Thanks for putting on such a great event. I learned a lot and met some great people. "
"It was all relevant and useful. It's fun to be with a group of people who have shared the race director experience and understand the challenges."
"I just wanted to tell you how valuable I felt the race directors conference was. It was well organized, moved at the right pace and I walked away feeling like I had some great new ideas and good answers to several questions. "
