Michael

These are interesting questions.  Perhaps we can use them to create a formal OBRA survey?  Just a thought.

 Michael Y.

From: Paul via OBRA
To: obra@list.obra.org
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2018 10:52 PM
Subject: [OBRA Chat] Promoter/Racer Educational Thread

I'll start by saying that this is meant to be a productive discussion thread, and not a flame war. If promoters need racers, and racers need promoters, then it would appear that we're on the same losing team here, so let's brainstorm and learn from eachother a little bit.

1. Promoters - I'm curious to learn how you go about your work, your promotion and event planning timelines, and the overall process that it entails.
2. Promoters - who exactly are you promoting to? Who is your audience? What sort of media and business outreach do you engage in to promote your events? Perhaps I'm not looking in the right places, but the only place I see races "promoted" is on the OBRA site, and occasionally an Instagram post (maybe Facebook, but I don't have an account). To me, that's not really promotion - it's more like an announcement and invitation to let the racers know about your event, which is great because racers need to know about the party in order to show up to your event, but beyond that, how are you trying to promote your event to other potential sponsors, partners, spectators? Do you have co-marketing possibilities with businesses around town?
3. Promoters - If promoting is your job, your business, or how you earn a living, are there other people you should be promoting to in order to gain additional marketing and promotional help? Can the racing community help you out in some way besides just showing up? Do you have any ideas that you can share? What do you honestly (realistically) want to see from the racing community?
4. Racers - When you look at the racing calendar at the beginning of the year, what makes you circle particular events? Is it prestige? Is it the challenge of a particular course? Is it proximity to home? All of this information may be helpful to current and future promoters.
5. Racers - The flipside to question 4: What makes you NOT race a particular event? Safety of the course? Proximity to home? Weather? Time of year? Conflicts between races on the same day?
6. Racers - What would you honestly (realistically) like to see from a Promoter? Is it more prizes? More races in exchange for less payout? Less races but bigger payout? More marketing? Different venues? What would excite you to not only race more, but help grow the community?
_______________________________________________
OBRA mailing list
obra@list.obra.org
http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org

Mike Murray

With very rare exceptions, bike race promotion is work but not a job in the sense that there is an expectation of making a profit. Most race organizers are racing enthusiasts who simply want to see people have a chance to race. Not losing too much money is a more realistic goal. This is one of the reasons why there are a shrinking number of races; costs have increased and fewer people are willing to do the worked needed and take the risk of financial loss.

Mike Murray

> On Jul 18, 2018, at 16:53, Paul via OBRA wrote:
>
>
> 3. Promoters - If promoting is your job, your business, or how you earn a living, are there other people you should be promoting to in order to gain additional marketing and promotional help? Can the racing community help you out in some way besides just showing up? Do you have any ideas that you can share? What do you honestly (realistically) want to see from the racing community?
>

Paul

I'll start by saying that this is meant to be a productive discussion thread, and not a flame war. If promoters need racers, and racers need promoters, then it would appear that we're on the same losing team here, so let's brainstorm and learn from eachother a little bit.

1. Promoters - I'm curious to learn how you go about your work, your promotion and event planning timelines, and the overall process that it entails.
2. Promoters - who exactly are you promoting to? Who is your audience? What sort of media and business outreach do you engage in to promote your events? Perhaps I'm not looking in the right places, but the only place I see races "promoted" is on the OBRA site, and occasionally an Instagram post (maybe Facebook, but I don't have an account). To me, that's not really promotion - it's more like an announcement and invitation to let the racers know about your event, which is great because racers need to know about the party in order to show up to your event, but beyond that, how are you trying to promote your event to other potential sponsors, partners, spectators? Do you have co-marketing possibilities with businesses around town?
3. Promoters - If promoting is your job, your business, or how you earn a living, are there other people you should be promoting to in order to gain additional marketing and promotional help? Can the racing community help you out in some way besides just showing up? Do you have any ideas that you can share? What do you honestly (realistically) want to see from the racing community?
4. Racers - When you look at the racing calendar at the beginning of the year, what makes you circle particular events? Is it prestige? Is it the challenge of a particular course? Is it proximity to home? All of this information may be helpful to current and future promoters.
5. Racers - The flipside to question 4: What makes you NOT race a particular event? Safety of the course? Proximity to home? Weather? Time of year? Conflicts between races on the same day?
6. Racers - What would you honestly (realistically) like to see from a Promoter? Is it more prizes? More races in exchange for less payout? Less races but bigger payout? More marketing? Different venues? What would excite you to not only race more, but help grow the community?