Hogtoberfest 2011 personal debrief

Yeah I know I haven't posted full listings or done the myriad of other jobs I was meant to in the aftermath. As I've already provided public thank yous and the like, the only things left are the debrief and for want of a better word the metrics or stats of the events; most of the numbers are only of a passing interest to the multitude of skaters, but the figures that come from the event will make or break future event plans: body count, attendance, first aid, race stats/methods and opinion all go towards the next event, and as a preliminary run down here's a quick list, some of which I did right and has been confirmed, and some things I got dreadfully wrong.

1) Branding is important.

The H'fest blogger receives over 5000 hits in the 8-9 weeks leading up to the event. Thanks to people spreading the name and, I hope, the distinctive logo and info (including regular updates) the website, logo and name became known and meant people could identify the event, and will lay groundwork for next year. We had a lot of skaters we'd never seen before, more groms, more girls, more races and the biggest turnout of riders (to the organisers knowledge).

2) If you're organising, don't compete unless everything else can be handled while you're locked in a toilet with concussion. (true story)
Chatting with another organiser afterwards, she agreed that it's a good idea to have your team (see item 3) not participate. This means your helpers don't break themselves and leave you trying to wrestle the good ship skate without any assistance, which is no mean feat, or someone else steering it for you without proper direction or training. No mean feat.

3) Have a team.

I said 'a' team, not THE 'A Team'

I ran all of the DH runup myself, and on the days themselves found myself rushed due to general attention from everyone. The slalom crew did signups, which was fantastic, but we could have done with different people on the desk so they could run slalom rather than signup. In the lead up it'd also be useful to have people to maintain the blog, liase with sponsors etc, and on the day to have dedicated marshals, signup crew etc.
An ideal team is organiser +3 for the buildup, and that team and organiser + 3 dedicated people for the event. Additional marshals/first aiders are additional to that team of 7, but the buildup team can overlap with the on the day team, and in fact would probably make things easier at the end of the day.

4) Don't manage your own crew and the event.
Delegate leadership and make sure people know that your prime motive is running the event.The only people  you, as an organiser should be directly reliant on/responsible for are your team (see item 3), and your team are reliant/responsible for you.

5) Start planning a LONG TIME in advance.
I started in earnest about 10 weeks in  advance, and I could have done with an extra month to be honest. Closing hills using council forms take min 8 weeks to process (and a fee, example from Southampton city council), so add that onto the front end of the project with 2 weeks prep. 20 weeks to organise an event? Yeah. But it's not solid work. Once the groundwork is in place the event can be hyped once a week - a process you can delegate to your team.

6) Shortly after the event have a debrief and keep records of everything.
Even if it's only yourself and a mate, write lists of everythign that went well and everything that went badly, give them ratings perhaps, maybe even produce a survey so for the next event you can put energy into the bits that need work. The records are useful to get bigger sponsors for next time :)

I think that's it for now. I've probably forgotten something, and I hope this is a good read!

And now I need coffee....

Awesome Poem for Awesome Merchandise!

There was an event I decided to run

Downhill skateboard racing – it’s loads of fun

So I look for some prizes and find some neat stuff,

But no-one printed on them so I got in a huff!

I email and phone around some companies,

They all said no even though I said please,

So I search the internet in my grumpy rage,

And find Awesome Merchandise at the top of the page!

These cool guys had done me stuff before,

Stickers, rush order, 6 days to my door.

So I thought what the hell I’ll see what they say

I email Dan, we chat, he comes back with “okay!”

The products were ace, but my counting was bad

7 more in 4 days? The order was mad.

This time when I call I drop Charly a line,

“same artwork, same product by Friday? That’s fine!”

So in fantastic fashion like some merchandise wizard

Awesome finished on time and got them delivered.

The Event went down well and the prizes were class

Cheers Awesome Merchandise for saving my Arse!

So if there’s a lesson in my frantic print-shop search,

Forget the competition, go straight to Awesome Merch.