Using SMS at Sporting Events for Group Coordination
Sporting events have historically brought groups of people, both children and adults alike, together for a goo
d time. While I personally like to celebrate a major sporting event from afar with a nice backyard barbecue and a television set, they wouldn’t be possible without those who work hard all year to put on and coordinate these sports and charity events. Using SMS at sporting events to organize volunteers, participants and visitors makes group coordination so much easier.
A lot goes into organizing a sporting event, whether it’s a major NASCAR race, or a local 5k. Group texting makes communication easy and incredibly manageable for all types of games, races, tournaments, you name it. SMS is extremely helpful in keeping all volunteers and staff in the loop with general event information and coordination, as well as informing the athletes themselves about where and when they need to be somewhere, what order they are racing in, or even where they can go afterwards for a nice refreshing beverage.
Take a look at some nonprofit examples of how TextMarks SMS has been successfully utilized for event coordination:
JCC Maccabi Games
It’s that time of year again, the JCC Maccabi Games are back! The Maccabi Games is an olympic-style sporting competition for Jewish Teenagers around the continent.
They recently used TextMarks in order to maintain organization and communication with the 6,000+ teens that participate in these games, as well as their parents and the volunteers. They used different keywords for the different groups of participants, parents, and staff and sent them alerts such as reminders to stay hydrated, what time the opening ceremony is, what you can and can’t bring to events, information on who won which event, what time events will start and end, and other information on the Maccabi Games.
Red Cross Tour du Rouge
Tour du Rouge is a month-long bike event from Houston to New Orleans benefiting the The Red Cross. That’s 533 miles in 6 days! It’s important to have a solid way to communicate with so many athletes that are spread out and moving at their own pace. In order to get participants and crew members to subscribe, they simply sent out an email with instructions on how to do so, and everyone subscribed with minimal effort and no problem.
Tour du Rouge involves moving through many different unpredictable environments, so one of their main uses of TextMarks is communicating instructions for bad weather conditions. Ride leaders communicate with the riders and let them know how and where to go in event of unsafe conditions. Additionally, they communicate where rest stops are located and, if applicable, any significant route changes.
Like the Maccabi games, they also use group texting to communicate with the crew involved, and not just the participants, to inform them of set-up times, where the riders are, and meeting times. The Tour du Rouge is a great example of how SMS at sporting events can help organizers successfully execute their event plans.
National Sports Center for the Disabled
TextMarks goes to the snow with the National Sports Center for the Disabled! For the last 39 years, the NSCD has invited the disabled skiers and snowboarders from all over the country to Colorado for a 3-day event. They realized that people weren’t seeing all of the pertinent information they needed when it was being broadcasted onto the Jumbotron, so they decided to look to TextMarks and SMS for a solution.
The NSCD uses their keyword to alert people of start times, round advancement, and qualification results, keeping the masses aware of who is going down the mountain when. They advertised their keyword on fliers that everyone at the event was receiving, so everyone was able to receive information and schedules inreal-time.
