How Vermont Overland kept event day check-in smooth

WEST WINDSOR, VT, August 29, 2021 — A little over a week ago, Vermont Overland, took place for the first time since 2019. The Vermont Overland has quickly become a wildly popular New England gravel race canvassing central Vermont’s unmaintained ancient public roads. With 7,000 feet of climbing over 54 miles, the course is as challenging as it is beautiful with classic Vermont scenery.

In addition to coming back after hitting the pause button during 2020, the event had a new event director. In late 2020, Ansel Dickey took the event over after being an integral part of the Vermont Overland operations for several years. Even though Ansel had years of experience working Vermont Overland, in addition to a career as a professional cyclist and event photographer, being in charge had a different level of stress, specifically managing day-of operations including check-in of over 1,500 participants.

The Vermont Overland Start. Photo courtesy of Ansel Dickey

“After taking over Vermont Overland from Peter Vollers back in 2020, I was a little apprehensive because I had never run the whole show before. One of the biggest unknowns for me leading up to the event was how to run registration… The majority of our participants hail from New England and a ton of folks drive up to Vermont the morning of the race, meaning the registration/packet pick up rush is REAL.”

A view of riders tackling one of the ancient public roads in Vermont during Vermont Overland. Photo courtesy of Ansel Dickey

Knowing the key to getting the event going on a positive note started before the first cleat clicked into a pedal, Ansel had to make sure check-in was seamless. To accomplish this, Vermont Overland had anywhere from 7-10 volunteers on individual devices checking in riders concurrently while assigning bibs dynamically during this process. Because the check-in feature is device agnostic, allows for time-bound volunteer access, and can access/edit the database of registered riders in real time, it is perfect for events of all sizes and Vermont Overland was no exception.

“I knew it needed to run smoothly. After talking with the folks at BikeReg to see what would be the best strategy to accommodate the registration rush we decided to use the event day check-in tool. It was GREAT and our volunteers found it much easier than the old school registration process. Being able to assign numbers on-site and not having to sort through 1500 bibs made the entire process much more efficient.”

To learn more about how your event could benefit from using the event day check-in tool, read the how-to article here.