The same setup, eighty times a year
Running one event well is hard. Running eighty is a different problem, and most of it is repetition. A triathlon in April and a 10k in June are not identical, but they rhyme: the same kinds of marshals, the same shape of shifts, the same details entered again from the top. For years, all of that lived in spreadsheets, rebuilt event by event.
The setup alone ate time before a single marshal was booked. Worse, the spreadsheets multiplied. A version here, an edited copy there, and no reliable way to know which one was right.
Active Training World, based in Harpenden and now in its twelfth year, is the UK’s largest multi-sport event organiser. It puts on around eighty running, triathlon, duathlon and open-water swimming events a year, for athletes of every level. A calendar that size does not forgive a slow, error-prone setup.
Too many versions of the truth
The breaking point was not one big failure. It was the quiet cost of never being sure. Which spreadsheet held the current staffing? Had the latest change made it into the copy everyone else was using?
On a calendar of eighty events, those small doubts add up to real risk. Active Training World took a recommendation and moved its staffing onto Liveforce, looking for one place that could hold the truth.
One list, and the versions disappear
Liveforce gave Active Training World a single home for its marshal pool and its events. Instead of competing spreadsheets, there is one live staff list everyone works from. Instead of tracking people down, the whole pool can be reached through the app and told what is coming up and where the gaps are.
The information stopped fragmenting, which is the first thing that has to happen before anything else gets easier.
“It is much easier to find staff for our events now as we can communicate with all staff directly from the app and let them know about job vacancies.”
Active Training World
Duplicate, tweak, done
The setup problem was solved at the root. A new event no longer starts from an empty grid. The team duplicates a past event, adjusts the date, the venue and the numbers, and the shape of the whole thing is already there.
For a calendar built on events that rhyme, that one change gives back hours on every single one.
Before and after Liveforce
Before Liveforce
Each event set up by hand on spreadsheets
Several spreadsheet versions in circulation at once
Marshals contacted one at a time about events
Payment details gathered event by event
Marshals waiting to hear what was coming up
After Liveforce
Past events duplicated and adjusted in minutes
One live staff list everyone works from
The whole marshal pool reached through the app
Bank details captured when a marshal signs up
Upcoming vacancies visible for staff to plan around
The difference
Setup time cut on every event in the calendar
No more errors from the wrong version
Gaps filled faster, with far less chasing
Quicker, more accurate payments
Staff choose their events and plan ahead
“The ability to duplicate events has been a game-changer, eliminating the need to set up everything from scratch for each event.”
Active Training World
The features behind eighty smooth events
Reuse a past event's setup
Around eighty events a year, and many share the same shape. Duplicating a past event and adjusting the details replaced building each one from scratch, which is where most of the old setup time went.
Bank details captured at signup
Paying event staff used to mean gathering details event by event. Now a marshal’s bank details are captured when they first sign up, so Active Training World can pay them quickly and correctly without chasing the details later.
Vacancies marshals can plan around
Marshals can see which upcoming events still have spots and put themselves forward for the ones that suit them. Planning their own availability turned staffing from a push into something the team opts into.
One list instead of many versions
The old spreadsheets bred copies, and copies breed mistakes. One live staff list means everyone works from the same information, and which version is right stops being a question anyone has to ask.
Faster setups, and marshals who can plan ahead
The setup time was the first thing to fall. An event that used to be rebuilt from a blank spreadsheet could be duplicated from the last one and adjusted in minutes. The knock-on effect was quieter but larger.
Marshals could see what was coming, choose the events that suited them, and plan their own availability, which made staffing eighty events a year far less of a push.
Support was there on the rare occasions it was needed.
“The support team have always been on hand with any queries we've had over the last few years, though I can honestly say there haven't been many times we've needed to contact them.”
Active Training World
Around eighty events a year, and the setup is no longer the hard part.
Several years in, Active Training World runs one of the busiest calendars in UK endurance sport on a system that keeps itself in order between races.
The races still fill fields and finish lines up and down the country. What changed is that the team spends its time on the events, not on rebuilding the spreadsheet behind them.
