Mara-thon Tera-thon (part 1)

Just the 3^rd edition of Surat Night Marathon, and it hit a bump this year in form of the widely epidemic swine-flu. Though I’ve been just recently bitten by the running bug, I’ve had a more than a little company of some regular runners. And when it comes to marathon, my profession as an event manager enables me to see a probably-unseen side of it too!

It’s been just 5 hours the event has been officially postponed, thought will key in a blog about the top challenges from the marathon organizer’s point of view.

1.       The wagging tongue syndrome – Normally when an event of this scale is rescheduled, the tongues go wagging about the organizational capability and in some way gives the participants a dissonance.

2.       Domino effect of this one delay – A major event is but yet another professional project for the organizer. They want to do it in the best way possible and then move on to the next coz just 1 event doesn't pay all the bills! This might all the more be true for organizers here who are more into commercial rather than client-based events.

3.       Rescheduling the visitors – From elite runners to pre-booked international entertainers; all will have to reschedule their travel plans. usually there’re more drop-outs than add-ins in such cases; though let’s hope at least the elite runners will turn up on the next date!

4.       The increased ad-spend – A 2-month delay means to keep the visibility and hence the final impact as it is. It’s as simple as a monkey’s red ass that it is impossible. However, a second final-phase of ad-spend will have to be incurred in April to gain momentum and reach a shattering climax.

5.       Laxity in the revving event team – As an event reaches its final phase, the event team revs up and work at its peak. Such an event team has a lot of temps who come on-board just for that project; and go over to their studies or another project after that. A sudden trough like this will leave the team clueless at first, then worrying about the delay. Some attrition is bound to happen and organizers may have to re-train the new chaps.

6.       Dipping interest levels – It’s no rocket science that the success of an event is gauged by the participation levels. A lot of runners and enthusiastic junta were doing their last lag preparation and this cancellation will can it. Some might just not get in that mood again after 2 months.

7.       Loss of revenue – A lot of sponsors get on the bandwagon at the last moment – yes even in the last 1 week. (Just FYI, in case of Navratri, AT LEAST 30% sponsors are confirmed within the last 24 hours - before the 1^st of the 9 days.) I’m not sure if the same will happen in April also; considering that a lot of them may not have frozen their ad-spends for the next financial year and will take a while to decide (and miss the bus).

8.       The large looming shadow – Come next year, there’ll be a breed of stupidus-maximus who will nonetheless fill up the form; will also throw a jibe like – ‘aa vakhte pan tarikh padse ke shu?’ This one unavoidable rescheduling will remain in collective memory for around 5 years.