Dragonboat Blog | The Dragonboating Resource

dragonboat talk for dragonboaters.

Marketing your event

This is where the fun really begins! Marketing a dragon boat event can be quite rewarding as you get to really connect with the community and also help promote a wonderful cause or charity if your event is associated with one.

There are some places I recommend starting to promote your event:

• Through all the teams that are participating – ask them to also promote it at their workplace and with their peers and family
• Do a press release in the local paper
• Place advertisements in surrounding gyms
• Ask the local charity to promote it through their members
• Encourage shop owners and businesses participating at the event to promote the event in their store

Those are just some of the areas where you can promote and market your event. Ideally you want to allow for at least one month prior to the event of advertising and marketing. That way you can also capture new teams and potentially more sponsors who would be interested in an event like this.

Also you will also want to consider creating event-related print materials, such as brochures, registration packages, participant waivers, and signage. These are some of the marketing print material you will need to include when running an event.

Find Volunteers or pay for staff

Most events usually start off with Clubs hosting them and eventually they become so big that they need to hire staff and run it as a business, which most people have seen happen in the US and Europe.

The first place to start, if you were holding a local event is to get your own club involved, and most likely there would be a minimum of 25 people in your dragonboat club. Some events also can be run jointly with other dragonboat clubs if numbers are not enough and both would benefit from an increase of exposure in the community and also some fund raising money that usually comes out of running an event. If all else fails and your club members are not committed in helping then looking for volunteers in the local community is not too hard. Simply ask the council or the rotary club and offer them a free lunch or gift at the end of the event for simply helping out.

You will need at least 25 people to run a successful event and they can be allocated in numerous ways. This is how we have done it in the past:

• Marshalling: 3 people
• Starter: 2 people
• Timer keepers and Scorers: 6 people
• On-water crew: 2 people
• People to hold the boat at a Platoon: 6 people
• InfoDesk and Registration: 3 people
• Organiser: 1 person
• Extras for smaller tasks: 2 people

Now if you were to run an event with paid staff, there are going to be more financial costs involved and also that will add to the cost of registration from each club. Though I personally find this to be a more economical way as the idea of running an event through a registered business allows for the sport to grow. More and more event management companies are coming into Dragonboating and owing the equipment and then running them with the aim to make an event spectacular and rewarding for dragonboaters. Additionally there can be prize money for the winning teams and other incentives compared to running an event through a club and local community.

I will go into more details about running an event like Great White North in the coming months as a registered business.

Involve the locals and council – ask businesses to setup stores as well

It’s always great to see if the local community is interesting in sponsoring the event and also do some free publicity for you. Some main businesses and local community clubs I would firstly approach to get them on board are:

• The Local Council
• Rotary Club
• The Local RSL
• Fitness First or the local Sport/gym club
• The local sandwich/fast food store
• Local Radio Station
• Local Newspaper
• Local Charities

Once you have got these local businesses on board, you can start to invite other businesses who may be interested in holding a store to promote their products or services. That way with the traffic the event brings they can make some money on the day and also help support the event through a donation or a small little fee from renting a space and a store.

We have found in the past that this works really well and a lot of the locals come down and make a day of it and bring the family along to watch the races and to socialise with other members in the community.

Tomorrow I will talk about where to find volunteers or staff to help with the event.

GETTING DRAGON BOATS

You need dragon boats and loads of them. They need to be identical, or else the accusations will start to fly. So now you have found your boats how long are you going to allow between races and will you want one or two sets of boats? Remember, getting paddlers in and out of boats takes longer than getting to the start and racing.

Below are a list of dragonboat suppliers which you can purchase boats from, otherwise it is more cost-effective to hire them from the local marine club or the association that owns them.

• BUK Boats
• Champion Boats
• Donoratico
• Gemini
• KTH Seagull Boats
• Pei Sheng Boats
• Pel Plastex
• Regata 2000
• Simon River Sports
• Swift International

The above dragonboat manufacturers are all IDBF approved, so you won’t have a problem using them for International racing events.

THE LOCATION:
Next up is location. You are going to need a good stretch of water which is deep enough not to affect the performances of the crews else you are going to get it in the neck again. Salt water or fresh water, doesn’t really matter.

So, having found your stretch of water, can you offer space for the resting teams, marshalling arrangements and easy access to board and disembark from the dragon boats?

How do you mark the course? What if you are in the sea and the waves and movement move things about? Do you have anyone experienced in laying buoy lines? Is the course accurate and is lane 1 really as long as lane 6? Is the start line on the same compass bearing as the finish? What about the flags and the poles and how are they attached, and what about the counter-weights to support the flags? And will they be there on race day after painstakingly setting them out on the day before? Will the trawler come through overnight? This is getting to become Stress City.

If you are using public space you need to apply for a permit in good time from the local council who are generally highly supportive of such events. The Department requires public liability insurance but you would be getting that anyway wouldn’t you? You need to get a permit from the marine department if your event is in the sea and confirm with them that you have safety arrangements in hand with support craft and lifeguards readily available – and it is always good to receive the help and support of a first aid volunteer service. (St.John’s Ambulance)

Tomorrow I will go through in more detail about getting Dragon boats.

In the next few days I will talk about how to run a dragonboat event. First question you need to ask yourself is why do you want to do it? The effort in putting on an event is considerable but the rewards are not about making money.

So having decided ‘why’ the next thing is – how?

Before you even think of running an event, compete in as many dragon boat races as you can, both in your home town and overseas. Each event has its particular characteristics and that’s what makes the sport so great. Whilst we might moan and complain about the boats being too big, too small, too tippy, too heavy etc., this would be a boring sport if everywhere we go we had to race in IDBF standard boats.

THE RACE
Whilst competing you can observe at first hand the good and bad points in organising an event. Starting procedures in particular vary so much, it’s an education in itself to take part in races with “ready”, to “attention” where every team jumps the start. Lane markings, finishing posts, starting lines can all make or break a race. Use the good, ditch the bad and you have the beginnings of a great race.

Tomorrow I will talk about finding a good location.