I am participating in the USAT Women's Initiate with the objective of getting more women into the sport. So far kind of mixed reviews and I'm wondering what everyone else thinks or is experiencing.
We announced four of the evening workouts with wine (basically social workouts) with what I would conisider pretty marginal response. As a matter of fact, kind of dismal. We did a swim-social two weeks ago with only 4 people showing up. Last Friday we did a run-social and only 2 showed up. Had another session scheduled for last Thursday night with a running and fitness group and a local running store and they canceled on us at the last minute. So it's been pretty frustrating.
We also added a shorter sprint wave for beginner women to our Tri Santa Cruz (400 yd swim/12 mile bike/5K) and we've had some response but nowhere near where everyone thought we would. Even offered training clinics and free open water swim clinics but that hasn't boosted registration. The regular sprint and olympic races are actually ahead of last year's registration but not getting any newbie traction.
We've done print, social media, and visits to local running stores and specifically women's running and fitness groups. So far we've spent more on advertising than we've recognized in registrations for this wave. Honestly, at 2 months out I don't really see a huge increase in newbie registration at this point.
I'm interested in experiences with anyone else doing this initiative and how it's going for you, or just your thoughts on how to increase participation with the beginners wave.
We announced four of the evening workouts with wine (basically social workouts) with what I would conisider pretty marginal response. As a matter of fact, kind of dismal. We did a swim-social two weeks ago with only 4 people showing up. Last Friday we did a run-social and only 2 showed up. Had another session scheduled for last Thursday night with a running and fitness group and a local running store and they canceled on us at the last minute. So it's been pretty frustrating.
We also added a shorter sprint wave for beginner women to our Tri Santa Cruz (400 yd swim/12 mile bike/5K) and we've had some response but nowhere near where everyone thought we would. Even offered training clinics and free open water swim clinics but that hasn't boosted registration. The regular sprint and olympic races are actually ahead of last year's registration but not getting any newbie traction.
We've done print, social media, and visits to local running stores and specifically women's running and fitness groups. So far we've spent more on advertising than we've recognized in registrations for this wave. Honestly, at 2 months out I don't really see a huge increase in newbie registration at this point.
I'm interested in experiences with anyone else doing this initiative and how it's going for you, or just your thoughts on how to increase participation with the beginners wave.