Early Call Time Episode 16: Johan Tigér (CTO, Göteborgsvarvet)

Continuing their international interview series, Eli and Tony welcome the man with the coolest name in the running industry, Johan Tigér, Chief Technical Officer of Göteborgsvarvet, to the Pod. And what a welcome they give him, as Eli greets him by butchering both Johan's and his race's name.
Although our American listeners may not be familiar with it, Göteborgsvarvet is a big deal, the largest half marathon in the world with over 60,000 registrants in its peak year, starting in 30 waves from 1pm-4pm on what's usually a beautiful spring day in Sweden's Second City, Gothenburg (Tony can't get over what these start logistics must look like). As its CTO, Johan is charged with keeping the race ahead of the curve in all areas technology, with a major focus on registration.
Johan came to running a bit later in life than many of our guests, but has immersed himself in running culture over the last decade-plus of his life, since a co-worker at the Swedish equivalent of the NSA asked him to go for a run during and he finished the run with the taste of blood in his mouth. He ran his first Göteborgsvarvet in 2006, and has since run 32 races of marathon distance or longer (definitely not a member of the "just one marathon club" like the co-hosts).
After getting his masters, Johan bounced between e-commerce and working at jogg.se (which he describes as Swedish Strava) before starting a small registration company which Göteborgsvarvet then brought him on to customize as their registration platform. And as the architect of that platform, Johan was recently able to construct a three-click Covid-19 transfer function for its 40,000 runners when it Göteborgsvarvet went virtual.
Eli gets sidetracked when Johan mentions a one-off marathon being held in honor of Gothenburg's 400th anniversary next year, which currently has 6,500 registrants of its 15,000-cap event registered over a year in advance, grilling him about the details of this high production-value, mass participation, one-off event. Johan then gets us back on track sharing the details of what Göteborgsvarvet did when it went virtual, including a custom video (with voice-over work by a national celebrity!) for all finishers. (In the process he drops a sick burn on Eli for his failed hashtag attempts. If he's not invited back, you know why...)
Johan then brags about the Swedish events community, including the multi-sport Swedish Classic series of events which Johan himself completed in 2013. And he also mentions another very cool-looking Swedish multisport event, swimrun. Johan then lets us know right at the end of the pod that we have to wrap it up so he can go home to prepare for the ultra he's running the next day!
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected].
Facebook: @EarlyCallTimePod
Instagram: @EarlyCallTimePod
Twitter: @EarlyPod