Early Call Time Episode 20: If You Build It, Will They Come?

In September's second banter episode, Eli and Tony realize that their homework before the next banter episode is to find another way to open the podcast than asking each other "How ya doing?" since that has become such a loaded question during 2020.
The guys then move onto their topic for this week's conversation: with in-person races slowly returning but demand remaining low, what does the industry have to do in order to make runners feel comfortable and want to return to in-person races? They discuss the actual appetite for in-person demand right now and whether people complaining vocally on social media about the lack of in-person races are a minority (they are), whether these smaller events cater to only a certain type of (mostly-speedier, no-frills) runners but are less interesting to the social-runner masses (they are), and whether races have to make a concerted effort to establish a baseline trust with their runners that their event is safe but then communicate beyond that (just like in the "before times") about what elements make their race worth a runners' while (they do).
Tony compares putting runners at ease about post-pandemic safety measures to putting them at ease about post-Boston bombing safety measures, and Eli proposes that some sort of "contract" between runners and race organizers is necessary, laying out what the race's responsibilities are and what the runners' responsibilities are in helping to assure an event is safe. The guys touch on the idea that not every event needs to happen right now, and that organizations like Eli's that are putting on smaller events right now are both achieving their mission and also doing market research and taking one on the chin a bit for the rest of the industry. But for smaller organizations that aren't capable or willing to do that at a loss, it may not make sense to put on an in-person event right now at this time when, even if we build it, runners aren't coming.
There is strong agreement that, as we return to racing, we're going to need to take the lessons we've learned in creating community in the virtual space and find ways to translate them to our new in-person environment, and also that we should all be kicking ourselves for the money and engagement we've left on the table over the years by not embracing virtual alongside of in-person before the pandemic forced us to. And Tony notes that to know what lessons we have learned we should all make sure our surveys are done the right way, and that if we don't know what a survey done "the right way" looks like, we should consider hiring a professional.
Lastly, astute listeners may note that early on in this conversation Eli, to the surprise of no one who knows him, takes over a minute to realize that he's talking to an empty room as Tony experiences some technical difficulties with their new recording platform. But Tony returns to only moderate criticism, and your fearless co-hosts go on indomitably shouting into the void to wrap up another successful ep of the pod, technical difficulties be damned!
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