Active Europe - any issues?

MayoRoadRunner

Hi All, we're holding our first tri event this summer and need to decide on the methond of registration/payment. We've ben in touch with www.activeeurope.com and seen as they manage the registrations for most events in Ireland/England I would assume they are good at what they do. Would this assumption be correct? Anyone use them for their event and have any issue? Many thanks

BJohnson

Active Europe seem to do a good job, and I'm sure for race organizers it makes registration much easier, but from a participant's point of view I find their fees pretty steep. They seem to charge a 10% fee on top of the entry fee to use their service. When you're already paying €80 for something like the Dublin Marathon, an extra €8 seems excessive just for the convenience of entering online.

Whenever Active Europe is involved, I tend to request a paper entry for the race and post or, better yet, fax it in. I would have no problems paying a few extra euros for online registration since Active Europre are providing a useful service, but 10% is pushing it.

I would ask the guys at RunIreland.com how they do it - they offer online registration for all of their events, including the Connemarathon, and I don't think they charge any service fee at all. Even their smaller events, like the 14 marathons in Galway last summer (€20 each) had free online registration.

Hope that helps!

toomuchdetail

From and end user prespective the only issue I have with activeeurope is that they do not except laser card payments where runireland do, for those of us that enjoyed watching the CC card burn in the fire in post celtic tiger Ireland the non laser card option can be a pain .
Where are you planning the Tri in Mayo ?

Mick Rice

Up front I have to say that I'm friendly with the people involved with Run Ireland but I have also used their services as a race director on a number of occasions and can't fault the servive they provide. If you have a look at the list of Irish races using them you'll see that the majority of races seem to go in their direction rather than with Active Europe. I can also appreciate the comments above about high transaction changes that seem to go hand in hand with Active Europe. It always get's my goat when a race organised asks me, as a runner, to pay the admin costs of entering a race.

Hard Worker

Nothing comes free.
The two companies mentioned, provide a good service. The ActiveEurope set up was designed by an Irishman and works well. RunIreland is growing and is used by a large number of Irish races. They both present things differently. ActiveEurope add on the service charge ( athlete pays ) and RunIreland charge the Race Director. No matter which way you look at it, the athlete pays.

Huff n Puff

Races can elect to absorb the Active Europe service charges into their race fee if they want. However, this usually just results in the entry fee being hiked up by the club so the athlete pays anyway. But clubs do have the option to pay this service charge themselves.

I have experience using Active Europe and I find their system easy to use and the support is good. I don't really have any other registration system experience to benchmark it against though as it is the only one I am familiar with.

MayoRoadRunner

thanks to everyone for the prompt replies.

Huff n Puff Races can elect to absorb the Active Europe service charges into their race fee if they want. However, this usually just results in the entry fee being hiked up by the club so the athlete pays anyway. But clubs do have the option to pay this service charge themselves.

Yes Huff n Puff - I queried this with active europe and they confirmed that it is the organisers who can elect to pass the cost to the competitors. We won't be passing the full cost to the competitors. If I can help it we won't be passing any of the cost and all will be included in (already set) entry fee.

toomuchdetail From and end user prespective the only issue I have with activeeurope is that they do not except laser card payments where runireland do, for those of us that enjoyed watching the CC card burn in the fire in post celtic tiger Ireland the non laser card option can be a pain .
Where are you planning the Tri in Mayo ?

Too much detail - I hear you on the Laser card limitation with active Europe. Gets my back up when places don't accept laser. Will factor this into decision also. Tri is a half iron event. Our site has'nt officially been launched but you can have a peep at www.swinfordtrisports.com. We have to put more details up yet including map of route with elevations etc. Lots of local people involved in the organising of it and its a non profit venture. All proceeds will be invested in the promotion of sport in the area.