For organisers first adopting tracking or those used to participants bringing their own devices, how to prepare for an event start using our trackers can be new territory. This is our guide on how we suggest you do things, including some lessons we’ve learned through tracking hundreds of events over the years.
Receive the Trackers
Your trackers will usually arrive at least a few days before the event start. When they arrive, first double check that you have ordered the correct number. We will always include a few spares, but let us know as soon as possible if there is a discrepancy between the number of trackers you have and how many you need.
Check the Assignation
Almost always, trackers are pre-assigned by us. You can find a list of who has been assigned which tracker by logging into the map manager (sent to you by email) and downloading a PDF showing all trackers and the names/numbers assigned. If you make any changes, you can regenerate this PDF and download it again.
We recommend you print off a copy of this PDF or have it open on a laptop at the station where you are handing out trackers.
Turn on the Trackers
At a minimum, you should turn on trackers 120 minutes before the start, but it is generally better to turn them on far earlier than this.
Ideally, it should be several hours before, allowing you time to check for any issues. We test all trackers before despatching, but they are electronic devices and will inevitably have occasional issues. When dealing with large numbers of devices, the chances are increased and it is far better to catch these issues prior to the start.
In an ideal world, this is what we recommend:
- Turn on all trackers on at least four hours before
- Check all have connected and that battery levels are good
- If any have issues, swap them with the provided spares
- Hand out the trackers already turned on to participants (removing the risk of them failing to turn them on)
- Tell participants clearly that they are on when you hand them over (removing the risk they turn them off thinking they aren’t on)
For early morning starts, we recommend turning the trackers on the previous evening.
If registration is the day before, we would recommend turning the trackers on then and leaving them on. The trackers will sleep while stationary and lose only a few % battery, which is a good trade off for the knowledge that all are working correctly.
Brief Participants
In our experience, the biggest determinant of tracking performance during an event is how well informed the participants are, as this impacts both tracker positioning and likelihood of human error. Therefore, we recommend the following:
- Send out our tracker instructions in the weeks or days preceding the event: https://followmychallenge.com/tracker-instructions/
- Have a tracker briefing during registration or before the start, where you emphasise the importance of positioning the tracker correctly
- When handing the tracker to a participant, always communicate whether it is on or off
- Share the troubleshooting guide with participants: https://followmychallenge.com/tracker-troubleshooting/
On top of this, if you spot anyone placing a tracker somewhere that looks problematic then ask them to change before they depart.
Just before the start
If you haven’t already done so, this is a great time to mark participants who are DNS. This means that we can automatically exclude them when looking out for any tracker issues.
In addition to this, if you have time, skim the Device Overview page in the manager to quickly check one final time that no devices are showing as powered off.
After the start
Once the participants are underway, give them a few minutes for the dots to start moving. Bear in mind that start locations are often in built-up areas, so GPS performance won’t be as good.
After 20 minutes or so, check whether any dots remain rooted to the start. If these are not DNS participants then proceed to troubleshooting, which can be found in the Manager Support Site. Or contact us via WhatsApp to investigate.
