INNOVATION
Last month was the 32nd year of the Sussex Business Awards which saw two of Sussex Innovation’s nominees take home awards: Race Nation – Innovation of the Year 2021 8foldGovernance – Micro Business of the Year 2021
SUSSEX INNOVATION CELEBRATES CLIENT SUCCESSES “ We’re ex tremely proud of the award -winning members of our community,” says Nigel Lambe, Chief Executive of Sussex Innovation and one of the panel of judges. “It’s a real pleasure to celebrate the achievements of two companies that have not only seen commercial success during a challenging year for business, but also exemplify the social values and impact that we love to support.”
RaceNation is a sports ❛❛ technology company, uniquely providing event registration, club membership management and fundraising on one online platform ❜❜
RaceNation presented with the trophy by SINC CEO Nigel Lambe (far right)
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A SUCCESSFUL PIVOT DURING A CHALLENGING YEAR RaceNation is a sports technology company, uniquely providing event registration, club membership management and fundraising on one online platform. Their white-label technology powers more than 2,600 events across the UK whilst raising millions of pounds for charity. Much of normal life has been put on hold during the pandemic, and the mass participation sports industry was no different. UK-wide, race events were cancelled for almost a year, putting huge pressure on thousands of organisers and hundreds of thousands of livelihoods. For RaceNation, a huge change was needed to not only maintain its own business, but that of its clients.
Organisers were soon looking for alternative ways to host their events, and RaceNation brought technological solutions. The company helped numerous clients to hold their events in a virtual format with a suite of new features, not only raising valuable revenue for themselves but the thousands of vulnerable charities that rely on mass participation events for fundraising. User-based submissions allowed entrants to remotely upload results, times and distances via tracking giant Strava. Changes to the sign-up process helped lift donations upon registration from 30% to 66%. Updates to the RaceNation App let those with phone tracking be sponsored and cheered on virtually by loved ones supporting them from anywhere in the world.
