On This Day, The Stroller Runners Ruled

By: Therese Grohman, Event360

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about the upcoming debut of Strollers in the Front 5K Run/Walk. Well, the event took place on Oct. 28 — and we at Event 360 couldn't be happier about the results. (Check out the start-line video.)

Here's the back story: Earlier this year, I ran a race with my girls in a stroller. Afterwards, my husband Jim said to me, "That was great, but it's not really fair that you had to be in the back just because you have a stroller. We should do a race with strollers in the front."

Jim and I took the idea back to the team at Event 360 and decided to "run" with it. We then met with our nonprofit partner,Neighborhood Parents Network (NPN), which helps families navigate the challenges of parenting in the City of Chicago. NPN loved the idea and signed on. We had about three months to prepare.

Putting strollers in the front became the ideal metaphor for NPN. They're all about putting families and kids first, and that's what we were doing, both literally and figuratively with the race. NPN introduced us to amazing partners and sponsors, and extended the brand reach of Strollers to its membership base of over 6,000 families.

Lessons Learned
You learn something every time you work on an event — particularly if it's the first time. Here are two big lessons I learned.

Lesson #1:  Find a nonprofit partner that is really passionate about the event concept and has the reach in your target market. NPN passed this test, which made our brand feel big to the right people. At an NPN parenting event, we heard parents saying, "I've heard about this race everywhere!" Secret: We weren't everywhere — we were just everywhere parents were.

Lesson #2: Ask sponsors what they want and aim to create value. We had 24 sponsors involved in the post-event festival, providing things like a bouncy house, diaper-changing station, music and photography. By customizing inventory and experience based on what people wanted out of their sponsorship, we created value in the form of exposure to new parents and families. In turn, sponsors were great about spreading the word and getting their customers to come out.

It was really gratifying to see how much people enjoyed Strollers. Even though it was 40 degrees out, families stayed to enjoy the festival. I talked to a handful of runners at the finish line, and they were so thrilled to have a race like this — we gave them a race that they didn't even know they wanted. And now that they have it, they love it and I know they'll be back.

One of the best comments of the day came from a child in the parking lot: "Can we do this again tomorrow?" And with that, we'd won the toughest critic — a kid! And happy kids = happy parents.

Thanks to everyone who worked on and contributed to Strollers, including community volunteers and my wonderful colleagues at Event 360.

Lastly, some exciting news: We've added a new city to Strollers in the Front 5K! Join us in Atlanta on December 8, and run with your little ones to benefit the Rally Foundation. See our event page on Facebook. Or, if you’re a parent with a stroller, register to run today!

Therese Grohman is the director of marketing at Event 360, where she focuses on building Event 360's thought leadership platform and developing relationships with organizations through impactful and relevant communications. She has also worked directly with a variety of organizations to create and implement event fundraising strategies, drawing from her experiences working in the nonprofit sector.