About the Client:

The Running Industry Diversity Coalition unites the running industry to improve the inclusion, visibility, and access for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.

About the Project:
The RIDC team had a clearly-defined plan for their footprint and impact at The Running Event in Austin, Texas, and required support to ensure that the plan was executed and that all onsite stakeholders were informed of their responsibilities.

Primary: Fractional Project Management

Secondary: Experiential Strategy, Vendor Management, Material Sourcing, Stakeholder Communications, Remote Day-of Logistics

Processes:

Beth, as the primary contact for this event, initially met with the RIDC’s internal team and Board Planning Committee to hear an overview of the event goals, both from an RIDC perspective and a partnership perspective. The initial meeting laid out the ways that planned booth design, conference sessions, and activations could support those goals, as well as the overall organization’s story.

Next, Beth and RIDC’s Strategy Manager conducted a series of knowledge transfer meetings to ensure Beth understood the current status of the project and operational processes used to eep the team informed. Next, they compiled a list of all items on hand for the event, and those which needed to be shipped and/or picked up, and the items that would need to be rented to create a fun, tangible experience for the guests that properly showcased RIDC’s overall mission and impact.

In attending RIDC’s Fall Board Meeting, Beth laid out a high-level update of the organization’s presence at TRE, answered any outstanding questions and assisted in booth staffing for the event. 

Throughout the duration of this project, Beth conducted check-in meetings with the internal RIDC team as a whole and/or the Executive Director, and ensured additional action items were recorded and executed.

In the weeks leading up to the conference, Beth developed “Know Before You Go” communications for the booth setup and breakdown teams; onsite booth managers and RIDC staff; RIDC board; volunteers and served as primary contact for all, distributing run of shows and conducting pre-event meetings as needed.

Beth served in a remote (on-call) day-of event management capacity for the duration of the event, ensuring that RIDC’s team was supported with booth setup, shipping and receiving, and vendor management and that the event and experiential elements came to life as envisioned.

The following are results as shared by the Client:

Tangible Results:

• Increased efficiency: brought in a dialed in system (meetings & organizational skillset) and tools (Airtable & Loom videos) that took a week of events and project work leading up to it and made it manageable and successfully executed.

• Budget adherence: We are a small nonprofit and our dollars have to extend far. Beth’s work gave us coherent designs and creative ideas on how to enhance our events and booth buildout on a budget 

• Enhanced experience: This was a uniquely difficult project because we were behind in some elements of our timeline (printing, merchandise ordering, etc.) and also had the difficult task of bringing you up to speed on a lot of moving parts in a short amount of time before a key member of the team went on maternity leave. You improved our communication and led us to the finish line. You also built out all the tools we would need to be successful and they were done in such a way that it felt accessible to our team to pull off the events. 

Testimonial

“The RIDC made a crucial choice in partnering with Beth Lawrence as our project manager. Her expertise and organizational skills were evident from the very start. She meticulously coordinated every aspect of our project, ensuring that all deadlines were met and every detail was thoughtfully considered. Beth's proactive approach and problem-solving abilities kept everything on track, while her clear communication made the entire process smooth and efficient. Our nonprofit organization required not only a skilled project and event manager but also someone who could partner thoughtfully with us in our mission. Beth's contributions significantly enhanced the impact of our work.” - Betsy Rathwell, Membership & Strategy Manager, RIDC