Post Mortem

Vision

I'd like to grow the event to having 1000+ people, being known as one of the best swims on the calendar, and for being a major revenue raiser for the club in terms of sponsorship and entries. Get buy in - other thoughts.

Where we are

What we did well

Marketing and Entries

We got about 33% more entries than expected, and, had we had late entries, that number would have been more like 50%.

Teams starting in same wave

Lots of good feedback on this

Thinking on feet with cancellation

• Guys putting out bags
• Nipper parents starting BBQ (for free - good)

Attendance

As far as I could tell, everyone showed up and was ready to do their job, there were no major failures and disasters waiting in the wings had we run the event.

What we did badly

Contingency Planning for Cancellation

• Getting BBQ going sooner
• Putting out prize packs
• SMS notifications to preregistered swimmers
• Updating the web site
• Internet access at club
• Fallback date?

Throttling Entries

The system did not allow for throttling of entries into particular waves, or excluding some waves from entering. This can be resolved through the use of a confirmation screen for late entries.

Dealing with Lifeguards

The event was canceled by a lifeguard who, it appears, wasn't even on patrol that day. I should have known or found out, who was on patrol and who had authority to cancel the event and under what conditions.

Outcomes

Financial

This is only rough

Income

From	Amount
Entries	12000
Servcorp	5000
Total	17000

Expenses

To	Amount
Oceanswims.com	2000
Trophy	600
Speakers	300
Printing - flyers	500
BBQ Food	300
Caps North Bondi	250
Caps VICI	150
Stationary and Stuff	300
Alcohol	400
Waverly Council and Lifeguards	800
Total	5600

Any other expenses? IRBs?

This ignores labour.

Stakeholders

Swimmers

400 preregistered entries, most didn't get a swim. I've had quite a few emails asking what our future plans are for the event. The status quo is to not refund the money (which we're not in a position to do anyway) or give anything back, however that does not unnecessarily sit well with swimmers.

Some swimmers have pointed out that, given the higher than average probability of cancellation at Tama, we should have penciled in a fallback date. There is a perceived debt here.

Club Members

Feedback has been positive, however numbers are down at TOSS and club functions. Not sure if it's related.

Sponsors

Servcorp has indicated they'd be happy to put in money again for our next event.

We've had some hiccups with VICI, but hopefully they'll be back on board.

Our other sponsors are fairly minor but have had (or will have) their prizes returned where possible.

Other Clubs and swims

Relations with other clubs do not appear to have been damaged by this event. It has been mentioned that other swims do not want the status quo of no free entries next year disrupted.

Council

Waverley Council appears to be supporting us and have asked for a new submission. They appear confident that, provided the safety plan is up to scratch, that they'll approve anything we put in front of them.

Lifeguards

I've written a letter to council complaining about the behaviour of Corey Oliver on the day of the race. They appear to be taking it quite seriously. Suspect that Corey hasn't made too many friends as the other lifeguards have been very happy to drop him in it.

Next Steps

With the vision in mind (review if required), we need to look at the following three things

• Date
• Start and finish venue
• Dealing with preregistered entries for our last event

Swims and Numbers

Swim	Date	Numbers
Cockatoo Island	17/11	200
Wedding Cake Island	25/11	850
Bondi 2 Bronte	2/12	1500
Bilgola	9/12	500
Long Reef	16/12	261
Avoca	16/12	100
North Bondi	6/1	475
Avalon	13/01	700
Mona Vale	20/01	475
Big Swim	27/1	1450
Cole Classic	3/2	1750-ish
North Bondi	10/02	675
Sydney Harbour	02/03	440
Balmoral	16/03	550
Shark Island	16/03	650
Stanwell Park	30/03	300
North Steyne	30/03	200
Tamarama	13/04	400

Note

• Early season and early summer swims are the most popular.
• There is one very popular swim per month all through summer, the rest, not so much.
• With the exception of the Cole Classic, journey swims (or swims around an island) are most popular

Date

Late Season

Pros

• Doesn't clash with existing events
• Water is still warm
• Low chance of bluebottles
• No other swims in Sydney in this period
• Proven to get the numbers
• Usually smaller swell
• Have a couple of intakes of bronze medallion holders to boost numbers over summer
• Swimmers are generally fitter at the end of the season

Cons

• Traditionally lower numbers of entries late season (swim-weariness)
• Harder to motivate club members (patrol-weariness)
• Targets the same market (potentially) of swimmers, which is a consideration if we are giving free or discounted entries

Keep Existing Date

Pros

• Proven to work

Cons

• Clashes with BRW

Move to another Date

Pros

• Doesn't clash with BRW

Cons

• May clash with another swim (although most are regional this time of year)
• Lots of long weekends, which aren't practical to run a swim on

Winter

Pros

• Calendar is free
• Water is cleaner

Cons

• Risk, untrialed
• Cold
• Outside patrol season
• Winter gives big swells from the south

Mitigations

• Serious wetsuit divisions

Early Season

Pros

• Convenient high tide at 11:30 on Nov 2
• First swim of the season
• No bluebottles
• Early season swims get larger numbers
• Warmer than winter (19 - 20 degrees in November)
• Club members are more keen early season
• Easier to prepare over winter (less going on)
• Gets it out of the way
• Can be presented as a rerun of April's event

Cons

• Cold
• Club suffers from winter attrition of members
• Swimmers and club members are less fit at the end of winter

Mitigations

• Serious wetsuit divisions

Mid Summer

Pros

• Warm water
• Summer swims are very popular

Cons

• Bluebottles
• High potential for clashes
• Lots of public holidays and long weekends

Mitigation

• Clashing is not unnecessarily the worst thing in the world

Venue

Obvious Tamarama should be in there somewhere, either as a start or a finish or both.

Tama/Bronte to Tama/Bronte

Same course as this year....with the same problems.

Pros

• All revenue goes to Tamarama
• Can reuse safety and layout plan

Cons

• We had to cancel the course this year, which is tough to market, may struggle to grow numbers or get different (paying) swimmers
• Higher than average risk of cancellation
• Hard to enter Tama and hard to do rescues

Tama/Bronte to North Bondi (SLSC)

North Bondi has two identical swims. Because they have two of the sweetest spots on the calendar they can't let them go even if they wanted to, however they would like to add some diversity, and remove some of the administration overhead, for at least one.

Members of North Bondi have been very helpful to us in organising the past swim.

Pros

• We get a summer date
• Ready-made swimmer-base
• Less work for us
• Will probably boost existing numbers for both swims
• North Bondi is easy to land at and could be used for the entire event in the case of big seas
• North Bondi club can accommodate a large number of swimmers after the event

Cons

• Not sure how NB will feel about free or discounted entries with our preregistrations (overlap is 137 swimmers for North Bondi Classic, and 94 for the Roughwater, so not too much lost revenue)
• Loss of control (we'd probably just be water safety on our side of the headland really)
• Sponsorship distribution would be hard to negotiate
• Loss of revenue for post-event food sales
• North Bondi has an (undeservedly) bad reputation since the Cole Classic split three years ago
• Similar course to the Bondi to Bronte

Tama/Bronte to Bondi (SLSC)

Bondi has wanted to have a swim for ages. They get nothing from the Bondi to Bronte.

Pros

• Bondi is easy to land at and could be used for the entire event in the case of big seas
• Bondi club can accommodate a large number of swimmers after the event
• Partnership between clubs, split of work
• Bondi has a lot of members

Cons

• Split of revenue
• Council has been unsupportive of Bondi getting another event and guard the Bondi water-space jealously (suspect Bondi haven't really tried though)
• Very similar course to the Bondi to Bronte
• Loss of revenue for post-event food sales

Tama/Bronte to Clovelly/Gordon's Bay

Clovelly are interested in having a swim starting at Tama (or Bronte in big seas) and finishing at Clovelly (or Gordon's Bay in big seas). Given that neither club can sensibly host an entire ocean swim a partnership like this could work.

Pros

• Clovelly is easy to land at
• Clovelly has facilities to handle post-event festivities
• Clovelly has ample parking
• Gordons bay is accessible in almost any conditions
• One of the best and least accessible swims in Sydney

Cons

• No surf break to finish the race (boo hoo!)
• Have to deal with two councils
• Probably have to put on buses to transport swimmers to Tama and gear/spectators back to Clovelly
• Have to keep skill-based grading to ensure that swimmers can leave Tama and enter the heads at Clovelly without having a crush of 100 people doing it at once
• Water safety becomes very IRB intensive as there is nowhere to land between Bronte and Clovelly (and IRBs wouldn't easily be able to enter Clovelly during the race)
• Loss of revenue for post-race festivities
• The heads can be dangerous

Any of the Above, Finishing at Tama?

Pros

• Revenue from post-race festivities
• Exposure for club

Cons

• Small club house
• No parking
• Dangerous break to enter
• Hard to do water safety
• Deep water starts aren't an option

What to do with Preregistrations

Free entry next time

If we do this we need to make the swim apeal to a different set of swimmers so we can get their cash, hence the focus on changing the course and changing the date. In theory, we'll get everyone who pre-registered plus a new set of people who were unavailable due to the BRW, or just not having circuit swims appeal to them. Most of our entries this year were from locals.

This may also give the numbers boost (artificial as it will be) to get the swim firmly on the map so we get a similar number of paying entries the year after.

Discounted entry next time

The administration may be difficult to get going on the oceanswims.com side of things.

Take the money and charge full price next time

Ironically if we do this we need to follow a similar strategy as free entries, we need to make the swim appeal to a different set of swimmers or to make preregistered swimmers see that we've changed the course. The reason is different, most people aren't going to pay twice to have their swim canceled on them.

Untapped Markets

Given the focus on rebranding, here are a few markets who were practically unrepresented in our swim

Triathletes

We got none on account of the BRW. Things that appeal to them are

• Serious wetsuit divisions
• Chip timing

Elite Swimmers

We got none on account of swim trials in Brisbane. Things that appeal to them are

• Free entries
• Publicity
• Accurate timing

Novices

We got none on account of the beach's reputation. Things that appeal to them are

• Flippers
• Wetsuits
• Flatwater starts and finishes
• Water safety

Members of Tamarama

They were all doing water safety.