The invitation management feature allows you to manage the inventory of spots you have available for your event. In addition the system offers several values:
Invites are:
unique to each person, therefore, it can not be shared
are date/time sensitive, which deactivates once the invite has expired
streamlined, which allows you to immediately invite the next athlete should an invitee declines before the deadline.
trackable, you can keep track of how many invites have been sent, accepted, declined and expired.
A typical invite process follows the steps below:
There are two paths of invitations you can manage within the Competition Corner.
Path 1 - Direct Invite, inviting an athlete directly to a specific event.
Path 2 - Qualifying Invite, inviting an athlete to a specific event based on performance.
Path 1 - Direct Invite
A direct invite can be initiated under "Planning -> Invitation Management", this allows you to send one-off invites. One example of usage could be a wild card invite to a finals event based on their season performance.
Simply add the person, select their division you'd like to invite them to, set a target date and send away.
Path 2 - Qualifying Invite
A qualifying invite requires you run a virtual event to determine an athlete's rank. Based on their performance, you can then determine who of the Top X athletes can be invited to a championship event.
This path requires you to connect a virtual event to an onsite event. Taking this path will also allow you to carry over the athlete's qualifier ranks for proper seeding leading into Day 1 of competition.
First, you must have an onsite event to connect to:
Create your onsite event, i.e your finals or championship event.
Configure the event, setup the event details, divisions, pricing and registration settings.
When creating your divisions, set the capacity, make sure to set them to ‘Private’ to prevent the public from signing up for your event, and assign a password to the division. (We recommend making each division a different password)
Go live with your event by changing the status of your event to 'Published'.
Connecting your online event to your onsite event
Head over to your originating event (i.e. your qualifier event)
Navigate to Planning > Invitation Management
Connect your destination event (i.e. your finals event) to your originating event
Map your online event divisions to your onsite event division (this will determine the invitation path of your athlete)
Pro Tip: If the divisions are named the same in both events, the system will auto-match them
Sending Invitations
Once you are done mapping the divisions, click into each division and begin the invite process.
Athletes will be sorted based on their rank within that division. Simply select one or more athletes and click ‘Invite’, set a deadline date/time, and ‘Send’
Repeat that process for each division
Pro Tip: If you have any ties on the edge of your cut off, make sure you establish a tiebreaker to invite the correct person.
What’s Next?
Each athlete receives a personalized invitation. They can either ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’.
Only the invited athlete can respond, as the invitation is tied directly to their account.
As decisions flow in, you can monitor flow on the invitation dashboard.
If anyone declines ahead of the deadline, that will immediately open up a spot for you to invite the next person in line.
FAQ
Do I need to share an invitation password to the athlete?
No, if you are sending them an invitation, a password is not needed. The invitation link they receive will be tied to their account and bypass the invitation password.
Where do the invites go?
Invitations are sent to the email address provided by the athlete during registration. If you are inviting a team, the invitation is sent to the Team Captain.
What do the athletes receive?
Athletes will receive a unique invitation with 2 links: Accept or Decline. If they accept, they will proceed to confirming their registration to your onsite event. If they decline, they will forfeit their spot and open up another spot for you to invite the next person in line.
What if the athlete did not receive their invitation?
If the athlete states they did not receive the invitation, you can re-send the invitation or direct them to log into their Competition Corner account and respond to the invitation from their dashboard.
How can I backfill spots that were declined?
As soon as an athlete declines their invitation, that frees up an invite for you to immediately invite the next person in line.
What's so special about these links?
Each invitation link is unique to each athlete which means they can not shared. So there's no need to share a general invite code to qualifying athletes.
How do I invite a wildcard athlete?
Yes, from within your destination event, go to Planning -> Invitation Management. From there you can send a direct invite or simply share the invitation password to your event.
How do I split an online qualifier division into multiple finals division?
When you process your division mapping, you can duplicate the same online qualifier division and point that to a different onsite division.
For example, you have an "Open" division from your qualifier but will invite athlete's ranked from 1st - 20th to an Elite division and 21st to 40th in the Rx division.