Creating & Editing Events

Platform: 🖥️📱 Desktop and mobile

See also: Classes, courses, and maps, Registrations

Starting a new event

Click the + button on the event list page. Choose the event structure:

  • Single-stage event — A single competition or training.
  • Multi-stage event — Multiple stages (e.g. 3-day events), each with their own courses and results but shared classes and registration.

Tip: Most training events and single-day competitions are single-stage. A multi-stage event should be created from the start if you need multiple stages.

Defining event details

Event details

  • Event series — Attach the event to a series (e.g. a weekly training series). You can create a new series directly from the dropdown — see Organizing events into a series.
  • Event name — Shown on the registration form, start lists, and results.
  • Event starts / Event ends — The event's start and end date and time.
  • Time zone — The event's time zone. Search from the dropdown.
  • Event type — Determines pricing and classification:
    • Training (free) — Free training event
    • Competition — Competition event
    • Fitness / paid training — Fitness or paid training event
  • Sport — Orienteering, Running, Multisport, Skiing, or Triathlon. Affects available features — orienteering events have control-by-control timing, running events have checkpoints.
  • Classification — Private, Local, Regional, National, International, or Virtual.
  • Competition format:
    • Individual — Each participant competes alone
    • Relay — Teams compete across multiple legs
  • Simplified event mode — Classes and courses are managed as a single unit. Available for non-competition individual events. Suitable for informal training where everyone runs the same course.

Tip: Event type, sport, and competition format affect what you see in other parts of the system. For example, "Relay" opens leg definitions and the sport selection determines timing features on mobile. Set these correctly from the start.

Setting the event location

On the right side of the form you can place the event on a map:

  • Click the map to place a marker — the address is filled in automatically.
  • You can also type the address manually in the Address field.

The location is shown on the registration page.

Organizing events into a series

Creating a new event series:

  1. Click the Event series dropdown on the event form
  2. Select New event series
  3. Enter the Event series name
  4. Click Create event series

Events belonging to a series are shown grouped for participants.

Choosing between individual and relay

Competition format fundamentally changes how the event is defined and how timing works. Choose carefully before defining classes and courses.

  • Individual — Participants have their own start times and individual results. The most common setting.
  • Relay — Teams compete on legs. You can define the number of legs per class and assign courses to each leg. Simplified event mode is not available for relays.

More information: Relay legs and sub-legs.

Tip: Once you've added participants and started timing, changing the competition format requires significant reconfiguration. Decide the format before defining classes.

Setting up a multi-stage event

A multi-stage event is a top-level event containing multiple stages. Each stage has its own courses, results, and timing, but classes and registration settings are shared at the top level.

Creating stages

When you select Multi-stage event, the event form includes a Stages section.

Click Add stage to create a new stage. Each stage has its own name and dates. Stages inherit the top-level event's time zone, event type, sport, and classification.

Managing classes across stages

Classes defined at the top level are shared across all stages. When editing a stage, each class can be linked to a top-level class. Linking:

  • Keeps class ordering consistent across stages
  • Enables combined results calculation across all stages

Note: To change class ordering in a multi-stage event, reorder classes in the top-level event. Stage classes inherit the ordering automatically.

Calculating combined results

Enable the Combined results option in the top-level event. Combined competition results aggregate times from each stage for each participant using the top-level class linking.

Courses in multi-stage events

Unlike classes, courses are stage-specific — physical routes typically differ between stages. Define courses separately for each stage.

Configuring registration and start lists

The event editing view has a Registration and start lists section. See Registrations and start lists for the full participant management workflow.

Choosing registration form fields

Define which fields are visible and required on the online registration form. For each field you can choose:

  • Show on form — Whether the field appears on the registration form
  • Required field — Whether the field is mandatory

Available fields: email, phone number, club, class, course, chip number, birth year, license number, IOF ID, nationality, gender, additional info, and rental chip.

Tip: Only require fields you actually need. For training, name and class are often enough; for a national competition you'll need club, license number, and chip number.

Setting registration and publication dates

  • Registration opens — Date when online registration opens.
  • Registration closes — Date when online registration closes. After this you can still add participants manually.
  • Start lists published — Date when start lists become visible. Set to the time when you've finalized the start list.
  • Maximum number of participants — Registration closes automatically when the limit is reached. Leave empty for unlimited registration.
  • Smallest auto-generated bib number — The smallest bib number assigned automatically upon registration (e.g. 101).
  • Largest auto-generated bib number — The largest automatically assigned bib number. Prevents bib numbers from exceeding the physically available range.

Sharing and previewing the registration form

  • Copy registration form link — Copies the public registration form URL to the clipboard.
  • Show registration form — Opens a preview of the form as participants will see it.

Managing participants and start lists

Participant management, start time drawing, and start list editing are done in the participant data view. See Registrations and start lists.

Saving changes

Click Save to save changes. The save button appears when there are unsaved changes. Changes are synced to the server immediately.

In practice: Creating a weekend orienteering competition

You're setting up a local sprint competition for Saturday:

  1. Click + and select Single-stage event
  2. Enter the name ("Autumn Sprint"), set the date and time
  3. Select time zone, type Competition, sport Orienteering, classification Local
  4. Keep competition format Individual
  5. Click the map to set the event venue
  6. Optionally attach to an event series
  7. Registration and start lists: show class, club, and chip number fields, make class required
  8. Set registration opening and closing dates and start list publication date
  9. Set bib number range (e.g. 1–200)
  10. Click Save

Next: Classes, courses, and maps — define classes and assign courses. Share the registration link and monitor registrations in the participant data view.