Chris Robb: How Cities Can Help the Mass Participation Industry

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, mass participation races were some of the first to shut down. And when events started to return, they were some of the last to come back by nature of their key element: bringing large amounts of people together to experience a similar event. But mass participation events — running races, triathlons, cycling tours, obstacle races, to name a few — remain some of the biggest potential economic drivers for cities. Perhaps more importantly, they remain tremendous ways to improve the quality of life of residents in a city or for participants who travel to compete.

For years, Chris Robb has been following trends in the space. Robb is the founder of Mass Participation World, which includes an annual business conference in the space, and is a leading advocate for the industry. During the pandemic, he leaned into his specialty of trying to unite a disparate industry, launching podcasts and webinars to help organizers get back on their feet and supporting research to show the potential impact these kinds of sporting events can have on communities no matter where in the world they are located.

In this conversation, SportsTravel Executive Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz sits down with Robb to discuss why mass participation races are struggling to get back on track, the root causes for what has been a slow return, the “mass participation ripple effect” and what role destinations can and should be playing to help the industry recover to its fullest.