Babs Rijke - 4Daagse
Customer story
Reading time: 3 minutes
The largest walking event in the world
The Nijmegen 4Daagse is the largest multi-day walking event in the world. Babs Rijke is the senior communication advisor and spokesperson at Stichting DE 4DAAGSE. She explains what makes the event so special: it is not just about the walk itself, but about all the energy and enthusiasm surrounding it.
"Walkers see a tremendous number of spectators along the route, many enthusiastic people in all those passing municipalities. What I really enjoy are all those enthusiastic walkers who want to participate every year. They are eager to secure a ticket and ultimately hope to cross the finish line after four days and receive that coveted 4Daagse cross."
It is those moments, the tension and dedication, that make De 4Daagse great. With 47,000 tickets per year and participants from more than 80 countries, it is an international phenomenon. But how do you ensure that these sorts of numbers run smoothly? That's where Atleta comes in.
From starting permits to grandstand seats and press accreditations
Babs talks about the role that Atleta plays: "Atleta manages our ticketing system. We offer 47,000 tickets annually. These also represent more than 80 nationalities, so it goes worldwide. Additionally, we have a procession with grandstand seats, which Atleta also manages. And our press accreditations."
So not only tickets but also grandstand seats and accreditations all go through Atleta. The moment the registration opens is where it gets challenging. Babs describes what happens then:
"The moment the registration opens, tens of thousands of people immediately go online. That does put quite a lot of pressure on the registration system."
This is quite a challenge. How do you ensure that the system can handle it? Babs: "For this, we have developed a queuing system together with Atleta. The moment the registration is open, people join that queue. Then it's a matter of keeping your fingers crossed to get a ticket."
Not everything is the same
The 4Daagse event also includes various types of participants. Babs provides an example: "The 4Daagse has different types of participants who need to be able to register. These are, of course, individual participants, but they can also be larger groups, such as military detachments who sometimes need to register hundreds at a time."
This requires flexibility from a system. You cannot simply use the same approach for someone coming alone as you would for a group of 200 soldiers. Atleta took on this challenge and sought suitable solutions that work for both individual participants and larger groups.
More than just tickets
After several successful years of collaboration, Babs sees that Atleta is more than just a ticket platform. "We are very satisfied with how the registration is set up and it has certainly contributed to our further digitalisation."
But it goes further than just the registration. "We have also been able to link Atleta to our external parties such as the scanners, the webshop, and the app."
It is those integrations that complete the picture. Everything works together instead of hopping from platform to platform. Babs concludes with:"The collaboration with Atleta suits us very well. From the beginning, we have worked very intensively together. It is a party with which it is very pleasant to coordinate and on which we can certainly rely."
