Bieg Firmowy- virtual edition for almost 500 companies from all over Poland
Company:
Bieg Firmowy
Description:
A virtual edition of a charity running relay for employees of companies across Poland.
2020 edition
Virtual edition in Activy appScope
Nationwide
Goal
Sport, integration and helping.
10 700
participants
1732
teams
452
companies
55 249
kilometers
285 321
pln for charity
24
hours
Summary
When all mass events were canceled, we knew we couldn't let the Everest Foundation's protégés down and provide a solution that thousands of employees from all over Poland would be happy with. That's why organizing the Bieg Firmowy together with the Activy app was a hit. Participants did not have to gather in one place, and thanks to the systems supporting the reliability of the routes, we were sure that the results would be reliable. On Saturday, May 22, 1,732 teams from 452 companies competed in the virtual relay. Each of the more than 10,000 competitors covered a 5 km route.
Challenge purpose
Bieg Firmowy has been held regularly since 2013. The idea is to spread activity among company employees and help those most in need. This year, due to the pandemic and the ban on mass events, we again decided to organize a virtual event. Thanks to the cooperation with Activy, we were sure that the routes would be verified and at the end we would be able to present the real results. Thanks to the possibility of generating up-to-date rankings and comparing teams, participants were able to observe the actions of their colleagues and other teams in real time.
Before the start
Collaborating on the organization of the run for nearly 10,000 employees from 450 companies across Poland was no small challenge. Communication and proper education of the players were key. With virtual competitions, technology can always stand in the way, especially if we are talking about applications using GPS. We can't provide every participant with the same phone or watch to make sure the distance is counted the same. Terrain, cloud cover, equipment and many other factors affect the accuracy of the recording. That's why we held several weeks of training before the official start, during which participants could test the app, adjust their phone settings or connect their sports watch to Activy, choose a suitable route for themselves, so that they would be ready for May 22.
Each company that submitted a team received a unique entry code to the app, so we were sure that the right people were on the teams. Some companies submitted more than a dozen teams each: 3M (95 teams); Credit Suisse (51 teams); Kaufland (46 teams); KRUK (36 teams); Credit Agricole Bank Poland (28 teams); ZF (27 teams); European Leasing Fund (27 teams); Ofix Lewandowski (25 teams); UBS Business Solutions (21 teams); Capgemini Poland (21 teams); Publicon (20 teams); HPE Global Business Center (20 teams).
"This year's edition of the Bieg Firmowy proved to be an extraordinary challenge for us. We are very pleased that this year we were able to break the record number of participants of more than 10,000 runners from several hundred companies. The fact that so many employees got involved in the virtual form of the run shows that employees have big hearts and are ready to help regardless of the circumstances."
Organizer
Bieg Firmowy
During the challenge
Bieg Firmowy was held on May 22, the registered participants had 24 hours to cover the 5 kilometer distance. The team's score was conditional on the start of all its members. To ensure the integrity of the recorded routes, we introduced several safeguards. If a participant used a pause during the run, e.g. ran 1 km, stopped, then ran another, the route was not recorded. Knowing that sometimes it takes a while to start the app, hide it, then pull it out and turn it off, we introduced an algorithm that calculated the fastest 5 kilometers. If a participant ran 5.2 kilometers because in the last meters he looked for his phone to turn it off, only his best 5km time was taken into account in the ranking. Knowing that technology can sometimes fail Activy's support was open all weekend and solved any technical problems of participants. In addition, employees received push notifications every hour with information on the current results or a reminder to take off. The organizers of the Run provided information packets that could be picked up real or virtually, a virtual warm-up was available before the start, and at the end each participant received a medal that was sent to the company in advance.
Results
The results exceeded our expectations, with a total of more than 10,000 employees from 450 companies taking part. Together we ran 285,321 PLN for the charges of the Everest Foundation. In the category of women's teams, the first place was won by the Credit Agricole Girls On The Run team with a time of 2:00:04, and among the men's teams the team Multi-trade and Design Company "PAWIKAR" with a time of 1:25:50. Despite the virtual formula of the competition, the participants were still determined, focused on both fun and fierce competition.
