The event day communication plan people actually follow
MOOV Events · August 26, 2026 · 6 min read
Every event has a communication plan. Most of them are a laminated sheet listing radio channels and phone numbers, written the week before, referenced never. Then something happens at mile 9 and the actual communication plan turns out to be whoever shouts loudest on channel one.
The plans that survive contact with event day share three properties: they route by situation rather than by hierarchy, they name people rather than roles, and they fit on one screen.
Route by situation, not by hierarchy
The instinct is to draw an org chart: marshals report to sector leads, sector leads to the course director, the course director to you. That chart describes accountability. It does not describe what should happen when a runner goes down, because in that moment the marshal does not need their sector lead — they need medical, and medical needs a location.
A working plan is a short list of situations, each with a route: runner down → medical channel plus command, direct. Course breach → nearest marshals plus police liaison. Water out → logistics, no need to interrupt command. Lost child → everything stops and everyone hears it. Five or six situations cover ninety percent of a race day. Write the route for each, and the org chart can stay in the drawer.
Name people, not roles
"Contact the medical coordinator" fails at 6:40am when nobody remembers who that is today, because the person who held the role last year moved away. Names and numbers, checked the week of the event, printed and pinned in the command tent. If a role matters enough to be in the plan, it matters enough to name.
This is also the quiet argument for keeping the roster current somewhere shared: the plan is only as good as the day-of names in it.
One screen, or it doesn't exist
A twelve-page communication plan is a document. A one-screen communication plan is a tool. If your situations-and-routes list doesn't fit on a phone screen, it will not be consulted while someone is kneeling on asphalt next to a cramping runner.
Cut until it fits. The detail you cut isn't lost — it lives in the briefing you run the day before, where there's time for it. Race morning gets the one-screen version.
The test
Here's the test any comms plan should pass before the gun: pick a volunteer at random and ask them two questions. Who do you call when a runner goes down in front of you? Who do you call when you're not sure it's an emergency? If they can answer both without looking anything up, the plan works. If they hesitate, the plan is a binder.
Radios, group texts, an ops platform — the channel matters less than the routing. Get the routes right on paper first, and whatever tool carries them gets better.
From the people building MOOV
Operator notes like this, occasionally.
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