Neon Splash Dash – Houston 23 March 2013
Nothing but a big scam. Terribly disorganized from start to finish. To start, have a single packet pick up for the 4th largest city in the country in one of the most traffic congested and parking sparse areas. From there you go into the Sports Authority store only to wait in line for 2 hours do to the lack of people the Neon Splash Dash (NSD) people have passing out packets (t-shirts-number patch and light stick). NSD blames the volunteers. However, a well managed organization that does this across the country would know that you need to book 2 -3 time the amount of volunteers needed as you can’t count on volunteers to show up like paid personnel. Then the Sports Authority vulchers come out. Sales guys going through the line pushing their “Rewards Card” program and others on the PA system hawking their goods and offering discounts on goods. Nice to have a captive audience!
Take a moment and go to the NSD Facebook page. You’ll see all the comments / posts on what a great time was had by all and what “fun we all had”. That’s because the NSD organization has IT people that police the Facebook page. While I was in line at Sports Authority waiting for my packet I was perusing the Facebook page. There were dozens and dozens of negative posts referencing everything from only one pick up location, the poor choice of location, parking issues, wait times etc….. I also added a comment mentioning my take on the whole pick up experience. By the time I got back home all of the negative threads had been deleted! Based on the observation of the terrible mismanagement of the packet pick up my wife, daughter and myself decided it would be in our best interest to pass on the actual event. Curious, I went back to the NSD Facebook page to see what others had to say just prior to, during and after the event. Not surprisingly dozens of posts noting the continuing problems from parking, lack of tents for food, water and beer to kids breaking into the water supply and spraying it everywhere before things even got started. Problem after problem, issue after issue. Not really unexpected after seeing how NSD handled things from the start.
Check the Facebook page again this morning and the clearly the NSD IT people are truly managed well and have done their job. Every negative post and thread has been removed and all that remains on the page are comments on how everyone had a wonderful time and how great the NSD team is. They removed more negative comments then the positive ones left.
TIP OF THE DAY – STAY AWAY FROM NEON SPLASH DASH