Author Archives: Etienne Richard

Zone4 was founded in 2001 by Canadian Olympic cross country skier Dan Roycroft while he was still an athlete. At the time, Dan could see that there was an opportunity to improve timing and online registration in order to allow clubs and organizations to better manage their memberships and events. His mission in 2001 was to offer an inexpensive registration and timing solution that would make life easier for club administrators and event organizers.

18 years later, the Zone4 mission hasn’t changed, and in fact, neither have our fees! For close to two decades Zone4 has been creating world class technology and providing best in class customer support for the same low price. Given the demands for higher levels of customer service, increasing exchange rate costs and the desire to continue to be innovators and leaders in the timing and registration space, we can no longer sustain 2001 pricing in 2019.  Moving forward the per-person portion of our processing fee will be increasing by $0.50. Although not a big change, we feel it is enough to allow us to invest in the people and technologies that we need in order to keep offering the best service possible.

Details about our price changes:

• The per person cost on a race registration will go from $1.50 to $2.00.  This includes the per person cost to use the Zone4 timing software.
• The per person cost on any other registration will go from $1 to $1.50. This cost applies to any registration that will not go on to use the Zone4 timing software.

Find our full pricing list from our Website here.

Note that the credit card percentage fee and the per transaction cost will remain unchanged. For example, on a $200 membership registration for 2 people collecting credit card payments using the Zone4 merchant account, processing fees would be calculated as:

$200 x 3% = $6 (Credit Card Merchant Fee)

Per transaction fee = $1 (Credit Card Merchant Fee)

$1.50 Per person fee x 2 = $3 (Zone4 Fee)

Total Processing fee $10 (vs $9 previously)

As always the credit card companies take the vast majority of fees, so the effect of our increase on your registrants is minimal as a percentage of fees.

The new prices will take effect on all new registration forms going live after February 1, 2019. To maintain budget considerations, registration forms that are already live before this date will remain on their existing rate.

Thank you so much for the many years of support. We can’t do it without you, and we look forward to working with you for many years to come.

Stay in touch with us. Register for the Zone4 newsletter to receive updates on the latest feature releases, customer service offerings, educational material, and general news on what we’re up to.

Wishing you all a wonderful rest of the winter ! 

Zone4 Team

X Warrior Challenge Calgary- A first ever for Zone4!

At Zone4, we love challenges and we are always looking for the next level we can achieve in the timing World! A few months ago, we received a phone call from the organiser of what is called the X Warrior Challenge events. Right away, I could get the picture in my mind that we were talking about an obstacle course event!

I was so excited! I had participated in similar events in the past and I knew how exciting and fun they are! Right away, I wanted to make it happened for them and offer them the World leading timing that we offer with our active chip timing, GoChip. I knew our system would work perfectly for them but I also knew of the challenges we would face. The two biggest challenges were handing out the chips and collecting them at the end of the race. We were expecting 1600 racers!  We had to handout all the chips in only a few hours and limited volunteers and collect all of them at the finish line!

I have to say, it was not the most relaxing day! With only 3 computers and volunteers, we were able to deliver more than 1500 chips to all the competitors in only a few hours with dynamic handout! I was so impressed we pulled it off! And at the end of the day, only 2 chips went missing and we were able to find them later in the week!

Overall it was an amazing event with amazing people! At the end of the day, that is what it comes down to! Having fun and delivering industry-best service and quality timing! We will be doing more of this type of obstacle course in the future! Thank you to X Warrior Challenge for giving us the opportunity to give out a great show out there!

To all the X Warriors out there, have a great summer and get ready for the next event coming up in June!

All the best from the Zone4 team!

Wow! What a winter we just had!  We certainly kept ourselves busy, and every single event was memorable. As we get started on the summer season here are some of the stories that made the winter special!

XC Skiing events

For 17 years, Zone4 has been the primary online registration and timing provider for most cross country skiing events in Canada. Once again, it was an amazing winter filled with fantastic races and some great success! We were happy to be on site for most of the Norams in the country but we’re especially excited about the National championships in Thunder Bay who were able to time the entire event themselves with remote support. This made us very proud! Cross-Country skiing events are complicated and It proved that we are on the right track with making our products simple to use and eliminate the need for third party timing. We are thankful to be trusted in the country and can’t wait for next season!

Here is a great video we made from our very first event of the season on November 1st 2017 in Canmore.

Frozen Thunder Video

Banked Slalom in Revy and Kicking Horse

That was a first for us this winter. Both Revelstoke Mountain Resort and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort reached out to us for timing for their Banked Slalom events. They were both great partnerships and we are excited to do more of these events in the future! Revelstoke was amazing and did all the timing themselves. We were able to send them the gear and give them support over the phone and they had a hugely successful weekend!

Kicking Horse had a very unique course in a bowl at the top of the mountain where there was no cellular service. It was the perfect time for us to get up there and showcase our offline chip timing system while getting to know this sport. We had an amazing time and enjoyed the great atmosphere of the event! On the timing side, it was another hugely successful weekend for us! All the riders were really excited to be able to cross the line and have their times displayed immediately. This made it for a great competition and a lot of fun!  

Watch the Kicking Horse Banked Slalom Video !

CSC Gopher Attack- Boston Marathon Qualifier, timed the race themselve!

This event was a perfect example of our goal at Zone4. The organizer from the CSC Gopher Attack did an amazing work and they made a beautiful story! Being not satisfied of their previous timing company, the CSC Gopher Attack organizers reachout to us and they were intere sted in saving money and timing the event themselves with the Zone4 Timing System and Zone4 remote support. First we sent them a free test kit for them to get used to the equipment prior to the event.

With practice, they were ready and did it all themselves. They were prepared and needed almost no support from us during the race and had an amazing event! It was artic cold temperature in Regina that day with -20 and a strong wind. Congrats to everyone who braved the cold and the runners who were selected for the 2018 Boston Marathon ! Thank you again CSC Gopher Attack!

First ever snowmobile event

 

One of the most rad events we have been a part of. The first ever backcountry snowmobile race ever! We were so proud to be part of it! It was organized by local legend Riley Suhan in the middle of the backcountry outside of Golden BC. The format was a team event with teams of 4. We were calculating each teammates lap and also an uphill section. There were awards for the fastest hill climb, fastest lap, and fastest team overall time! Once again, we were completely out of service in the middle of the backcountry. Our GoChip system with the offline server worked perfectly! We were able to rapidly set up the timing points and the chips did the rest of the work! We were able to enjoy the  BBQ and joke with the announcer known as mister poz while timing the race! Can’t wait for next season event! 

Watch the Riley Suhan Invitational Video !