See your event through
the eyes of a first-time
participant.

An independent review of your participant experience before event day. Delivered within 5 working days.

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The gap no-one talks about

Most organisers know their event inside out.

Their participants don't.

You've reviewed the joining instructions countless times. Updated the FAQs. Answered questions during planning. By event week, everything makes sense.

To you.

But your participants are seeing it for the first time. They're reading emails between meetings. Checking instructions on their phone. Trying to work out whether they've done everything they need to do before event day.

When you've been close to an event for months, it's difficult to see it from the perspective of someone arriving with no context. Your brain fills in the gaps because you already know how everything works.

Your participants don't. That's often where participant questions, support emails and event-day confusion begin.

What people don't say

The questions people rarely ask out loud

Most participants won't tell you when they're unsure. Some will send an email. Most won't. They'll make an assumption, ask a friend, search social media or simply carry on.

Two weeks before
"Have I actually completed everything I need to do?"
The week before
"Am I supposed to bring anything with me?"
The day before
"I know where the venue is, but where do I actually go when I get there?"
The day before
"The instructions mention Car Park B, but I can't find it on the map."
On the morning of the event
"Am I in the right place?"

None of these questions are dramatic. They're small moments of hesitation. The kind that are easy to overlook when you're organising an event, but obvious once you start seeing it through the eyes of someone attending for the first time.

That's where I come in. I review your event from the perspective of a first-time participant. Looking for the places where people might hesitate, become confused, make assumptions or need clarification. The things that feel obvious from the inside but look very different from the outside.

What's included

Pre-Event
Experience Review

An independent review of your participant experience before event day. Delivered within 5 working days.

1

What I review

  • Registration and booking journey
  • Confirmation emails
  • Joining instructions
  • Event website and landing pages
  • FAQs and event information
  • Participant communications
2

What you'll receive

  • What's working well
  • Areas where participants may become confused or uncertain
  • Things that are easy to miss
  • Practical recommendations you can implement immediately

A concise, plain-English report. Not a 60 page slide-deck. No workshops. No discovery phase. No lengthy consultancy process. Just an independent assessment of how your event feels from the participant's perspective.

Pre-Event Experience Review
Pennine Classic Sportive
Nicola Harrington
Pre-event review
This review covers the participant experience from first contact through to the day itself. It reflects the perspective of someone entering for the first time with no prior knowledge of the route, the venue, or the organiser.
What's working well
  • The entry process is clear and the confirmation email arrives immediately with the key details easy to find.
  • The route page is well laid out. Elevation profile, distance options and GPX download are all in one place.
  • The kit list is practical and specific. It answers the questions most first-timers will have before they ask them.
Things worth looking at
  • The joining instructions explain where to park, but not where to go after that. A first-time rider arriving at 6.45am won't know whether to head to registration, the start pen, or somewhere else entirely.
  • There's no mention of the feed station arrangements until the day itself. Whether cash is needed, what's available and where stops are located are all things participants will be searching for in advance.
  • The cut-off times appear only in the full route notes PDF. For riders who might be close to the limit, this feels like information that should be easier to find before they commit to entering.
Simple, transparent pricing

What it costs

Most reviews are carried out four to six weeks before an event, while there's still time to make changes.

Up to 1,000
participants
£950

Fixed fee. Review delivered within 5 working days.

1,000 to 5,000
participants
£1,750

Fixed fee. Review delivered within 5 working days.

5,000+
participants
from £2,500

Price varies by scope. Get in touch to discuss.

Common questions

You might still be thinking...

I know my event inside out. +
That's exactly why an outside perspective can help. When you're close to an event, your brain naturally fills in the gaps because you already know how everything works. A first-time participant doesn't.
My feedback scores are already pretty good. +
Feedback scores tell you how people felt at the end of the day. They don't tell you about the person who joined the wrong queue, couldn't find the right entrance or spent ten minutes wondering whether they'd missed an important email. The aim isn't to improve a score. It's to identify the friction that often goes unreported.
I don't have time for a big consultancy project. +
Neither do I. You send me what a participant would see. I review it. You receive a report within five working days.
Nicola Harrington
About
Hi, I'm Nicola.
Twenty years in events

I've spent more than twenty years working in projects, events and operational environments where small details matter. That includes public participation events like the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge with more than 13,000 participants, healthcare conferences, national exercises and technology projects.

"How does this actually feel for the person experiencing it?"

That's the question I've found myself asking throughout that time. It's the perspective I bring to every review.

I'm interested in the moments where people pause, hesitate or become uncertain. The places where information doesn't quite land the way it was intended. The gaps that are invisible from the inside.

Being neurodivergent probably plays a part. I've spent years noticing patterns, inconsistencies and small points of friction that other people often overlook.

When I'm not doing this you'll usually find me running, standing in a muddy field at a cyclocross race, or somewhere else involving bikes, so I know the participant side of this pretty well too.

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If you need more

If you need more than the review.

Event Day Observation
From £1,500

I come to the event and observe the participant experience as it actually unfolds — arrival, wayfinding, registration, volunteer interactions, information flow. A short report follows.

Participant Experience Audit
From £2,500

An end-to-end assessment of the complete participant journey — before, during and after. Best for flagship events or events going through significant growth or change.

Stonehenge Summer Solstice

13,000+ participants.
Every detail matters.

Ready when you are

Ready for a second set of eyes?

Send me a short note about your event and I'll let you know whether a review makes sense and when I could fit it in. Within five working days you'll have a clearer picture of how your event feels for the people attending it.

Get in touch