HOW SMALL EVENTS CAN BUILD RESILIENCE TO CRISES

When crisis struck, small-scale sport event organisers didn’t wait for rescue—they reinvented the rules of resilience.

Dr Zoe Barrett (Bournemouth University, UK)

Dr Richard Shipway (Bournemouth University, UK)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • Small-scale sport event organisers were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, yet responded with remarkable agility, creativity, and community focus—despite limited formal support.

  • Financial survival depended less on digital innovation and more on pragmatic cost-cutting, lean operations, and strategic supplier renegotiation.

  • Rebuilding participant trust was essential, requiring transparent communication, flexible engagement, and new community-building efforts to combat declining loyalty and late registrations.

  • Entrepreneurial behaviours—including rapid decision-making, localised solutions, and values-driven redesign—enabled organisations to pivot and adapt more effectively than larger, bureaucratic event producers.

  • A five-pillar framework—spanning financial management, customer engagement, entrepreneurial agility, leveraging smallness, and purpose-driven recalibration—offers a practical roadmap for future crisis resilience.

INTRODUCTION

What happens when the very business model of your organisation evaporates overnight—and no one notices? As the world focused on the dramatic shutdown of mega-events like Wimbledon and the Olympic Games, a quieter crisis was unfolding in towns and cities across the UK. Small-scale sport event organisers—who facilitate mass participation in triathlons, fun runs, and cycling events—found their calendars wiped clean, revenue slashed by over 90%, and customer trust in free fall. Yet, unlike their higher-profile counterparts, these organisations were left to navigate the fallout alone, often without the safety nets of government support or institutional backup.

In a sector celebrated for its grassroots impact and community engagement, the pandemic didn’t just expose operational vulnerabilities—it tested the entrepreneurial spirit and adaptive capacity of local event managers like never before. Faced with unprecedented disruption, they didn’t fold. They pivoted. They innovated. They hustled to survive. This story is about what they did, how they did it, and what larger organisations can learn from their resilience in the face of systemic failure.

“Faced with unprecedented disruption, they didn’t fold. They pivoted. They innovated. They hustled to survive.”

THE PROBLEM AND/OR OPPORTUNITY

Despite their essential role in promoting health, wellbeing, and local economic activity, small-scale sport event organisations have historically been overlooked in crisis planning and policy frameworks. When COVID-19 struck, these organisations—typically lean, community-driven, and reliant on seasonal income—were disproportionately affected. With events cancelled or postponed indefinitely, they experienced not only immediate financial collapse but also longer-term reputational damage as participant confidence eroded (Shipway & Miles, 2020). What became clear was that existing models of crisis management, geared towards large-scale or commercially-backed events, were ill-suited to the realities of small-scale operators.

Yet this crisis also offered an unexpected opportunity. Stripped of business-as-usual routines and faced with existential threats, organisers began experimenting with new formats, digital tools, pricing models, and sustainability measures. In doing so, they revealed an often-overlooked strength: the agility to adapt quickly, reimagine their value proposition, and redefine resilience on their own terms. Understanding their strategies provides a rare glimpse into how crisis can be leveraged not only to survive but to reinvent (Boden & Shipway, 2023).

WHY DOES THIS MATTER NOW?

The global events industry is facing an era of profound uncertainty. Climate disruption, economic volatility, political instability, and public health threats are no longer rare or exceptional—they are the new normal (Shipway, 2024). In this context, the ability of event organisers to withstand and respond to crises has become a strategic imperative. While much attention remains focused on how major events recover, the future of community sport events—where participation, accessibility, and social impact intersect—hangs in the balance.

Small-scale sport event organisations are critical incubators of physical activity, local tourism, volunteer engagement, and social capital. Yet they continue to operate without tailored support mechanisms or resilient infrastructure. If these organisations fail to adapt, we risk losing a vital tier of the events ecosystem that directly contributes to public health and community wellbeing (Mosey et al, 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic was not a one-off disruption—it was a stress test. How these organisations responded offers urgent lessons not just for their own survival, but for the entire industry’s preparedness in the face of future systemic shocks.

HOW DOES THIS ADD TO WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW?

Crisis and resilience studies in sport event management have long focused on large-scale or mega-events, often overlooking the distinct challenges and capacities of small-scale organisers (Shipway et al, 2021). While existing literature documents top-down planning models and formalised recovery strategies, this study challenges the assumption that resilience stems solely from institutional preparedness.

Instead, it highlights how agility, improvisation, and entrepreneurial mindset—often undervalued in formal frameworks—can become powerful drivers of adaptive capacity. By spotlighting small-scale responses, this work repositions crisis management as a dynamic, grassroots process rather than a purely strategic or bureaucratic function.

“The COVID-19 pandemic was not a one-off disruption—it was a stress test”

WHAT IDEAS DRIVE THIS ARTICLE?

Theoretically, the study is anchored in resilience and crisis management literature. It engages with both linear (Fink, 1986) and dynamic (Mitroff, 1994; Jacques, 2007) crisis models, while offering a critical perspective on how such frameworks apply—or fail to apply—in small-scale, resource-constrained settings. Importantly, the analysis positions resilience not as a static attribute but as an evolving, situated practice shaped by context, constraint, and improvisation. This lens enables a grounded understanding of how crisis can catalyse innovation, reframe organisational identity, and generate new practices that endure beyond the crisis moment.

This article draws on empirical insights from a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with eight senior organisers from six small-scale sport event organisations across the South East of England. Conducted in the post-pandemic period, the interviews captured a rich mix of reflections on how these organisations planned, reacted, and adapted during the COVID-19 crisis. Thematic analysis identified three central response strategies: diversifying revenue and reducing costs; prioritising customer-centric approaches; and fostering entrepreneurial resilience.

“Resilience is not a static attribute but an evolving, situated practice shaped by context, constraint, and improvisation”

Key Arguments

  • The pandemic exposed the structural fragility of small-scale sport event organisations, many of which lost up to 90% of their revenue in a matter of weeks. The ability to adapt quickly—through diversification of income and strict cost control—proved essential to survival.

    The key argument here is that financial resilience in crisis is not about wholesale innovation, but pragmatic reinvention of core operations. Virtual events, while helpful as stopgaps, failed to generate lasting income. Instead, meaningful resilience came from cost-saving strategies, lean decision-making, and sustainable business practices. For example: One organiser, faced with skyrocketing supplier costs, solicited alternative quotes that enabled renegotiation—cutting £8,000 from a single line item. Another gave up their office lease, shifted to a virtual operation, and reused medals and race numbers to reduce overheads and waste. These weren’t headline-grabbing innovations—but they were effective.

  • In times of crisis, customer confidence becomes an existential concern. The uncertainty surrounding cancellations, deferrals, and safety protocols placed unprecedented strain on organiser–participant relationships.The core argument is that customer-centred crisis management—clear communication, flexible terms, and visible community support—can reinforce loyalty and buffer against reputational risk. However, organisers must also acknowledge a changed customer mindset and adapt accordingly. For example: One organiser launched a Facebook group within days of lockdown, offering daily workouts and motivational webinars, attracting over 500 immediate participants. This helped sustain engagement—but organisers also noted a long-term shift: registrations are slower, dropouts higher, and participants more hesitant. Customer trust is not automatic; it must be actively rebuilt and re-earned.

  • In the absence of formal crisis plans or structural support, small-scale event organisers leaned on entrepreneurial instincts—responding quickly, embracing uncertainty, and viewing disruption as a prompt for reinvention rather than paralysis. The central argument is that entrepreneurial thinking—marked by rapid decision-making, risk tolerance, and opportunity-seeking—is not a luxury during crisis, but a necessity. These qualities allowed small organisations to bypass bureaucratic delays and prototype new formats, practices, and business models in real time. For example: One organiser, operating with only two full-time staff, described their ability to redesign events on the fly, from adjusting race formats to rewriting safety protocols. Their small size, often viewed as a vulnerability, instead allowed for agility: “we could just talk it over and decide—no red tape.” Others used the disruption to rethink pricing, branding, and event portfolios, emerging leaner but more strategically aligned.

  • Contrary to conventional thinking that equates scale with strength, this study reveals how the small size of these organisations enabled more agile, context-sensitive crisis responses. With flatter hierarchies and direct communication lines, decision-making was accelerated, and changes were implemented with minimal delay. The argument here is that “smallness” itself becomes a form of organisational resilience—not despite limited resources, but because of their flexibility, focus, and proximity to community stakeholders. For example: One solo organiser described how being embedded in their local community allowed for swift re-engagement post-lockdown—securing venues, adapting logistics, and communicating with participants—all without the institutional lag common to larger events.

  • Beyond operational shifts, the pandemic prompted deeper reflection about the role and identity of small-scale event organisations. Many re-evaluated not only how they operate, but why—reconnecting with social, environmental, and community values that often get lost in the pursuit of growth.The key argument is that disruptive events can create space for re-alignment with mission, values, and stakeholder expectations—reshaping events not just to function again, but to matter more. For example: One organiser, previously focused on expansion, chose instead to redesign events around local participation, environmental responsibility, and inclusivity—reducing scale but increasing impact. This reframing helped clarify future direction, strengthen stakeholder trust, and reposition the brand in a post-COVID landscape.

THE FIVE PILLARS OF SMALL-SCALE CRISIS RESILIENCE

This framework distils the study’s insights into five interrelated pillars that small-scale sport event organisations can use to plan for, respond to, and learn from crises. It moves beyond reactive survival tactics to provide a model for strategic and values-led resilience.

1. Adaptive Financial Management

Effective crisis response begins with financial realism. Organisations must diversify income, manage suppliers actively, and embed cost-saving practices that balance short-term survival with long-term sustainability.

Strategic Focus:
Lean operations, scenario planning, and cost–benefit evaluation of digital/virtual pivots.

2. Customer-Centric Crisis Engagement

Trust is not a given—it must be maintained through transparent, responsive, and emotionally intelligent engagement. Retaining and rebuilding participant confidence is fundamental to post-crisis recovery.

Strategic Focus:
Multi-channel communication, flexible terms, community-building through added value (e.g. online content, loyalty rewards).

3. Entrepreneurial Agility

Crisis demands decisive leadership and creative experimentation. Entrepreneurial behaviours—rapid problem-solving, prototyping, and reframing challenges as opportunities—enhance organisational adaptability.

Strategic Focus:
Empowered teams, trial-and-error culture, and willingness to revise business models under pressure.

4. Leveraging Organisational Smallness

Smaller size allows for more direct relationships, less bureaucracy, and quicker mobilisation. Rather than a limitation, smallness becomes a structural advantage in volatile conditions.

Strategic Focus:
Decentralised decision-making, locally embedded networks, and close coordination across core functions.

5. Purpose-Driven Recalibration

Crises prompt existential questions. Those who used disruption as a chance to reassess purpose, align with values, and deepen stakeholder meaning-making emerged with greater long-term clarity and cohesion.

Strategic Focus:
Mission clarity, stakeholder co-creation, and integrating social/environmental aims into event design.

CONCLUSIONS

Building Resilience Before the Next Shock

The COVID-19 pandemic was not merely a disruptive episode—it was a structural stress test. It exposed deep vulnerabilities in the small-scale sport events sector, from financial fragility to the lack of tailored crisis support. Yet it also revealed an underappreciated strength: a capacity for rapid adaptation, entrepreneurial thinking, and values-led recalibration. Small-scale organisers did not wait for direction—they innovated on the ground, rebuilt relationships from scratch, and reimagined what their events could mean for communities.

However, survival should not be mistaken for sustainability. Many of the strategies deployed were reactive, ad hoc, and personally draining for already overstretched teams. While smallness proved an asset in flexibility, it also brought exposure to risk, especially in the absence of institutional recognition and public support (Kirby et al, 2023). The sector remains under-protected and under-prepared for the next systemic crisis—whether epidemiological, economic, environmental, or political.

The lessons outlined here—drawn from those who endured the worst and found new ways forward—demand urgent attention from policymakers, funders, and industry leaders. Crisis resilience cannot remain an informal, improvised activity. It must be formalised through practical frameworks, shared learning, and better integration of small-scale voices in sector planning (Miles & Shipway, 2020).

Now is the time to move from lessons learned to lessons embedded. The future of the events industry—particularly its grassroots tier—depends on our ability to design for disruption, not simply recover from it. Crucially, if we listen to those who were left to cope alone, we already have a roadmap.

“Survival should not be mistaken for sustainability.”

PRACTICAL ACTIONS

The following actions offer a roadmap for building resilient, adaptable, and values-led sport event organisations capable of surviving and thriving in times of crisis. These recommendations are grouped under each of the five resilience pillars to support targeted implementation.

1. Adaptive Financial Management

  • Conduct regular scenario planning to model potential income disruptions and design contingency budgets for worst-case scenarios.

  • Diversify revenue models beyond event-day participation—explore subscriptions, hybrid formats, merchandise, or year-round training products.

  • Audit supplier relationships annually, securing flexible contracts, seeking competitive quotes, and building redundancy into critical services.

  • Adopt sustainable cost practices (e.g. reusable materials, shared infrastructure) that serve both economic and environmental goals.

2. Customer-Centric Crisis Engagement

  • Implement transparent cancellation and deferral policies, clearly communicated at point of registration and across channels.

  • Develop a crisis communication plan that includes protocols for rapid, multi-platform updates and customer service escalation routes.

  • Invest in digital community-building, using social media groups, virtual meet-ups, or fitness challenges to maintain loyalty and visibility during downtime.

  • Monitor customer sentiment post-crisis using surveys or informal feedback loops to realign with shifting expectations and behaviour patterns.

3. Entrepreneurial Agility

  • Encourage team autonomy and experimentation, allowing staff to trial small-scale innovations without excessive approvals.

  • Create fast-decision task forces or crisis pods empowered to make operational pivots when disruption hits.

  • Capture lessons learned in real time through short post-event reviews or crisis logs, and translate them into future planning documents.

  • Benchmark against other small-scale innovators, not just major event organisations—look laterally to adjacent sectors like local arts, hospitality, or grassroots education.

4. Leveraging Organisational Smallness

  • Celebrate smallness as a strategic asset—incorporate speed, intimacy, and local embeddedness into your value proposition.

  • Build stronger local networks, such as venue providers, councils, volunteers, and public health officials, to enable rapid coordination during future shocks.

  • Streamline governance and approvals, maintaining lean processes that preserve responsiveness without sacrificing accountability.

  • Use your proximity to participants to co-design events and recovery strategies—ensure the customer voice shapes post-crisis operations.

5. Purpose-Driven Recalibration

  • Facilitate annual purpose reviews, inviting stakeholders (staff, volunteers, participants, partners) to reflect on mission alignment and evolving community needs.

  • Integrate sustainability and inclusion as core design principles, not afterthoughts—set measurable targets for waste reduction, access, and representation.

  • Redefine success beyond growth, recognising social impact, wellbeing, and community cohesion as equally valuable outcomes.

  • Use disruption as an opportunity to declutter, simplifying event portfolios and focusing only on those offerings that deliver meaningful value.

IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES

While the recommended actions offer a practical roadmap for building resilience, several limitations must be acknowledged.

First, capacity remains a fundamental constraint. Many small-scale sport event organisations are under-resourced, reliant on volunteer labour, and led by overstretched teams. Implementing strategic innovations or conducting scenario planning may feel out of reach when day-to-day survival dominates attention.

Second, these organisations often lack formal representation in policymaking or funding structures. Without systemic recognition of their social value, their ability to access long-term support or influence crisis preparedness policies remains limited. This structural invisibility continues to undermine sector-wide resilience.

Third, geographic and regulatory variation means that strategies effective in one context may not transfer directly to others. Organisations operating outside the UK, for example, may face different government relationships, infrastructure constraints, or participant expectations.

Finally, emotional burnout is an often unspoken barrier. For founders and directors who carried their events through the crisis, the appetite for further transformation may be low—especially in the absence of external incentives or visible impact.

These challenges should not deter action—but they do demand that resilience-building efforts are realistic, incremental, and supported by both policy and peer learning networks.

REFERENCES

Boden, J. and Shipway, R., 2023. Meeting the two imposters of triumph and disaster: Senior management perspectives on the covid-19 pandemic’s impact on global tennis tournaments. Event Management. 28 (7), 1055-1072.

Fink, S. 1986. Crisis management: planning for the inevitable. New York, NY: American Management Association. 

Kirby, C. King, K. and Shipway, R., 2023. Embeddedness through Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Events. Event Management. 

Jacques, T., 2007. Issue management and crisis management: An integrated, non-linear, relational construct. Public relations review, 33 (2), 147-157. 

Miles, L. and Shipway, R., 2020. Exploring the COVID-19 Pandemic as a Catalyst for Stimulating Future Research Agendas for Managing Crises and Disasters at International Sport Events. Event Management, 24 (4), 537-552. 

Mitroff, I. I., 1994. Crisis management and environmentalism: A natural fit. California management review, 36 (2), 101-113. 

Mosey, S. Shipway, R. and Symons, C., 2022. Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Sport and Leisure. London: Routledge. 

Shipway, R. 2024. New Era, New Normal, New Challenges: Managing Crises and Disasters at Major and Mega Sports Events. In Solberg, H.A. Storm, R. and Swart, K. (eds) (2024). Research Handbook on Major Sporting Events. Edward Elgar Publishing.   

Shipway, R. and Miles, L., 2020. Bouncing back and jumping forward: Scoping the resilience landscape of international sports events and implications for events and festivals. Event Management, 24 (1), 185-196. 

Shipway, R., Miles, L. and Gordon, R., 2021. Crisis and disaster management for sport. Routledge. 

AUTHOR(S)

Regional Officer, England Football, Bournemouth University, UK

Zoe graduated from Bournemouth University with a degree in sport management and has extensive work experience within the sports events industry in the United Kingdom. She has organised and managed sports events, with a focus on endurance-based sports including triathlon, half marathons, marathons, and road cycling. Zoe has previously published work exploring how regional and local sport event organisers adapt and respond to the onset and impact of crisis within the events industry. She has since worked for National Governing Body, England Netball, as a Regional Officer supporting the development of netball across the South and South West regions. Through this she has also continued her work within the sport events industry supporting local, regional and international netball events such as the Vitality Netball Nations Cup.  

Associate Professor, Bournemouth University, UK

Richard is an Associate Professor in sport event management at Bournemouth University Business School. His current research focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation in sport and leisure, and resilience studies for sport. He has published extensively in this area and is co-author of the leading academic textbooks, ‘entrepreneurship and innovation in sport and leisure’, ‘handbook of volunteering in events, sport and tourism’, and the lead author of ‘crisis and disaster management for sport’.  Richard has previously received major research grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for research project linked to sport events impacts. He was the Principal Investigator (PI) on a £425,000 collaborative International Association Football coaching and training project between the UK and China’s Ministry of Education. Richard was also the Co-I on an international collaborative project funded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Olympic Studies Centre (OSC) on their Advanced Olympic Research Grant Programme. Since 2010 Richard has served on the ESRC's high profile Peer Review College (PRC), refereeing grant proposals in the social sciences.     

Disclaimer
The views and insights expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and reflect their research and professional expertise. They do not represent the views of the Centre for Events & Festivals CIC or its partners.