Online contest registration

[jmesawitz]

If you were hosting a model show/contest would you have or want an online registration program? Would you call blank PDF forms an online registration program?

I built an online contest registration program for my local model club a couple years ago. First off, the program makes no attempt to collect money for an event. This simplified tactic allows contestants to fill out online entry forms in advance of the event, print them out and bring them to the show where they will then pay any entry fees in person. All the data is stored on a server and can be retrieved & maintained at any time up to the day of the event. With that said I went about making changes to the program as it applied to our club’s contest. I made it more generic by building an online event administration side to the program. My vision was that any club wanting online registration could come to my site, submit their event details, create entry classes & categories then direct their target audience to my site via a link on their own web site. My initial mindset is that this is a completely free service, although I have considered charging an event setup fee somewhere down the road. But it is not about making money so mush as it is about bringing some technology to the hobby that I enjoy the most.

Benefits:
Entry forms are type written text and easier to read than hand written forms.
Fewer day-of-show entry forms being filled out (time & space to fill them out bottleneck)
Day-of-show registration flows much quicker. (Collect fees & give out entry number)
Quicker registration = model to the display area faster = contestant to the vendors area faster

Your thoughts?