St. Petersburg, FL will again play host to the Road Race Management Race Directors' Meeting November 7 - 9. Willie Banks will give the keynote at the MarathonGuide.com dinner. With the IAAF assuming a larger role on the worldwide road running scene, its relationship with USATF is increasingly critical. Banks is a former world and American record holder in the triple jump, captain of the U.S. 1988 Olympic Team, a USATF Hall of Fame Member, and the 1986 US Olympic Athlete of the Year. As an administrator, he is a World Olympians Executive Committee Member, US Olympians and Paralympians past president, and president and CEO of ANOC (Association of National Olympic Committees) World Beach Games. He served as a consultant in the development of the Rock ‘n' Roll Marathon Series. The genial Banks will talk about why he ran for the IAAF post and what he hopes to accomplish both at the IAAF and USATF.

The full program and schedule for the meeting is available at http://www.rrm.com/act/rdm/rdm.asp. Thousands of race officials, corporate sponsors, marketing executives, sports organization representatives (RRCA, USATF, RUSA, PRRO) and others interested in organized running events have attended this annual fall gathering since its inception in 1983.

The Road Race Management meeting is sponsored by Ashworth Awards, Gatorade Endurance, haku, Hightech Signs, Leslie Jordan, Inc., MarathonFoto, MarathonGuide.com, Marathon Printing, MYLAPS, National Event Services, Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic, and RunSignUp.

Road Race Management is a member-based organization that, in addition to conducting its annual Race Directors' Meeting, publishes a trade newsletter and other publications in print and on the web for event directors.

In conjunction with the meeting will be the On-site RRCA Director Certification Course. The RRCA's Online Race Director Certification Course provides a valuable educational opportunity and enhances the understanding of best practices and industry trends for staging events. The RRCA course will be offered in-person on Thursday, November 7 between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM. A limited number of attendees will have the rare opportunity to have the online course richly supplemented by accomplished event directors from around the country speaking on the topics many of them helped to develop for the course curriculum.

Registration is limited. The cost is $255 in addition to the standard registration fee for the meeting and includes a copy of the textbook, the second edition of Organizing Running Events. The in-person course is only available to registered Road Race Management meeting attendees.