RefAssist

Guess who's back! 😍 Every year on December 6th, we get a visit from Saint Nicholas at the RefAssist headquarters. Normally, he hangs out in the man cave or plays a round of ping pong, but this year we decided to have a chat with him. And who could have guessed - in Nick's spare time, he's a referee AND a referee appointer! He's been using RefAssist under an alias to make sure the best referee is appointed to his festive matches. Our mind is blown! 🤯 December is always a busy time for him, so he confessed he likes using the automatic appointments tool, so he has more time to spend with the kids eagerly awaiting his visit. We snapped a shot of him while he's checking the statistics of his best solution and we're happy to report he was very pleased. 🙌 Some other things we learned? Well, for one, there are no good kids at Movetex | Planning Software, but plenty at RefAssist! 😎 He still doesn't like Christmas trees being up before his yearly visit and likes to (gently) reassert his dominance. It surprised us he didn't pull out a red card from his robe! Unfortunately, his horse had a bad case of the flu, so little Suzy was his loyal companion for this year. She helped him hand out his delicious gifts, which he asked his friends at Fringuello Sweets to assemble. 🐶 Thanks for the visit, sir! See you next year (and if you have any questions about the software, please let us know!) 🖐

Happy birthday to us! 🎂 Exactly 10 years ago, RefAssist was founded by Dieter De Naeyer and Ken De Norre - De Groof . Dieter, being a football referee, was getting frustrated by the lack of efficient and reliable referee planning and started thinking about creating a solution. Ken, one of Dieter’s childhood friends, jumped in and together, they created a one-of-a-kind official management platform. Since 2014, RefAssist has gained experience, personnel, a renovated working space and many, many memories. Memories of hard work, new clients, beautiful business trips and amazing colleagues. We’re looking forward to the next 10 years! 🤩 Take a trip with us down memory lane, starting in 2014 and ending in 2024.   Picture 1 – Celebrating RefAssist’s launch back in 2014 (yes, Dieter and Ken used to be young, imagine that!) Picture 2 – Founder Dieter De Naeyer with Christof De Smet, one of the first hires Picture 3 – Old building Picture 4 – Old building pt. 2 Picture 5 – Building upgrade Picture 6 – Building upgrade pt. 2 Picture 7 – Visiting Australia in 2023 Picture 8 – Meeting Belgian royalty (Princess Astrid: left - Dieter, right 😉 ) Picture 9 – Visiting Cardiff Picture 10 – Celebrating Belgian culture Picture 11 – Teambuilding winter 2024 Picture 12 – Newest (and cutest) coworker Picture 13 – Dieter and Ken now

Allow us to refute a common misconception about our software: RefAssist is not AI. 🚫 (We only use AI sporadically to create amazing visuals to add to our marketing posts 😉 ) RefAssist is merely a tool to make referees’ and referee appointers’ lives easier. It’s a supporting software that will always need a human touch, since appointing referees is not a simple game of ‘connect the dots’. It’s an intricate process requiring a high level of reading between the lines and acting proactively. In other words, the human aspect is and always will be indispensable. No software could ever replace referee appointers’ knowledge of their sporting federation, or their knowledge of referees’ preferences, dislikes, difficulties and growth possibilities. Like any referee appointer could tell you, for one single appointment 100 pieces have to fit together. If you have 100 matches to appoint for a single weekend, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. That’s where RefAssist comes in. Our software collects all of the official’s preferences, historic files and data in one platform. Thanks to our parameters, you can finetune the system to your personal wishes. ✅ You save time, because you can trust the system to make the most optimal appointments possible based on the configuration you set. ✅ You keep your officials happy, because our software keeps track of their personal preferences and gives them the appointments with the shortest travel distance or with the most possibility to learn and grow. ✅ You save money, because shorter distances mean lower transport fees. Learn what RefAssist could do for your sporting federation on our website, link in the comments! 👇 #RefAssist #OfficialsHQ #appointmentscheduling #sports #software #officialmanagement #football #soccer #hockey #australianfootball #basketball #netball #swimming #cricket #cycling

✨ NEW CLIENT ✨ Help us welcome our newest client, World Squash Officiating (WSO)! Lee Drew, Head of WSO had this to say about our new partnership: "WSO were seeking an appointments management system to further the professionalisation of squash officiating. RefAssist have been supportive in understanding our needs and cooperative in designing a system that provides our officials with value and WSO with a straight forward all-in-one solution to tournament appointments." We're thrilled about this new project and are looking forward to working together on this. Let's go! 🔥 #RefAssist #OfficialsHQ #Newclient #officialmanagementsoftware #appointmentscheduling #referees #umpires #sports #football #australianfootball #basketball #hockey #netball #cricket #squash

✨NEW FUNCTIONALITY ✨ If there's one thing RefAssist excels at (aside from developing the best official management software and organising fabulous team buildings), it's listening to our users. 🙊 Several users asked us to develop a functionality so they could have access to their appointments even when offline. We brainstormed, discussed and developed all through the night (several nights actually, but we don't like to brag) and created an all-new functionality. Since very recently, you can save your RefAssist appointments in your personal calendar. Outlook, Gmail,... Take your pick! Never lose track of your passion again. 👊 Check out everything RefAssist can do for your organisation, link to the website in the comments! 👇

NEW FUNCTIONALITY When your boss says, ‘Create a social media post to announce our new functionality’, one cannot simply pass up on the opportunity to create an epic movie trailer. 😎 Well, whether or not it’s epic, is up to you to decide. Please don’t be too harsh, our marketing department has a fragile soul 👀 Epic movie trailers and fragile souls aside, RefAssist is in the end stages of creating a functionality to share your appointments on social media. No more hassle with screenshots and missing information – you can now share your next appointment on your favourite social media platforms in a couple of clicks. Coming soon, stay tuned! #RefAssist #OfficialsHQ #appointmentscheduling #software #referees #umpires #sports #soccer #football #basketball #hockey #cricket #australianfootball #netball 

RefAssist is constantly learning, improving, evolving. Every week, we’re better than the last, something we’re incredibly proud of. 🙌 Our software isn’t the only thing that our team works hard to improve for our partners. We also invest a significant amount of time and effort into our website, so that existing and future partners know exactly what we stand for and how we tackle sport federations’ issues. Our new development? An introductory video on our home page, summarising our company and commitment to improving refereeing around the world. Check it out, link to the website in the comments 👇 This is but the first of many developments to come – stay tuned! #RefAssist #OfficialsHQ #Refereemanagementsoftware #appointmentscheduling #software #sports #assignments #referees #umpires #netball #australianfootball #soccer #football #cycling #cricket #hockey #basketball

The secret to the perfect team building, you ask? According to RefAssist: - a dash of sunny weather ☀ - a couple of cool drinks 🥂 - a Red Devils football match on the big screen ⚽ - burgers grilled to perfection 🤤 - some thrilling ping pong matches 🏓 - (above all else) great company 🙌 ❗ Important note from the Marketing Department: If you would like to know Dieter’s secret to the art of perfectly grilled burgers and sausages, we would like to point out the strategically placed towel on his left shoulder, providing perfect balance for grilling (see figure four for reference). The (Red) devil’s in the details!

We are delighted to announce we’ve partnered up with Geraldton Basketball Association. Welcome to the community, here’s to a wonderful partnership. Let’s improve the world of referee appointing together! #RefAssist #OfficialsHQ #GADA #sports #software #appointmentscheduling #football #soccer #australianfootball #cricket #hockey #netball #basketball

And with that, another soccer season is coming to an end, a spectacular one at that. 🙈 We would like to express our gratitude to all officials, referee appointers, volunteers and players, united by the game they love. Here’s to great sportsmanship and great appointing software. Cheers! 🍻 #RefAssist #OfficialsHQ #Appointmentscheduling #Software #officialmanagementsoftware #sports #soccer #football #hockey #australianfootball #cricket #netball #basketball