We have more on the care & share days below but first, the warehouse is coming along, pictures are all posted here if you’d like to take a look, Warehouse.
Plus we have a competition running where you can win a busking bag, all you have to do is guess how many picking boxes will be in the warehouse once we have finished the change over. If you can post onto the thread that is pinned to the top of my Facebook home page, thanks. Competition.
Carrying on from my previous post the other week about “The Care & Share Balloon Days”
So after the excitement of the first care & share day and with a few more balloon days booked in for 2005 we were after a sponsor. How does that work, I had no idea but that seemed like the way forward. I approached Qualatex to see if they would like to sponsor the days.
They very kindly offered to pay for venue’s & supply product for people to try till the end of the year with I think about 4/5 days booked in for 2005. That was really kind as this was all new and no one was sure how things would turn out and if the days would be successful.
The days really took off from day one which was really nice, people attended, shared balloon ideas and even little snippets from their own shows, everyone helped each other and it was a really nice atmosphere, the phoning around and telling people about the days and the word of mouth once people had attended were paying off. I was pleased as in the back of my mind we always had the thought about David and what he would be thinking about the days etc.
As usual off I went in June 2005 to The Millennium Jam in Belgium where Leo was running this amazing balloon convention
that will always hold a very special place in my heart… always xx.
This convention changed so many people’s lives and I used to love organising the un-official organised tour to Belgium every year,
so many happy and fond memories.
So while there Leo said he had someone that would like to talk with me, I was intrigued and that person was Oswald Loewy, otherwise known as Mr Sempertex who used to own and run the balloon company. He had heard about the days & wanted to get involved in some way and would like me to represent Sempertex in the UK, well what an offer! I know I was completely surprised and shocked as we had only run a couple of balloon days so far and it was all new to me, I had no idea about things and some would say I still don’t ROFL.
I explained that I had a verbal agreement with Qualatex to the end of the year but after that we could talk and see what happens.
So later in the year, I think it was September/October time that Qualatex told me they were not interested in sponsoring the days in 2006. Which was fine, I was hoping to carry them on as by now I was completely hooked and after 21 years I still am. I struggle sleeping the day before events even now and look forward to the day and meeting everyone, yes I know I’m pretty sad, he he.
I got in contact with Oswald and Sempertex & asked him to send over some samples for me to try, off I went very naively to a three day nurses convention which happened to coincide with a balloon day we had organised the day before as I knew we would be up in Scotland. It was very long days, twisting for up to eight hours a day with only Sempertex balloons with me, although I must admit I did have the Qualatex balloons in the car as standby just in case. Well the convention days went very well, no problems with the Sempertex balloons; they were excellent and stood up to the test and I enjoyed using them and yes the Qualatex balloons stayed in the car for all three days.
As a side note the only problem I had at the convention was that someone stole my three portfolio books with about 25 designs in each book for people to choose from, amazing can you believe they walked off with all my pictures, I was really upset about it and the convention centre security even went thru the CCTV to see if they could find who took them… I nearly had to go into therapy over it, shock horror.
So when I came home, I checked Qualatex did not want to sponsor the days for the following year, which they confirmed. So, I got in touch with Oswald at Sempertex and asked what was on offer for the days and how sponsorship would work. I asked them to put everything in writing and within three days everything was all signed, sealed and delivered… it really was that quick. That was in November 2005 and I was to promote Sempertex for the next three years starting in 2006.
Well the funny thing is, well not funny really but a few days later and it was only a couple of days after signing, Qualatex got back in touch with me saying that they had been giving it some thought and would now like to sponsor the days again, they were a little upset about the situation but I had talked with them on a couple of occasions offering them first refusal on the days which they did originally decline, even when I called again to clarify.
I was completely comfortable about the situation and had been fair to all involved. And as they were saying back in the day… I had travelled over to the dark side… he he. I think I was still pretty naive about the politics in the balloon world as I had only come into it 10 months earlier and people were not backward in coming forward and letting me know this. But an opportunity was offered to me, and I decided to take it. And in hindsight… was it the correct decision?
I would say 100% yes and we made some great friends at Sempertex and also driving up and down the UK running the balloon days.
Right that’s me for now, as usual… TO BE Continued.
P.S. David Grist and I way back at The Millennium Jam.
