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Snowman crowd scene by Brian (McTwist) Knelle

• Balloon Art for Everyone
• Keeping Current
• Featured Member Portfolio

Balloon Art for Everyone

There have been a growing number of public balloon art displays created recently. The word "public" is obviously used to indicate that everyone should be able to see them. However, even smaller, private parties should be designed for anyone that may take part. It's not always obvious what that means. With balloons becoming more visible, let's make sure we all do our jobs right. Here are just a few things to keep in mind.

All public venues, at least in the US, are required to be accessible to everyone, regardless of physical ability. That doesn't mean that venues need to reduce their offerings to a lowest common denominator. It does mean that people should never be completely excluded. As party professionals, we should all keep this in mind for all events we participate in. In fact, knowing what you're looking at when you visit a venue can help a client with things that may not have occurred to them.

Not all disabilites require the same environmental considerations. In our business of creating decor that fills a lot of space, our top concern should be ensuring that our balloons do not create physical obstacles to those with limited mobility. Some tips that will benefit people using crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs:

• Make sure your decor doesn't interfere by narrowing pathways. Paths and doorways should be a minimum of three feet wide for a single wheelchair to pass through. Wider is better since, during a party, things move around and spaces can end up getting cramped. Also, where possible, consider allowing enough space for a companion to walk beside the person in a wheelchair. For a wheelchair to turn around, there should be a five foot turning radius. When guaging space between tables, keep in mind that chairs will not be completely under tables once people sit in them.
• Provide alternate routes into rooms where people are expected to hunch down or contort their bodies to maneuver clever entrance decor. It can sometimes be fun to build something that requires guest to bend over for a low overhead, but some people are unable to do that and there should be a way in that avoids this obstacle.
• When special effects like confetti cannons are used, consider the direction they'll be fired and make sure that floors don't get completely covered such that someone with difficulty standing can't avoid covered floor. Small things on the floor that might not disturb most people walking might be trouble for someone on crutches that won't be able to feel what their "leg" is about to land on.

Many more things can be done to improve accessibility for people. This is just a starting point. As party professionals, we should be making things as fun for everyone as we can.

Keeping Current

Between business and family commitments, managing your calendar can be quite a challenge. Add all the events on separate calendars like the BHQ event list and things will get even harder. That's why we've added something to make it easier to automatically monitor the BHQ calendar with your own preferred calendar application. Never again will you need to remember to transfer the events you're interested in to your own computer.

Many current calendar applications use a common format known as iCalendar. If you use one of those applications you can just subscribe to the BHQ calendar and updates will automatically appear on your desktop. (If clicking that link doesn't work for you, enter http://www.balloonhq.com/calendar/icalendar.php in your desktop app.)

A few applications that can use this BHQ feature

• Apple iCal - comes as part of OS X.
• Mozilla Calendar
• eventSherpa
• MS Outlook (recent versions, possibly requiring additional software) - Outlook 2007 is now fully compatible with iCalendar. Users can add calendars under Account Options and set how often they should be updated. Individual calendars are shown as a list of checkboxes so you can view or hide a calendar without unsubscribing and they can be viewed as separate tabs or overlaid into a single calendar.

  Outlook 2003 can use a plug-in to add the same ability.

Christmas Bears

Featured artist portfolio: Adam Newman

Adam Newman of Adam's Animaloons in Chappaqua, NY USA combines classic animal balloons with adavanced balloon twisting techniques and designs to bring you what he refers to as Animaloons.

See Adam Newman's BHQ Portfolio.

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