Miscellaneous Ramblings

• Online artist directories
• This month's featured portfolio
• Recent and upcoming events

Online artist directories

If the reason to be in business is to make money then naturally the goal of any business is to be visible to the people that will use it's services. Local phone books are great when you're looking for a local business, but what do you do when you're looking for someone in another part of the country or world?

Quite a few directories exist for every imaginable industry. Some of those are online, others printed. What makes the balloon industry different is the rapid turnover rate of businesses. New shops are opening and closing more quickly than printed directories can be updated. That means that really only Internet directories that are maintained live by the members of the industry have any chance of being current.

Due to some recent discussions and suggestions, the BHQ artist directory has seen some improvements this month. It's always been possible to search for people based on the type of balloon work they do. Now general searches show icons next to artists' names to indicate as much as possible with just a quick glance. Do a search for yourself and others in your area to see if it our records show the correct information for you. If not, you can always update your information. If you aren't in the directory, make sure to add yourself.

One major concern about the directory is the old and outdated records. We make sure that no records in the directory are more than six months old. If you don't update your information from time to time, it will get purged. Make sure your information is current!

This month's featured artist portfolios

A deer head trophy by John Forbes

John Forbes' portfolio demonstrates some interesting twister work. Possibly the most interesting of his photos is the deer head mounted on the wall. If you need to mount an animal head, making it out of balloons gets out vote as the best way to do it.

John says he only twists for fun, but he certainly has some neat stuff to show off.

Recent and upcoming events

No major ballooning events have happened in the last month. Even discussions have slowed down somewhat in recent weeks. Hopefully that's because everyone's been busy decorating for and performing at holiday parties. The big stir among twisters lately has been about Twist & Shout quickly approaching in February. Twisters from around the world will be gathering in Peabody, MA in February. And of course, only a short time after that, IBAC and the National Halloween and Party Show will once again be happening in Chicago.

Details of these events as well as many others can be found on the BHQ calendar.