From: Skistz@aol.com
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 02:38:39 EST
Subject: Re: Float
To: tmkelly@excelonline.com, balloondeco@fooledya.com

This is a reply to an enquiry I received about building parade floats.  
Although centered on the parade product, I feel it defines our asperations 
for the balloon industry as a whole.  
For no other reason than air my perspective, F.Y.I.
 
 "I appreciate your enthusiam for creating a balloon float for the Ky. Derby 
Parade but I really need to be up front.  We have worked very hard to learn 
what we know in order to raise the standards of our work to where they are 
today. 
For us, our parade business is kind of like one of those "Sacred Cows".   
We only do a few parades but they consume so much of our time and we invest 
heavily in pursuit of our quest.  
Our standards are high and  ultimately we are striving to acheive the level 
of excellence as seen in the Rose Bowl Parade. We have the ability, we just 
need to gain the exposier,the agenda, and the budgets in order to make it 
happen but... that's the hardest of all to achieve.
Any exposier is not good exposier for balloons in the parade industry.  To 
us, it is extremely important that whatever is produced  for parades 
progresses the overall cause within the parade industry and truthfully ... I 
get deeply concerned when good intentions are not backed with  great 
experience 
Experience is key to every facet of the balloon industry...particularly 
parades.  We have made mistakes that taught us tremendous lessons about 
weather, wind, mechanics and crowds. We have also witnessed disasters 
experienced by others that have not heeded our warnings. 
We spend thousands of dollars annually advertising to the parade industry 
that is reluctant to accept balloon floats as a  viable alternative.  We 
spend hundreds of hours in planning and design for each parade. There are  
also10's of thousands of dollars invested in each parade we do in order to 
bring in top  professionals from around the country to help assure the 
quality we are striving for.
It is great that you were able to get media coverage for your twisting, I am 
sure you did that segment of the balloon industry proud.  I am just as sure 
that you are as critical about other twisters representing your art to the 
highest degree as we are about parade floats being produced by other 
companies... and that's the way it should be!
Even with our experience in balloon sculpture and decorating (in the round) 
there are many other facets of parade float building that we have found 
essential and are not generally the type of thing that can be picked up or 
created in a short time, particullarly for high profile parades.
Bruce Walden has produced a video that covers some of the planning and 
production we put into our floats.  This gives a definite insite into how we 
approach the float concept, hopefully this will be of value to you.  If the 
video is not available in your area get ahold of Bruce or, let us know and we 
will see what we can do.
I do not intend to discourage you only to incourage you to...
"Take one step at a time" and ..."do it right".
Looking to the future,
Jim Skistimas