Sempertex Balloon Convention Bogota Colombia

I have just returned from Bogota, Colombia from the second international balloon Congress. Sempertex Balloons sponsored the Convention, where Jan Iiams and I were the guess instructors. There were over 120 students eager to learn new and exciting balloon techniques and designs.

Bogota Colombia
The students were divided into 2 groups. We taught the same class to each group in two different days. This was good because we were able to keep the size of the classes smaller.
My Español is no bueno. I did try and use as many Spanish words and phrases as I know. Thank goodness we had interpreters in the back of the class in a booth, and the students all were wearing headsets. Wearing headsets made things go much smoother.

Balloon convention class room
When I was in teaching, I wondered if some of the words I used to describe techniques like “duplets” and “quads” would translate. In order to make sure the students understood everything, I would often look back at the translator and give her a thumbs up sign to confirm what I was saying was being translated.
The World Cup had just finished with an incredible performance of James Rodriguez that made him the Colombian’s Futból hero. The soccer’s fever gave me the idea to show them how to make a giant soccer ball. In the end, the class had a lot of fun playing with it while listening to Shakira’s song La La La.
I’m sure the hotel thought we all were a bit Loco, but at the same time we were enjoying all of the fun balloon decorations that spread out of the classroom into the hotel. The hotel staff was even muy feliz when it came time to popping all the balloons. All my hard work over the past 3 days,S inflation and creation was gone in what seemed like only a few seconds.
The whole trip was quit and adventure. I was truly honored to be included as the instructor to be with Jan Iiams. She is a leading educator in the balloon industry with a huge fan base, and I am grateful to be apart of the team.

Jan Iiams  Eddie heyland

Enjoy the video.

Balloon Soccer ball

George Strait finale balloon drop

George Strait finale balloon drop

June 7th “the cowboy road away” at the AT&T Stadium the home of the Dallas cowboys. DFW was the final show of George Strait’s tour.the cowboy rides away

One week before the event, we were contacted to do the balloon drop for his ending song. This drop had to be big, epic, and unforgettable. Go big or go home, in true Texas style.

 The event planner was concerned about the time it would take the balloons to hit the ground from a 300 feet tall ceiling. My balloon crew together with the event planner came up with an idea to do a mini drop four days before the show using one 50’ long bag. This was the best way to time how long it would take for the first balloon to hit the ground, and also to estimate the total balloons needed for the balloon drop.test balloon drop

 It took 1:30 minutes for the normal sizes balloons and 1:00 minute for the 3’ giant balloons to fall. For this stadium, we decided to use 16,000 balloons.

I only had three days to make this happen. Production was now in high gear. My Balloon City crew started making the bags and stocking the balloons while I worked on logistics. I needed to put together a crew of balloon professionals to help inflate the balloons. I assembled 10 people using 4 other balloon companies from as far away as Houston. Having a great crew is key to a successful event. The crew was awesome and inflated all 16,000 balloons in less time than I have calculated. With that major part finished the only thing left was to rig them in the catwalk.

 The next day, I only needed to move the bags into place on the ground and make sure the riggers installed them correctly. After a lot of standing around and waiting everything was rigged and ready for the sound check.

Now for me there was nothing left to do but wait until the next night to enjoy the show. I had a guest pass that allowed me full access! I felt so special parking with the tour buses, with my own entrance and being able to go wherever I wanted. There was over 100,000 people that attended the George Strait concert. That is more people than the population of my hometown!Georgr Strait guest pass

The concert was great and the timing of the finale was perfect. The promoter found me on the stage floor to tell me the balloon drop was epic! Epic is good!

Check it out for yourself: VIDEOGeroge Straight finale