A Day in the life of Partini Balloons

The day is Saturday 20th June...alarm is set for 6.00am and as i am not a morning person...... well ill leave my thoughts on this to your imagination :-) anyway we made it, dressed and ready with one of Angies magic brews for exactly 6.38am

We hit the road ready for our first stop at the Hotel Victoria in the sunny Newquay, now usually we would meet Brock (the hotel wedding organizer) and try and badger him for another brew, but due to our ridiculously early start and his usual late nights we missed each other. But still a great venue with very friendly staff.

Now you might think all i go on about is Brews and food....... and you would be right, so no day is a good day without a breakfast for champions........A double sausage and egg Mcmuffin meal:-) which i might add we needed as the temperature was soaring at 21 C at 9.00am, it was going to be a hot one.

So, brews and breakfast out of the way, we set off to St Austell to set up some black and gold balloons at St Austell Golf Club, one of our most regular venues with one of the most friendly head chefs you will ever meet, Will, and true to form he also makes an amazing brew ;-) so the schedule is, we need to get done and finished by 10.00am, better get moving!!!!!!!

Did someone say helium was supposed to be light!!!!!!!!

Anyway we made the deadline so we needed to go back to Bodmin to bring in the backup....Shaun, our son. So i had to do a bit of creeping for him to give up his Saturday......Have you been working out Shaun :-)

Our next stop was a very special and unique request.........A PROPOSAL!!!! the brief was to inflate a giant balloon for a 40th birthday with a 'Will you marry me' balloon inside so when the birthday girl popped the big balloon the marry me balloon would then appear and he would pop the question, lets hope it all goes well.

The time is 11.30am and we are on track for our final job of the day........but it is a big one in the social calender, The RNAS Summer ball!!!!!!!!! we will be here for a few hours so better get cracking, and you will be pleased to know no time for a brew!!!!!

The brief was 'A night at the movies' with different rooms with different themes..."ill leave it up to you" Quote!!!!!! no pressure then.
So we wanted the main dance room "Saturday night fever" to have the most impact.....anyway here are the pictures.

As Shaun is the tallest and im 5ft nothing he was volunteered for the ladders, so i took this opportunity to.............have a brew!!!!!!!

The other themes were Grease and Oscars so polka dots, neon disco balloons nd black and gold  were a must.

 

It was nice though when George Clooney and Elvis popped by to say hello

So our day decorating was finished and we had a very tired crew, except Shaun as he does have nearly 20 years on us!!!!! and has just had a great holiday in Kavos!!!! im not jealous at all can you tell.......

 Home sweet home at 7.25pm, 13 hours after we started but a great day and some very happy customers. 

We do love our job and as much as Saturdays are tiring we wouldnt do anything else, we are very privileged to be involved in our customers celebrations, so we finish the day with a nice glass of  Merlot.

See you next time. 

P.s A massive thankyou also goes out to our Daughter Nessy who without her babysitting skills we wouldnt be able to do what we do, Thanks Ness xxx

Wedding Awards

Today i thought i would write about the Cornish brides Wedding awards that we are currently entered in.

Currently we are entered into The Cornish brides wedding awards
At Partini we think that Wedding awards (or any awards) are great for your business, it not only shows new, potential bride & grooms that you are serious about your work, but also helps you get feedback from past customers, to make sure you are doing a good job and are following through the promises you have made to your customers

If you do well in these awards and even win an award you can broadcast this to the world until your hearts content.
If you had two businesses that you had to choose between, would you be more likely to pick the supplier with or without an award, I think i already know your answer!!

At the moment in the awards we are entered in we have reached the final stages, which means we have been whittled down from 200 businesses to just 36, which i think is a great achievement already.

We are being assessed on a number of things

1.  Customer votes
2. A mission statement
3. website content and relevance
4. social media sites
5. marketing material
6. A secret bride testing our customer relations skills
7. a presentation of our business 

Now my theory is that if you are entered into an award you will do your best to win that award, and by doing this you will make all of the judging criteria the best it can be.
By doing this you will only improve your business and therefore get more customers.

Basically im saying that every business should enter these kind of awards if nothing else to improve yourself and your business.

Now some of you will be thinking this is also a plug for some votes...... Well you would be right :)
If you would like to vote for us please visit http://www.cornishbrides.co.uk/#/bridal-awards/4567309230

or go straight to our website www.partini.co.uk where you can fill out the short form to vote for us.

Please dont forget the hardship of these awards, as you will have to endure drinking nice wine and meeting with some fantastic people, Its hard doing the awards isnt it.........;o)

Event planning - Best 5 tips

If you are planning or thinking of organizing an event then this article from Event Cornwall http://www.eventcornwall.co.uk/  is a must read for you.

SUSTAINABILITY - OUR TOP 5 TIPS

1) Sustainability is about much more than just recycling.

It goes without saying recycling and careful waste management is vital to minimising our impact on the environment and improving our sustainable practises, but there are also many other ways to develop a sustainable workplace. Your staff are your most valuable asset so make sure you’re looking after them, develop great relationships with your suppliers, source great local products and engage with your local community . . . . just make sure you also take care of the simple stuff, and put your paper in the recycling bin too.

2) Sustainability should be a focus, not THE focus.

It is very rare that the content of your event will solely focus on environmental issues, so make sure the measures you’ve put in place don’t overshadow the reason your audience is there. They may be attending your event as film goers for a cinema screening, as delegates for a conference or an audience for a community festival, so may not be expecting or appreciate a lecture on sustainable practice. Instead, ensure sustainability is at the fore throughout the planning process and make sure it links seamlessly to the running of your event. Simple steps such as have recycling bins present at each site, using social media as a marketing tool, and promoting public transport options, can become a part of the visitor experience without taking it over.

3) Is your sustainability plan sustainable?

Ambition is fantastic, and is one of the key drives behind successful business, however it also pays to be realistic. Aiming to recycle 100% of your waste in the first year may be unlikely, so make sure you build steps into your sustainability planning. This gives your team key areas to work towards, and ensures you can build your sustainable practice over time. Remember, sustainability is an iterative process and it won’t be perfect from the start, so get to know what works for your company and build those steps in bit by bit.

4) Communicate with your audience

You have great public transport links to your venue, there are fantastic local producers at your festival, you can download the schedule before attending . . . these are all great initiatives, so make sure your audience are aware of them. As I mentioned before, avoid bombarding them with too much information about your sustainability policies, but make sure they’re aware of key opportunities. The Hay Festival is a great example of how to get it right, and I encourage you to check out their website – a fantastic model of how to make sustainability work on a large scale. http://www.hayfestival.com/greenprint/index.aspx?skinid=14

5) Get the whole team on board

Building your sustainable practice requires buy in from your whole team, so make sure everyone’s feedback is taken into consideration. The measures you put in place should enhance your employees workplace, and improve their productivity and effectiveness, and shouldn’t feel like a burden, or ‘another thing on the to do list’. Depending on the size of your company, it might not be practical to get everyone involved in the planning stage, but make sure you communicate changes well in advance, and make the process an open one – communication and opportunities to input into the process are vital for all team members and encourage people to take ownership for sustainability in their workplace.

 EVEN DELIVERY - Top five tips

All the P's- ' If you fail to prepare you prepare to fail'.
5 top tips for event delivery:

Planning & Production -
Although this section is about delivery of events – without effective, organised and structured planning the delivery cannot be successful. A schedule of activity, a project plan and strong communication between the team will ensure successful delivery.

People –
The right people in the right place at the right time. This is anything from suppliers, performers, traders, public this is all achieved through communication and having key people that you can call on and trust to deliver. By building up a strong network of people that you know will deliver takes away stress from YOU the event manager. Initiative is invaluable - not taught but vital in event management.

Presence –
When working on an event remember it is not YOU who has to respond to every query it is YOU that has this knowledge - so it is vital to share the right level of information with the right people.
To achieve this on large scale events implement a system – In the name of the Olympics:
Gold – Decision makers / Event manager / Emergency Services
Silver – Team Leaders / event support staff
Bronze – Volunteers
Having a clear structure like this makes for effective communication and fast responses.

Promotion –
It is vital to take time in the planning stages to discuss promotion and create a schedule of activity. Without promotion know one knows about your event so don't let all that hard work go to waste – set aside budget and time to ensure effective promotion.

Programme -
The programme can make or break an event. Be mindful when organising events that you don't present competition for yourself by making people choose between two events that are scheduled for the same time. Variety and engagement – when programming always go back to your planning and the aims and objectives and check if it fits – Quality over Quantity.

 DESIGNING EVENTS

1. Start with SMART aims & objectives

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound....if your aims & objectives for the event are all of these 5 things then you have a clear direction which you can communicate clearly to all of the team and which you can then evaluate against at the end of the project.

2. Be ambitious

Let your creativity pour out! Aim for the moon and you'll land amongst the stars! Start big thinking about what kind of content would achieve those SMART objectives and try to put the practicalities to one side whilst you map out all of your ideas. Even the smallest of ideas could be a great contribution to the event experience.

3. Then consider the practicalities

Now start to shape your event by checking the feasibility of your event content – it may not be possible to get Elvis or Madonna but what would they bring to the party and how could you create that impact within your resources? Having created your initial design, how can you now deliver it on time and on budget? Then starts the project planning....

4. Walk through the event in your mind as a ticket purchaser.....

It can be really helpful to imagine the event in your mind's eye and walk through the experience from the very beginning, from buying a ticket, through to going home afterwards. Does it all add up? Are there any incongruities? What could you tweak or change to improve it?

5. Would you buy a ticket?

The big question. Would you? Whatever your response, think about what has made you feel that way and use that information to develop the event design again. Don't forget who you are creating this experience for – does it meet their needs and wants?

MARKETING

Understand your audience

Sounds obvious really – that's because it is. But there is more to understanding your audience than knowing the demographic. If you're a company selling a product or a service, and it's easy to get caught up in the details of what your offering. However your audience will be looking for a solution to a problem, so you need to ensure that's exactly how you focus your marketing. For example, someone looking to buy a spade is wanting to dig a hole, so rather than focussing on how shiny and high spec your spade is, you tell your potential customer why it's YOUR spade is the best for digging that hole. Focus your marketing on the customers desired end result.

Know your USP

Similar to understanding your audience is knowing what sets up apart from your competitors. What makes your product or service so unique that a consumer or client would go to you? Knowing what your USP is is critical when launching a marketing campaign – once you understand your USP you're marketing will become more tailored and subsequently, more effective. If you're USP is that your company has 50 years in the business, make it a pivotal point of any campaigns – utilise your companies strengths to get results.

Marketing isn't just for attracting new customers

When people think of marketing it's more than likely we go to bill boards, poster campaigns, brochures and adverts. All these are fantastic methods of marketing, but these are all primarily associated with attracting new business, so what about existing customers and clients? There is a wealth of marketing which should be considered for nurturing relationships with existing clients. E-Bulletins, Newsletters, Discounts and Promotions, networking evenings/events are all good ways to foster strong links through marketing.

Network

In the age of technology so many businesses will contact new business via email and send out blanket information to potential clients on what they do. This may potentially yield some good leads, but can also be impersonal. Also, how can you be sure that you are hitting that companies specific needs if your marketing is generic? And how can you even know they've read it?
Nothing can take the place of good old fashioned networking. If you get out there, take the time to speak to new businesses, meet them, speak to them directly, attend trade shows and exhibitions, once again you are able to tailor your offering to the client and hear and answer their queries directly.

Don't get carried away

Creating a flashy brochure or reworking your website might look fantastic, but ask yourself each time, why are you doing it, and what will it achieve? Each time you make a marketing decision evaluate how strategic a move it is. Make sure you measure everything for return on investment, before undertaking any decisive changes. If you evaluate your actions, both before and after and question your motivation, you won't get lost in making marketing changes just for the sake of it.

 TOP TIPS – EVENT HEALTH & SAFETY

1. The Fun Police?

Try not to think of H&S as stopping people having a good time or getting on with their jobs, it's actually about thinking the event through and making sure that everyone has a good and safe time at your event. If you use Health & Safety as a means to check yourself and ensure that everything is covered, it will be a fantastic tool and will give you confidence in your planning and delivery.

2. Don't panic!

Be realistic about the risks. Yes, bad stuff can happen; events are inherently risky. However, we can usually mitigate the risk to make it a controlled situation which is manageable. When faced with a potential risk, look for the solution that is achievable and meets the needs of the majority and try to avoid leaping to melodramatic conclusions!

3. Apply common sense

It's a rare commodity but common sense is the basis for most Health & Safety requirements for events. If we step back from the detail of the event and look at the big picture, we can see that H&S is all about enabling everyone to enjoy themselves. So let's not make it a big deal, let's make it part of the whole event experience.

4. Get advice

If you are really flummoxed by an H&S issue or it's a potential show-stopper, then get help! Your local Council H&S or events departments can advise you, particularly if the event is in a public space but there are also H&S consultants out there who can be really useful. You can also call on other event managers to give their views on how you could resolve it. If it's related to emergency planning, then talk to your venue or to the Police so that you handle any issues in a way that is consistent with their existing plans for the site.

5. Communicate

If H&S is going to work then it has to be communicated to the whole team. Build it in to the event itself and the safety briefing is just part of talking about the event as a whole. Enable your team to do better by giving them the information they need to deal with issues as they arise and give them a clear definition of when to bring in help or ask for guidance. By getting the team on board and ensuring that they know about the event as a whole as well as the H&S aspects, they will be able to really contribute to the event experience and make it a success!

The importance of colour

Today i want to chat about the importance of colour.
To me... its very important that balloons always give the WOW factor.
The best way to achieve this is to add lots of vibrant and fun colour. Colour that stands out
I have just come across a website that talks about the different colours and what they can do for your wellbeing, this is what it said.

RED - give us passion and stimulates our physical vitality.

ORANGE - is the colour of enthusiasm and joy.

YELLOW – personal power, self-confidence and focus.

GREEN - nurtures us and is related to balance and love.

BLUE – helps us to communicate our true feelings.

INDIGO - enhances our intuition and helps with insomnia.

VIOLET – is the most creative colour and connects us to spirit!

Now to be honest i think that this is complete nonsense!!!!!!!

I think as long as what you do brings a smile to peoples faces then the meaning of all colours is happiness.

Here are a few photos and videos, so please leave a comment to whether or not they make you smile :)

Video supplied by Balloons by Tommy

www.facebook.com/balloonsbytommy

http://www.balloonsbytommy.com

Photo supplied by The smokey mountain balloon company 

 http://www.celebrateknox.com/

 http://www.facebook.com/celebrateknox

 If these pictures made you smile please leave a comment
And also a big thankyou to everyone who supplied these great images

Giant Balloons.....

Today im going to chat about giant balloons........I LOVE THEM!!!!!!! Now i know it isn't to everyone's taste, but in the last 12 months or so since a well known magazine (im not naming them as i cant get any free advertising out of them :) ) published an article and some pictures of giant WHITE balloons can look like, the brides of the UK have gone crazy for them so here are a couple of pictures of mine

Although giant white balloons seem to be the craze, i have been checking out what a difference adding some colour can really do to add some very imaginative pics to your wedding album, As i said before its not for everyone, but here are some of my favourite pictures.

My only worry is that if the current helium shortage continues these magical pictures may be a thing of the past.

Thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed our blog :)

How many balloons to lift a house?

 

I get asked all the time "how many balloons does it take to lift a person, the truth is i dont know exactly but then i was just reading an article on another balloonatics blog http://www.balloon.co.uk/blog/ and found it funny, so i thought i would share it with you!!!!!

Interesting article from physicsworld.com relating to the film UP, how many balloons would it take to lift a real house?

“The authors found that it would take almost 10 million helium balloons to lift the small wooden house and 400 million helium balloons to lift a typical UK house! They note the downfalls of this particular method of relocation though, by concluding that the balloons would “deflate very quickly at high altitudes” and that the “foundations and drainage of the house would be removed, making the structure very unstable, if by some miracle the journey is possible.” Pity, balloons would make moving so much easier!”

The other issue here is that the 10 million balloons will need to be inflated in less than 10 hours…..or the first balloon will have next to no lift.

See you guys soon and i hope you enjoyed this as much as i did :)

World balloon convention 2012, Dallas, Tx, USA

Today i'm writing about the world balloon convention 2012, which is being held at the Sheraton Dallas hotel in Dallas, Texas.
The balloon convention is organized by pioneer balloon company who are the leading balloon supplier in the world.
Here many of the worlds most creative balloon artists gather to learn, share, compete and most of all have fun with other like minded balloonatics :).
At The WBC you can take your CBA exam (certified balloon artist) which in our industry is a great qualification to have, it proves that you have the creativity and skills to tackle any balloon design you want to create.

Here are some of the balloon designs already created by some of the best in the industry.

Lets not forget how creative these guys are, these were all made out of just balloons.

So i will finish by wishing everyone at the WBC taking their exams good luck and Partini balloons hope you all have great fun.
Hopefully we will be there next time.

I will be posting more about this amazing event soon :)