4 April 2009
BELBAL PartyDeco Polish Balloon Event
More than 100 participants from all over Poland, joined at the Sport Hotel in Belchatow from the 19th till the 22nd of March for the 2009 edition of the BELBAL - Partydeco Polish Balloon Event. The event, the 4th in row, is a good illustration of how the decorator maket in Poland in developing. Many participants joined seminars and workshops and 4 decorator teams competed in the Big Sculpture 'Saferi' contest.
Sponsors to the event were BELBAL, Party Deco, Amscan - Anagram and Airproducts.
Visitors of the balloon event were also invited to the 2nd Balloon Photo Exhibiton with work from Michael Gjerek.
Big Sculpture Competition
The second » Big Sculpture Competition« started on 19th March. Four teams of Polish decorators were challanged to build a large balloon sculpture ( 3m x 3m x 3m) during the first 2 days of the event. Topic of the competition was Safari.
Due to the professionalism of the competing teams, the jury was given a difficult task by having to select the first 3 prizes.
Following people were part of the jury:
1. Adam Wita - Deco Team - Poland
2. Monika Wita - Deco Team - Poland
3. Anna Trzeciakiewicz - Deco Team - Poland
4. Edward Trzeciakiewicz - Deco Team - Poland
5. Bartosz Dryl - Studio Dekoracij Balonowych - Poland
6. Chris Horne - Amscan/Anagram
7. Miroslaw Ciapalski - Belbal - Poland
8. Michael Gjerek - Belbal / BalloonsIT - Slovenia
Criteria for the 8 judges was : The story, use of techniques, composition and combination of colours:
The first 3 winners were:
1st prize went to the Proarti team (Artur Chojnacki & Kazimierz Chojnacki with assistants Joanna Kraska & Iwona Kluk)
2nd prize went to Jarma Decor -Gaudeo (Michał Małkiewicz & Jan Karolewski)
3rd prize went to Agaras - Harcu (Radek Pastusiak & Michał Jurków)
The first prize was an award bonus of 1.000€. The second prize a bonus of 500€ and the third prize a bonus of 250€. The award bonus can be exchanged for balloon material in the Party Deco Shop.
The jury also decided to give a special prize (a Conwin regulator) to the youngest participant in the Competiton: Mateusz Boguszewski.
Top Secret Competition
In the Top Secret Competition, held on the second day of the event, participants were challenged to create a decoration within 60 minutes using material from the top secret envelope. More than 15 decorators took the challenge and build a table decoration while the audience were giving points by giving away sweets instead of points.
The winner of the Top Secret competition was - Michał Małkiewicz from Jarma Decor. He received an award bonus of 100 €. In addition to his bonus the winner also received all the remaining sweets used by the jury for judging.
Seminars
During the 3 days many seminaries were given covering all levels, from beginning to advanced and professional decorating, introducing new techniques, tools, equipment and balloon products.
Seminar topics for Beginners were:
1. Save Helium - Airproducts
2. Hi Float - DecoTeam
3. Balloon Releases and Drops - Deco Team
4. Balloon Walls - Deco Team
5. Basic Balloon Equipment - Deco Team
6. Photography for Balloon Decorators - Michael Gjerek
7. Decorations with BELBAL`s B350 ( 3 feet balloon) - Michael Gjerek
8. Balloon Print basic`s - Michael Gjerek
9. Garland Design - Bartosz Dryl
10. Balloon callygraphy - Bartosz Dryl
11. Marketing basic`s - Deco Team
12. Balloon Calculations - DecoTeam
13. Wedding Basics - Deco Team
14. Enhance your designs - Chris Horne
Seminar topics for advanced decorators were:
1. Balloon Sculptures for Sale - Bartosz Dryl
2. Special balloon Sculptures - Bartosz Dryl
3. Patriotic designs - Michael Gjerek
4. Summer designs - Michael Gjerek
5. Balloon Vases - Michael Gjerek
6. Special Balloon Columns - Deco Team
7. Halloween designs - Deco Team
8. Modelling flowers - Deco Team
9. New Year designs - Deco Team
10. New foil Shapes - Chris Horne
11. Foil and Latex - Chris Horne
12. 3 D wall sculptures - Deco Team
The teachers of this year's seminare were:
- Chris Horne - Amscan / Anagram ( UK)
- Ania and Edward Trzeciakiewicz - Edan Art ( Poland)
- Monika and Adam Wita - Mawit ( Poland )
- Bartosz Dryl - Studio Dekoracij Balonowych ( Poland)
- Michael Gjerek - BELBAL /BalloonsIT ( Slowenia )
The weekend was rounded off with group discussions and an exchange of ideas and experiences in decorating, which proved very interesting and popular with the delegates. Many of the course participants decided to join BalloonsIT - so, we will meet each other in the virtual reality as well.
Congratulations to all the attendees, a big thank you to all the teachers, sponsors and to the Partydeco team were expressed by Michael Gjerek from Belbal during his closing speech.
All decoration pictures from the BELBAL PartyDeco balloon Event will be uploaded soon to the BalloonsIT Picture Gallery.
Photo by Adam Wita.
