Happy 10-Year Anniversary to Balloon HQ!

February 2, 2002 marked the 10-year anniversary of archived, on-line resources being served to balloon artists around the world. It's hard to believe that we (and the Internet itself!) have come so far. In the past few months, we've transitioned the old "What's New" page into a History of Balloon HQ. The following time line shows a few of the milestones that have paved the way for the BalloonHQ.com we know today.

Balloon HQ Time Line

• 1992: E-mail messages for the Twisters List were first archived on February 2 under Larry Moss's FooledYa.com domain.

  

• 1993: The first preliminary web pages were put on-line, entitled "Balloon Modeling on the Net."
  
• 1994: Sheena Beaverson and Mark Balzer discover the twisters list. Mark immediately begins distilling information from the old ftp archives into the Guide to Balloons and Ballooning. Sheena gets her BHQ start by developing Guide chapters.

• 1995: Traffic from balloon decorators began to flood the twisters list in the spring. As a result, the Decorators e-mail list was created.

• 1996: Cap'n Denny's Sculptures In Messages (SIM) listing is by now a popular feature. David Graves' photo archives are growing in earnest.

• 1997: We finally got overwhelmed, and made the tough decision to take the whole thing off-line. Within an hour of announcing this, Pioneer became our first major sponsor. Balloon HQ resources stayed on-line. After that, "The Guide" began to resemble the robust entity it is today. The first on-line balloon photo contest was held.

• 1998: On-line Balloon Photo Contests become a standard feature. Twisters List discussions lead to the planning of the first ever balloon entertainers conference (T&JAM 1999).

• 1999: The Balloon HQ web site underwent many changes, including a new front page design offering monthly Feature Photos. BHQ hired its first paid employee, Jacob Levine. A new server was added, just in time for Y2K.

• 2000: Many behind-the-scenes projects were under way, to be unveiled the following year.

  

• 2001: The Official BalloonHQ.com Logo was unveiled in February, 2001.

  The new Photo Database and expanded member services were added throughout 2000 and 2001. These included dynamic listings of Upcoming Events, Classified Ads, Member Portfolios, vanity e-mail addresses, and an improved Artist Directory. Monthly columns by guest authors are a popular new feature.

What will the future hold?

Balloon HQ will continue its mission to educate, share, and promote balloon art for entertainers and decorators. We invite you to join us in celebrating our 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY! The celebration starts with a birthday party at Twist & Shout in Peabody, MA this month. There will be birthday cake for everyone that attends. Details of how we'll be extending the birthday celebration at IBAC will be announced shortly.