The Qualatex® World Tour Has Started - Enter the Mystery Box Competition to win a free registration to WBC 2018!

The Qualatex^® World Tour—#QualatexWorldTour17—has officially started! With sixty-six stops scheduled across the globe, this is going to be one amazing worldwide Qualatex event! 

Tina Giunta, CBA and Chris Adamo, CBA kick off the Q-Tour in Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Australia and New Zealand opened up this amazing tour with classes being held in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide, Australia plus Auckland, New Zealand.  In Europe, the tour kicked off in Belgium, closely followed by Greece! The U.S. tour starts in Miami on the 30th of March! To find out all the stops and class details click HERE for the U.S. and HERE for the rest of the world.

So what is the tour all about? 

This year sees Pioneer Balloon Company celebrating 100 years in business! Wow, what an amazing achievement! As part of this celebration, this fantastic education program is being taken around the world, and hopefully to a location close to you! To set this tour apart from a regular training day, a fabulous competition — the Mystery Box — has been introduced for each location. Not only will this add excitement and fun to the day but it will also link all the locations on the tour together! See below for more details on the Mystery Box competition.

The Classes: 
The tour is made up of a number of different fun and exciting class topics, and will slightly vary from one stop to another. 
So in one location, you might see Birthday Decor and More or the Best of Bubbles, or maybe Advanced Quick Links, or it could be the Twisted Tour! Each day is packed with fabulous, trendy designs and demonstrates many techniques. Plus, there will be marketing and business tips to grow your profits, and of course, a delicious lunch!

Qualatex World Tour Belgium.

The Instructors:
An all-star cast of fabulous world-renowned industry instructors has been selected to excite and entice you with a fabulous range of new designs and many fantastic techniques. To see who your instructor your instructors are, just click on the location and you will get all the relevant information.

David Taylor, CBA, teaching in Auckland, New Zealand.

The Mystery Box:
This is your opportunity to shine! Have you ever wanted to enter a competition but have not had the courage or been to an event where competitions are being held? The Mystery Box competition is the perfect opportunity for you to show off your skills and enter a worldwide balloon competition! A maximum of 10 entries are allowed per stop, so signing up early is essential! Contestants are given a box of balloons to create an innovative, eye-catching design in the span of only 30 minutes. An entrant may compete as an individual or as teams of two. The top entry of each stop on the tour will receive a prize and advance to compete with the winners of all the other tour stops. A grand prize of a free registration to WBC 2018 will be awarded to the world champion Mystery Box winner!
Please note, there are six different theme boxes, so even if you see photographs posted on social media, you cannot be sure which theme you will get, so be prepared for any theme!!

A big "Cheers" to Ines Lambert and Steven de Maesschalck, our Mystery Box winners at the Belgium stop! 

The rules are simple; each competitor will be supplied with a Mystery Box and  each box will contain the same selection of balloons, but it is not a requirement to use all the balloons within the box. Please note that the Mystery Box themes will change from location to location keeping the element of surprise!

In addition to the balloons supplied, there will be a Balloon Store where limited additional balloons will be available on the accessories table. This will include 160Qs, 260Qs, 350Qs and 646Qs. There will also be Deco Bubbles, 5” White, 5” Black, 12” Blush Quick Links and any other balloons that could complement your design. It is not a requirement to use any of these balloons; they are available for those who wish to use them.

The accessories table will also supply, Hi-Float, balloon ribbons in various colours, balloon weights, and helium with balloon inflators suitable for inflating foil, latex, and Bubble Balloons.

Competitors are requested to supply:

• Hand pumps
• Scissors
• Markers/Pens 
• Wires and tape. Any accessories that are non-balloon related that you may be able to use with your design. However, the box themes will not be disclosed prior to the competitions.

So if you want to use Lomey or a Plexipole to make a centrepiece, for example, you are welcome to provide this yourself. 

So what are the judges looking for? 

Knowing and understanding the judging criteria is very important and can help you to score highly!

1. Overall Impression: Visual impact, originality, uniqueness.
2. Overall Design: Does the celebration design illustrate effective use of Colour and Balance? Is there a good use of Rhythm and Line within the display?  Is there a good knowledge of Proportion and Scale demonstrated? Have elements and principles of design been applied and used effectively?
3. Construction: Is the celebration design easy to transport and present to the recipient? Is the design stable and durable? Does the design demonstrate high quality of work and meet professional standards? Are mechanics well hidden? Has the design been well constructed? Will the design last for more than 48 hours?
4. Use of balloons: Has the competitor created a design that uses a good selection of the Mystery Box balloons? Have they been used in an exciting and creative way? 
5. Unity & Harmony: Do all the elements appear to belong together, resulting in a strong sense of oneness (a feeling of belonging together)?
6. Adherence to All Rules, Regulations, and Guidelines: Was Smart Balloon Practices/ California Law rules followed? Was the design completed within the 30 minutes? Did all unused items get returned to the Balloon Store as per the rule? The Balloon Store has a range of additional balloon stock that will give competitors the opportunity to expand on what they have available in their Mystery Box. Items are limited, items, therefore it is important that these are selected carefully and not simply taken. Items selected from the Balloon Store must be used or returned to the store to give other competitors the opportunity to use if needed. Points can be deducted from a competitor's score if items selected from the Balloon Store have not been returned if not used during the competition. 

Luc Bertrand, CBA, teaches his World Tour class in Athens, Greece! 

Here are some great group shots from the tour so far!

Qualatex World Tour Brisbane, Australia

Qualatex World Tour Belgium

Qualatex World Tour Greece

If you have any questions about the tour or the Mystery Box competition, please ask. We are happy to help!

We hope to see you soon at one of the world tour stops!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.com