Balloon and Party Industry Alliance is celebrating its tenth year in 2020. In the most recent PPE column, chairman John Bowler took a look back at the past year in balloons.
“As 2020 marks the start of a new decade it also marks BAPIA’s tenth anniversary – and if this year is as good for BAPIA as 2019 was, then it will be fantastic.
Last year saw a number of highights for the BAPIA team and our membership. Firstly, we saw some significant increases in the benefits offered to members, including an increase for the public and products liability cover, which is now an impressive £10 million. Our supplier members also added a number of great offers and discounts from some of the UK’s leading balloon and party wholesalers, exclusively for BAPIA members.
2019 was also the start of our monthly Facebook competition which has proven very popular and is growing each month, with more than 40 entries in December alone.
The incredible Chris Adamo UK & Ireland tour took place in April, with Chris ‘wowing’ more than 300 delegates with his décor skills and organic techniques. We even raised £1,750 for Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) during the tour, thanks to the generous support of our sponsors and delegates.
We also ran the GOSH Children’s Christmas Party Class in December, for the seventh year running. Once again, it was oversubscribed with BAPIA members eager to take part and was a huge success. We must thank suppliers for their continued support, as their sponsorship of the product to create the décor allowed us to create a wonderful Christmas feel. The incredibly deserving children and staff of the hospital really had a great time.
Over the past 12 months, BAPIA has also seen a significant increase in membership of about 30% so at the end of the year we sent out a small gift as a gesture of our appreciation. We felt that aluminium water bottles would be a useful and environmentally sound gift and we have had a fantastic response. We still have a few left so we will be sending these out to new members while stocks last!”
