Last week saw Pioneer Balloon Company hosting the world’s largest virtual balloon convention, which took place from Monday 30 March through to Friday 3 April 2020.
Hosted on the Q Corner YouTube channel by Britain’s Got Talent contestants and regular ‘Q Corner’ hosts Dominic Cassidy and Keith Stirman, The Q Corner Convention ran for 24 hours a day continuously for five days.
The convention was divided into 100 segments across the week, delivering 120 hours of education classes, including everything from amazing design ideas and new techniques to business workshops and social media master classes. In all, 88 balloon professionals representing 23 countries volunteered their time to make this event a real spirit-lifter for the balloon and party industry in these challenging times.
With the convention available to be viewed live or later, an early snapshot of viewing figures shows over 300,000 views of content, with over 66,000 unique viewers from 116 countries. Many viewers were following along and making designs they learned during the convention, before posting them on Instagram and Facebook with the #QCornerConvention hashtag.
The closing ceremony on Friday night saw nearly 1,000 people tune in live to see the winners of the 12 minute Twisting Competitions and then the big announcement – where it was revealed that Q Corner Convention will be back! Then all viewers were treated to a musical finale – the convention’s Instructors performing their version of Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
Harry Stedman, member of Balloominati, said: “I can’t imagine the time, hours of preparation of designs went into each and every artist’s class but what was shared was pure amazing – not only because everyone volunteered their time but because the designs varied from fast linework to decor and centrepieces and everything in between. Thanks for all you’ve done – we really as an industry appreciate it in such uncertain times. Roll on Q-Corner Convention 2020.”
“We received a tremendous amount of positive feedback during the convention and many people asked that we make this a regular event, so we will definitely be doing it again,” said Susan Dhillon, marketing communications director at Pioneer Worldwide. “There are also still some prizes to be won. People watching the seminars are encouraged to take a photo of the designs they make, or a screen shot of the classes they’ve watched with a fun tag line, and post on Instagram with the #QCornerConvention hashtag. Winners will be announced on the Mr Q Facebook page over the coming weeks.
“And for those who already miss the excitement of a live Q Corner show, make sure to tune in to our next episode of our regular Q Corner show, which runs every other Wednesday evening at 6pm London time. Next episode is scheduled to air Wednesday 8 April. We look forward to seeing you there!”
