Friday, October 3, 2014 ~ It’s Albuquerque Aloft in New Mexico. What is Albuquerque Aloft? Well, if you are into hot air ballooning events, you no doubt have heard of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. While the annual event officially begins tomorrow, this is the morning some of the participating balloon pilots launch their balloons from selected school grounds throughout the City of Albuquerque. The goal for this event is to inspire youngsters to learn more about aviation, particularly ballooning. It has also turned out to be a great recruiting tool in spawning new balloon pilots and not only keeping the industry alive but moving it forward.
What does Albuquerque Aloft have to do with this image of my badge from Web Design and Development ’97? Well, I’m the one who produced and published the first official website for the Balloon Fiesta in 1994. I continued to perform that service through my company from 1995 through 2001.
In 1996 I was introduced to database-driven website development software created by my friend Bill from Colorado who had been contracting his programming services to Borland International for years. Borland had bought out Ashton-Tate, the creator of dBase software, a database software program Bill and I had used since version 1.0. QuickSite evolved from his work on dBase. Bill sold his website software to DeltaPoint later that year. In 1997 I was using QuickSite software to facilitate and manage over 100 website publications. Bill became part of the DeltaPoint management team asked me to join him in representing their company’s efforts at Web Design and Development ’97. It was there that I first had the opportunity to share the Balloon Fiesta website on a Jumbo Tron screen during a reception held in honor of my work . I’ll never forget some of the luminaries in attendance. It was there I met Larry Ellison and John Sculley for the first time. Seeing my website production efforts on a screen that large was nothing less than amazing! Anyway, it was the first major international trade show exposure for the Balloon Fiesta website and an event I will never forget.]]>
