The Confetti Party Blog! » Flutter Fetti Fun Factory Post-Katrina

X6 ELECTRIC LAUNCHER WITH A WIRELESS CONTROL UNIT and THE POD
Ever since being involved with the confetti industry I have been looking at my competitors electric launchers to see if I wanted to carry them to sell to my customers.

Unfortunately, everyone I tried would only shoot 25′ high and that just wasn’t providing the “WOW” effect that I thought my customers needed.
Jon Stern, the love of life and my “can do” guy,  said he would work on designing one that would “knock my socks off”.  Right, I secretly thought.  Well, he did it!  Never underestimate the power of a man!

Jon, calls his new electric launcher the X6 because it can be positioned to shoot at least 6 different ways.  It’s very versatile.  It has 2 barrels which can be separated.  It comes with a C-clamp and a safety strap. It can be hung from a lighting grid or it can sit on a stage floor.  It operates with 2- 16 gram threaded Co2 cylinders and 110 electric volts, but can be retrofitted to work with compressed air and can be changed to work with  220 electric volts.

It now has various control options:  One Single Push button Control Box, A Multi Switch (8 channels) Control Box, and a Programmable Wireless Transmitter with Unique Numeric Code to Prevent Misfires.

Recently, while doing a site visit for a 4th of July event at Celebration,  Florida, we showed the presenter (John Adcock) with Party Tunes, a demonstration of the X6 launcher  and a prototype of a 9 barreled launcher Jon Stern named the POD.  Another one of his new creations.

While discussing what John wanted for the show he asked if we had a wireless transmitter which could shoot the X6’s off independently of each other with no wiring ( Disney’s so sensitive ) connecting them all toghether.  Of course, at that time we didn’t have that technology, but Jon Stern said “I think we could do that.”

Also, at the presentation Jon showed John Adcock his newest invention the POD.  It was very primitive and one of the 3 barrels didn’t even fire off,  yet John Adock said if Jon could invent it he would like a 9-barreled launcher to put on the very top of his stage and he wanted the POD’s 9 barrels to fire off independently of each other giving a “SIMULATED FIREWORKS” effect.  What we needed was a programmable control unit  to fire off all the barrels at once or in staggered firing configuration.  I thought yea right, where in the world was I going to find that, but to my great dismay Jon Stern readily agreed to supplying it.

Once in the car I asked Mr. Smarty Pants “how in the world was he going to develop all that he had promised to John since I didn’t know of anyone in the industry where I could rent either a Wireless Remote Control Unit or  could design a control unit which would enable to 9 barrels of the POD to fire off independently of each other!”

Jon was confident that working with another developer he had teamed up with they could invent these control units but at the time I said to Jon “do you think our guinea pig should be at a Disney affiliated property?”

The day of the show I was a nervous wreck.  Jon had hung 26 double barreled X6 launchers one the light poles up Main Street at Celebration  and mounted on top of the state a newly designed 9-barreld POD which had on board Programmable Microprocessor. 

Each of the  35 launcher barrels were filled with 15- 2″ X 40′ long red, silver and blue metallic streamers.  525 streamers were ready to fly through the air after the fireworks show. 

Of course, it rained after all of the launchers had been hung which doubled my stress level! Jon had told me that everything was water proof but since it all was brand new my stomach was in an upheaval hoping he was right.

For the show Jon had programed  the new Wireless Transmitter to program 26 doubled barreled launchers to shoot of independently of each other with one push of the button.  He had also helped design a control unit for the POD in which each of the 9 barrels would fire off independently of each other and was controlled by the wireless transmitter.  ONE PUSH OF THE BUTTON WOULD CONTROL THE WHOLE SHOW1!  (I hoped!)

Of course, I was a nervous wreck praying that the control unit would work since this was the first show we were using it at.  To my great excitement I’m proud to tell you that the shoot was “FLAWLESS”.  All the barrels fired off as programmed.   It was SOOO COOL!  Over 900 streamers flew into the air and the audience went nuts!  It was an amazing special effect!  The streamers were so beautiful that almost all of them  were picked up as souvenirs by the audience.
Of course, now Jon wants to build more PODS and link them together so we can offer a safe, affordable simulated fireworks show to event planners.
So, we now have the X6 electric remote controlled double barreled launcher with a wireless control unit  and a 9-barrel POD available for rent or for sale which I can confidently say all work beautifully.

What’s next for Jon?  He thinks we need an affordable wireless table top launcher that can be controlled by the push of a button and detonate streamers and confetti from table center pieces, including flower arrangements. I know event planners would love this item for their banquets.  I’ll keep you posted when Jon is ready to unveil his newest product…which I now know will happen.

Many of my clients have told me that I’m one of the few folks they actually know who lost everything after Hurricane Katrina.  Generously, they wanted to know how they could help us. 

Of course, one way is to place an order but now that I have this blog I have another request.

If you’re using our products at your event please email me a video or a photo which I can put onto this blog.  Also, any comments you can share so other people who are thinking about using our products at their event might learn from your experience with our products.

So please email them to me at  fettilady@flutterfetti.com so I can put them on my blog. 

Have A Flutter Fetti Fun Day

As many of you know we lost everything during Hurricane Katrina.  We’ve attached photos of our warehouse after the storm.  You can see all our hard work and labor turned into a messy stinky mush.

After the storm we evacuated to family in New Port Richey, Florida.  We lived with them for almost 2 months.  You can’t say enough about having close family.  I don’t know what we would have done if they hadn’t welcomed us into their lives and homes.

Right after the storm realizing that New Orleans was under water and that we weren’t going home, I quickly realized that I had the contract for Paul McCartney’s, Weezer’s and Green Day’s Concert Tours.  I had to get back in business!

I contacted the manufacturer of my guillotine cutting machine and they told me about a distributor who was located in Lutz, Florida.  I immediately contacted him and he told me about a warehouse he had just rented in St. Petersburg, Florida, which had a cutting machine in it.  We met there and I rented his warehouse on the spot.  I called my suppliers and had tissue paper flown in and that’s how I got back into business.

It’s been a struggle having to pay old debt while incurring new debt. Now I know what the words “ground zero” mean.  It’s very hard to start over again after you’ve lost everything.  I’m very lucky that my customer base is world wide.   I can’t say enough about my loyal customers.  Hundreds of them emailed us hoping that we were all right.  Many of them waited until they heard from us not jumping to a competitor to place their orders.  Loyalty is a wonderful gift that they gave me.  Thanks to them  we’ve been able to start the re-bulding process.
Since my home survived the flooding of the storm (the water came within 2 ½ blocks of my street), I returned to New Orleans and set up a small office there.  Life in New Orleans is very challenging.  There is still so much trash, debris, ruined cars and homes everywhere.  Nightly the local news gives us updates on Katrina related news and business.  There is overall a state of depression here I think because so much is still devastated. 

I just read a book called “One Dead in the Attic” by Chris Rose.  It will make you laugh and cry when you read his impressions after the storm.  Now I’m reading “The Great Deluge” by Douglas Brinkley.  Mr. Brinkley gives an insight into the city one week after the storm.  It’s UNBELIEVABLE how incompetent our local, state and our Federal government reacted after the storm.  How unprepared we are for catastrophic disasters in this country!  While reading the book you can’t believe you’re reading about a disaster in the United States of America.
Everyone should read this book so they can try to understand the monumental damage  Hurricane Katrina caused and how it affected lives after the storm.  His book makes you sick and outraged at our leaders.  If were not prepared for a natural disaster how can this country coop with a terrorist attack?

I was told that I shouldn’t include any segment in this Blog about Hurricane Katrina but the impact it has had in ruining all we had built in the 3 years I have owned the company is devasting.  Since many of you have grown to be friends of the Fun Factory I know you’ve shared in our pain and our courage to start again.  We sincerely appreciate you being there for us.  We all hope and pray and this hurricane season is quiet and that no one has to go through what the City of New Orleans has suffered from Hurricane Katrina.