Fiesta Week 2020 – Due to the impact of COVID-19, the 49th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was rescheduled for 2021. I had planned to attend Fiesta both in 2020 and 2021 (assuming 2021 would be the 50th Anniversary celebration), but that didn’t happen. I was finally able to attend the event in 2022 and 2023. In 2023, I quickly realized my physical limitations would most likely keep me from attending in person again.
October 2021 marked 20 years since I was designated “Official Diva” and registered the officialdiva.com domain. Thanks to advances in technology and medicine and the loving care of family and friends, I’m still here! A stage-four colon cancer survivor, now CANCER FREE, I’m looking forward to attending Balloon Fiesta annually again. Thanks to Facebook, I’ve been able to reconnect with members of my ballooning family from all over the world over the past couple of years. If you are among those friends or a new friend with a spurring passion for ballooning and ballooning events, I invite you to join our Balloon Talk group on Facebook.
It was a privilege to serve as the primary adviser for online presentation, promotion, and communications for the world’s largest ballooning event from 1995 through 2001. In November 2001, the event announced the loss of its title sponsor of 10 years. After the 2001 event wrap-up, I realized I needed to make some changes, too. It was time for me to step back and for my staff to take on the bulk of the work.
By 2002, several other sponsors had backed out or significantly reduced their sponsorship level. Although my company had already been contracted to produce the first edition of the 2002 Fiesta website, Fiesta officials expressed interest in additional services and asked me for ideas to increase revenue through their online presence. Of the 23 solutions I proposed, Fiesta contracted my company to implement and manage an innovative online hotel reservation program. We hired Mantos Consulting to program the required applications. We also had to terminate our web development services to focus on delivering the new program’s scope.
After weighing the costs against the benefits of managing the 2002 online reservation program, I made a strategic decision to back away from the proposed 2003 project, essentially marking my “retirement” from official involvement with the event. I continue to share the extensive insights I gained from working with the world’s largest ballooning event, offering event marketing consulting services to current and prospective Fiesta sponsors, as well as other sports marketing organizations.