Dallas, Texas, was the site of the American Pyrotechnics Association’s (APA) 59th annual convention; billed as the Red River Shootout. The Convention was scheduled around daytime seminars and a trade show, while many nights were punctuated by a reception culminating in a fireworks display. The fact that the convention coincided with the Texas State Fair and the Texas v. Oklahoma football game—the Red River Shootout—only added to the excitement and energy surrounding the convention.
All of the daily presentations were conducted by a panel of respected industry experts and government regulators, and they were all informative and topical. A significant number of exhibitors brought their products and services to Friday’s trade show. As a first, some one dozen manufacturers from Liuyang City, China, attended the convention and its trade show; in fact, the APA provided these manufacturers with their own section of the trade show under the banner ‘Liuyang City’. Unique to the APA are the roundtable sessions that pair government regulators and interested APA members for purposes of exchanging information and to pursue questions of interest.
Wednesday evening’s display was created and produced by the APA women in professional pyrotechnics (WIPP) committee, and it was a crowd pleaser. Not only is WIPP the largest APA committee (by my count), but its inaugural display was a spectacular kick-off for the series of evening displays to follow nightly.
Friday evening’s Red River Shootout lived up to it billing. Southfork Ranch was the site of this no-holds-barred duel by and between display companies situated in Oklahoma and Texas. The event was hotter than a Times Square Rolex.
