The first step in creating a new event is to present it to the AIBF Board of Directors. Scott Appelman made the presentation to the Balloon Fiesta Board. The Board was quite skeptical that it would work. One of the selling points to the board was Scott Appelman telling them that Mark Sullivan knew all the Special Shape pilots and owners and that he would be able to make it happen. Since this was Marks’ first board meeting and didn’t understand all the specifics about the board, he didn’t realize that this task might be difficult. One of the biggest reasons being because there was no money in the budget for the new event. Frank Wechter came up with the name Special Shape Rodeo and as plans kept developing the name stuck!

The Special Shapes were scheduled to launch on Thursday and Friday afternoons. The committee hoped to get people to the field for an event because there had never been any afternoon flights. The first year we were lucky because the balloons were able to fly both days. This event was such a success that it created major traffic jams and produced huge crowds. Twenty-eight shapes participated in the first event and the Special Shape Rodeo was on solid ground. The Shape Rodeo grew each year with 35 shapes in 1990, 45 shapes in 1991, 62 shapes from eight countries in 1992 and a whopping 108 in 1996, the largest Special Shape Rodeo.

In 1993 the Special Shape Rodeo added a third flight that would take place Thursday morning and by 1998, Special Shapes were so popular that they were the only balloons to launch from the field on Thursday and Friday mornings as well as evening events. For a total of four events dedicated strictly to Special Shapes. The afternoon flights had been changed to glows because of weather related problems that are to difficult to predict in the late afternoon. The shapes glow has come to be called the Special Shape Glowdeo™.