It was sunshine and smiles in Tauranga as one of NZ's  premier sign manufacturers, Textiles Alive Printing NZ, joined forces with Packaworld to be their exclusive manufacturer of Packasign 'Skins'.

Packasign, an inflatable advertising hoarding, is a new concept to meet the ever increasing demand for professional looking advertising space and is revolutionising the way that hoardings are transported and set up.

"We've spent a number of months co-developing the signage system and we're really pleased with the results" said John Heyworth, Textiles Alive's Managing Director. 

It was all fun and frolics down at Wellington waterfront where avid Phoenix fans practised their shooting skills from the banks of the lagoon. The target, a floating Packagoal, proved difficult to hit but those that did scored a ticket for the Phoenixs' opening game of the season v The Brisbane Roar.

The event, run by the ZM Black Thunder team and supported by Phoenix players Jeremy Brockie and Glen Moss , was a great opportunity to test the latest product from the Packaworld stable. 

"This [Packasign] is a pretty cool product," said Cam Bisley, ZM.   

BLOW UP: Packaworld sold 25 of inflatable bocce courts to be used at Asia Pacific Special Olympics.

A Wellington businessman is hoping his revolutionary product for the sport of bocce, world sport's third most participated game, will get the ball rolling on his range of inflatable sports equipment.

Packaworld, a provider of a range of blow-up sporting goods, has recently secured a contract which will see its specially designed inflatable bocce courts used at this year's Asia Pacific Special Olympics.

Bocce is an Italian sport similar to bowls or petanque, and in 2011 about 217,000 Special Olympics athletes participated in bocce events around the world.

"This is one of the best ideas I've seen for a while," said David Le Pelley, manager of the Yacht Research Unit at The University of Auckland, "and we see and test a lot of products here at the facility."

"We wanted to put the Packasigns through their paces," said Packaworld head, Pete Roberts, "and what better place to do it than at one of world's leading research centres for yacht design. We're happy with the results and collected some valuable data which will go into enhancing the design of the product."