Kidz-Playz Party Rentals, Vancouver

The team behind Kidz-Playz enhances children's gatherings with inflatable play structures whose springy, cushiony surfaces encourage hours of bounding and tumbling. By toting these portable playhouses to clients' homes, Kidz-Playz's staff continues a profession that predates agriculture—renting children's party supplies.

In ancient Greece, for example, mask makers visited parties to give kids their own drama masks, which displayed one of the two known human emotions at that time—happiness and defeat. Come the Middle Ages, parents hired clowns, court jesters, and recently usurped monarchs to entertain their offspring. But it wasn't until the late 20th century that party technology really evolved, giving children access to supplies such as hot-dog-flavored birthday cakes and the pinnacle of entertainment: the inflatable bounce house.