I believe we have talked about decorating balconies before for different holidays, such as Christmas or Halloween, but we ran across a picture that made us realize there was opportunities throughout the year!  We put this into the "student housing events" category because for some reason, the pirate ship screamed student housing.  But it does show a fun opportunity!  You can run with this idea in one of two ways:

1. Leave it up to their imagination to think up any type of decorating idea they like.  For example, one apartment could decorate like the pirate ship, while another could decorate theirs like the inside of the bottle on I Dream of Jeannie.  (Wow, that was an obscure reference...)
2. Give a theme to the decorating contest.  Wouldn't be great if you gave a pirate theme and suddenly there was a floating armada on the side of your buildings?  We love the possibilities!