by STEVE PASIERB, President and CEO, The Toy Affiliation
By altering shopper conduct, financial uncertainty, and disruption on the earth at massive, The Toy Association is right here to assist the wide-ranging toy and play neighborhood — together with companies of all sizes and kinds — with the instruments, sources, and alternatives essential to prevail over any challenges.
We provide robust advocacy, insightful market analysis, and the enduring Toy Truthful in New York Metropolis to gasoline enterprise progress. Small and mid-size producers and specialty retailers can particularly profit from our hands-on strategy. The Toy Affiliation staff is right here to take heed to challenges, perceive wants, and act on them, whether or not which means liberating an important cargo caught in customs, connecting members to authorized sources, serving to decipher testing and regulatory points, advocating on everybody’s behalf in Congress, collaborating and proposing workable options at each degree of presidency, or driving influential pro-play and pro-safety messaging in shopper media. We’re a accomplice to all. Every firm’s particular person success is our collective success.
This 12 months, we’re wanting ahead to a groundbreaking Toy Truthful — our first in-person Toy Truthful since earlier than the pandemic — happening from Sept. 30-Oct. 3. As at all times, the occasion will kick off with The Toy Foundation’s Toy of the 12 months Awards on Friday evening, adopted by 4 days of enterprise and networking in a brand new fall time-frame that may supply recent alternatives for all.
With greater than 98% of accessible exhibit area already offered out, the worldwide toy business shall be there to make connections, share innovation, and preview what’s coming to market in 2024. Patrons may also have an opportunity to make last-minute choices for the fourth quarter to remain on-trend and set themselves up for a profitable vacation 2023. The voice and views of specialty retailers will particularly have an awesome impression on the merchandise manufactured within the coming 12 months.
By a brand new required merchandising initiative, the present will boast extra open cubicles and fewer closed partitions, providing retailers and media an interactive and welcoming expertise, giving them an opportunity to see extra merchandise than ever earlier than. Toy Truthful will proceed to behave as a media hub for reporters from all around the world overlaying the toy, play, and youth leisure industries, offering corporations with ample alternatives to make a splash by model activations, partnership bulletins, and the most well liked toys of the vacation season.
From retailers, inventors, and designers to licensors, producers, distributors, and importers, the toy neighborhood will come collectively to switch data, see the most recent tendencies, and study from a variety of consultants throughout many disciplines who will current their concepts at Toy Truthful College. Periods overlaying manufacturing and packaging, retail, social media and influencers, expertise, security, and mental property will assist companies of all sizes.
First-time exhibitors will profit from the Launch Pad space, the place consumers and others can scout out distinctive, never-before-seen merchandise from younger corporations. Inventors and designers are supported by the Inventive Issue Inventor Day, throughout which a choose group of inventors are invited to pitch their concepts to established corporations. And, the Pupil Congress will assist construct the way forward for toy and play individuals.
If this all sounds somewhat overwhelming, significantly to anybody desperate to attend for the primary time, relaxation assured that our staff has deliberate a full schedule of webinars and sources to assist companies not solely put together logistically for Toy Fair, but additionally set them up for achievement as they appear to take advantage of their time on the present. And, we’re right here to assist immediately with any particular person query.
We take our dedication to guard and promote the enterprise of toys and play very critically. We’re devoted at each step — from an entrepreneur with an concept by to publicly traded corporations; from a single native retail door to a mass marketer — because it’s all concerning the whole well being and vibrancy of our extraordinary, fantastic, various neighborhood.
On the eve of our 107th anniversary of service and because the business travels to Columbus, Ohio for an additional superb ASTRA Marketplace & Academy, we want everybody all the very best. What you are promoting and the youngsters, households, and adults all of us serve, will at all times be our precedence.
A model of this text was initially revealed within the 2023 Classics & Specialty Subject of The Toy Ebook. Click here to learn the total concern! Need to obtain The Toy Ebook in print? Click here for subscription choices!
