Episode #42: The Virtual Event That Toy Inventors Need Right Now
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In today's episode, I will explain everything about THE event that is known for connecting inventors to pitch their toy ideas to large and small toy companies. People of Play, formerly known as CHITAG, is a weeklong toy fair for industry inventors, manufacturers, and it’s open to the public. With 2020 knocking out all hopes for an in-person fair this year, the CHITAG group, put together a massive innovation summit dubbed People of Play week. This event is designed to keep inventors and toy professionals up to date with the latest in the industry via daily virtual conferences, as well as connect them to plan meetings and pitch ideas much like the original in-person show.
As The Toy Coach, I'll give you an overview of my personal experience with CHITAG, and tell you why I think it’s such a key show that any toy inventor should know about and plan to attend. Then this episode will dive into how this show is going virtual this year, and we’ll chat about the rebrand of CHITAG into People of Play week. Stick around for the end of this episode, because it wraps up with 5 tips on how to make the MOST out of this massive virtual event. And those are tips you can apply to the many virtual events I’m sure you’ve been finding yourself at all year.
Bonus! For being a listener of my podcast you get a very special 10% discount code for this event.
Just use the code: thetoycoach at checkout. Check out here.
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Register For The Event by Clicking Here .
Check out the People Of Play Week Virtual Event List.
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Azhelle
You are listening to Making It in The Toy Industry Episode Number 42
Intro/Outro + Jingle
Welcome to Making It in The Toy Industry podcast for inventors and entrepreneurs like you know your Azhelle Wade.
Azhelle
Hey there toy people Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of Making It in The Toy Industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by the toy coach.com. Today's episode is going to cover a popular week long toy industry event now People of Play formerly known as CHITAG. CHITAG is an acronym for Chicago Toy and Game Week, a week long public Toy Fair for industry inventors, manufacturers and the public. This event is known for connecting inventors to pitch their toy ideas to toy companies both large and small, and test them out with the public that they hope will invest in them. Now if you'd like an overview of the top 12 toy industry trade shows including CHITAG, and pop head over to the toy coach comm hit the tab at the top that says learn with me and click on the toy trade show handbook. Now there is a lot I intend to cover in this episode. First, I'll give you a quick overview on what CHITAG is my experience with it. Why it's known as the toy fair for inventors. Then we'll talk about how CHITAG is going virtual this year. And then we'll get into its infamous rebranding into people of play week, and what that virtual conference is going to look like. At the very end of the episode, I'm going to give you my recommendations on how to prepare for the event. So you can make the biggest impact and impression possible. Now because you're a listener of this podcast, guess what you get to save 10% on your ticket to this event with my discount code. You'll find all of the links and details on how to get that code at thetoycoach.com/42. So head over when you're ready to purchase. Now are you ready to learn a little bit more about CHITAG and a whole lot more about people to play. Let's dive in. To start off this episode, I want to begin with an introduction of the Chicago toy and game group called CHITAG for short. Now the group was founded by Mary Couzin and is responsible for CHITAG week, which is the first and largest public toy and Game Fair in North America. This open to the public Toy Fair has been happening every year in Chicago since 2003. And in 2018, over 30,000, toy lovers and industry professionals attended the event. Now my first time attending CHITAG was in 2018, when my boyfriend Christian Castro was nominated and ultimately won go Christian, a taggie, which is known as a toy and game international Excellence Award. It was actually my experience meeting excited inventors and entrepreneurs at this event that inspired the creation of this podcast. So I found myself answering questions, giving constructive critiques on inventor pitch presentations, and just genuinely wanting to help inventors express their ideas better, so that I could present them to the CMO of the toy company I worked for at the time for a potential licensing deal. Now the difference between CHITAG and other toy industry events is to me It truly feels like a supportive, special Toy Fair for inventors, and young inventors, old and young. Now why is that? What makes CHITAG toys and game week feel like it is for inventors? Well, there are three things that I specifically want to highlight that they've done in the past. So let's dive into that. Now number one, we have the inventor and innovation conferences offered by CHITAG, which are huge gatherings that create opportunities for pro inventors and newbie inventors to learn from each other, and pitch their ideas to toy professionals that are actually open to receiving them. Now number two, the taggies or the toy and game international Excellence Awards, which are on their 13th year, by the way, is one of the few industry awards that celebrates the creator of the product instead of just the product itself. And this gives product creators an opportunity to shine at a fancy dinner and celebrate their design and creative achievements within the toy industry. The taggies in person gala is a fun, playful but fancy evening, the year that I went there was actually a huge toy rocket in the back of the dining room that a bunch of young kid inventors actually activated to kick off the entire evening. Now it's such a light hearted and positive event that celebrates the toy and game inventor community, and not just the brands and products themselves. Now finally, number three is probably in my mind the standout offering for CHITAG, and that is their young inventor challenge. Since 2006, the young inventor challenge gives kids six to 18 the opportunity to showcase their toy and game inventions to the entire industry. They have the opportunity to come to the in person fare, as well as submit a presentation video explaining their invention. Now, just a note during the taggie event last year, a number of these submissions were highlighted on a reel and shown on a huge screen for everyone to see from industry executives, other inventors, retailers and manufacturers. Now all of the applicants into the young inventors challenge, they get direct feedback from industry professionals, the public and on top of all of that they get an opportunity to win a scholarship in support of their inventor dreams. More importantly, all submissions have a bigger opportunity to possibly form licensing agreements with toy companies for the manufacturing and distribution of their ideas. While this isn't a guaranteed prize, it has happened. In 2020, A young inventor challenge project called Betcha can't. A game created by 13 year old Lily brown and 12 year old Tate Hansen landed at a US retailer after forming a deal with Pressman toys. So it's a huge opportunity for young inventors and a huge supportive event to nurture their creativity and invention, you know, ideas. Now, what about this year? Well, this year, Chicago Toy Game Fair is going to be offering a virtual opportunity for the public to explore, discover and experience a world of play. Now this part of the virtual offerings this year is not focused on toy business for inventors and toy companies. But instead it's more focused on toy history and toy stories for inquisitive members of the public. So in case that's you just a toy lover, looking to have a fun day emerged in a virtual world of play. I'm going to give you a quick overview of what the virtual stages in the virtual Chicago toy and Game Fair will be. But if you're not looking for something open to the public, don't worry, we'll get into their toy professionals event right after this. Now going back to the virtual event for the public, we have eight virtual stages where you know speeches and meetings are going to be held. Stage One is where the young inventors challenge awards, presentation and educational workshops will occur. Virtual stage two will focus on virtual preschool entertainment and have character readings, singalongs and magic shows. Virtual stage three will focus on giving a fun history lesson to some of your favorite toys and games. Virtual stage four will be led by Columbia College where they will interview designers currently working on games. stage five will offer highlights from the past 10 years of Chicago's Magnificent Mile festival Tree Lighting parade, which is a tribute to the home of the original in person fair. Stage six will offer research psychologist Amanda Gummner who's going to come on with some very special programming. Stage seven should be joined with your edges sketch in hand so you can match up your skills of those to Jane Libewich who's a full time edges sketch artist. And finally, stage eight features e-blocks who is a leader in educational electronic toys. The virtual Chicago twin Game Fair this year runs from November 21 to November 22. It's free to the public and it's really an event for people that want to enjoy some fun and games like they did with the regular Chicago twin Game Fair. So what about the professional side of the toy we you know these toy events What about the side for inventors? Well, that's where people of play comes in. So if you head over to CHITAG.com now or when you go to the show notes, you'll see that their header is branded as people of play. Now, as I said at the start of this episode CHITAG rebranded as people of play in 2020. Now for 2020. While some trade shows skill down, it seems like CHITAG and people of play has managed to scale up with the introduction of their virtual inventor summit, people of play week, which will run from November 16, to November 20. This international event is going virtual with 35 panels, including nearly 200 speakers from 17 countries. Now this event will include all virtual keynotes, networking events, and the taggie virtual award ceremony. And in the spirit of play, they'll even have a fun new contest called pop Scott talent. Now the schedule for this virtual conference is jam packed everyday features a new speaker panel or Keynote every single hour from 9am to 6pm. Speakers include major players like Richard Dickson, President and CEO of Mattel Tim Kilpin, President of play monster, and Tonya Thompson, Director of Global product acquisition and inventor relations for gaming at Hasbro, and even yours truly, The Toy Coach. Now, I scrolled through the speaker list just a few moments ago, and you have got an incredible variety of speakers, ranging from all parts of the toy industry, from sales reps, product development executives, coaches, designers, pro inventors, inventor, relations, reps, and so many more. These are the types of minds you're going to get to learn from and potentially connect with. So just being in the virtual room of this event is going to elevate your thinking and ideally, expand your network. Now, Friday evening will be the virtual version of the taggies Award Ceremony. I kind of have this idea that maybe I should cook myself, like a five star meal, pour a glass of wine and dress up like I did when I experienced this event in person. I mean, why not? We've got to have fun with this whole virtual world we're living in right now. And just because it's virtual, doesn't mean it can't be an experience. Okay, finally, the biggest bonus for registering for this event is that you get one free year of a pot pro membership to the new People of Play platform. And if you're not sure what the People of Play platform is, don't worry, it is a brand new offering. And you're not expected to know it's still coming out it is still really being announced and the details are still coming. But Pop Pro is a new platform that is intentionally being designed to connect toy inventors to toy companies. This platform is being described as LinkedIn meets IMDb meets match.com. And it seems that at least virtually this platform is going to be the main path for attendees to connect, make deals form relationships with other attendees of people have played week. Now while there isn't too much information on the platform just yet, and you might say I'm not quite sure if I want to spend money on this. Well, you don't have to just for signing up to attend this massive virtual summit people have play week, you get a free year. So you can experiment with the platform and see if it's right for you. Okay, so I know at this point, you're probably wondering, alright, a shell, but like, how much does this virtual event cost? It sounds like you're gonna tell me it's an arm and a leg. But no CHITAG people have play virtual event that goes on for an entire week will cost you 350 per person, or 1000 for your entire company. They didn't set a limit, I don't see a limit it says your entire company. Now, as I said, at the start of this episode, you get a special 10% off discount for being a listener of my podcast. So if you want that discount code, which I don't know why you wouldn't want it, money doesn't grow on trees, just head over to thetoycoach.com forward slash 42 to grab the info and your discount code so you can get your ticket right now. Now I know the hardest part of inventor events like this is knowing what to do with all of the feedback you get. So if you feel like you need some community support, while you're experiencing people of play week, I want to invite you to join the Making It in The Toy Industry, podcast community on Facebook, inside of this community, you'll meet like minded inventors, and entrepreneurs, we're always going back and forth asking questions, giving advice, I give discount codes as soon as they're available to this specific group. So likely all of these people are going through the same things as you. And guess what, I pop in there a few times a week and help answer questions whenever I can. Okay, finally, for this episode, my favorite part, and I really hope you stick around for this, we are going to get into how you should prepare for a virtual event like this. I know so many virtual events have been going on lately. And you might not be showing up as your best self. And you may think, Oh, this is just an opportunity for me to listen and learn. It's almost another podcast. But it's so much more than that. Now, every single day, nine to five, or nine to six, you know, hour long. presentations could feel like a lot, you might hold back from registering because you're thinking there's just no way that I can get through all of that content and really experience it and educate myself the way I want to. So the first thing I need to let you know is you are not expected to these virtual conferences are designed to be back to back to assure that there is something for everyone when they need it to be available. But you obviously don't need to go to this virtual conference thinking you have to show up everywhere at every moment. But you do need to go into these virtual conferences with a strategy so that you can make the most of them. So I'm going to give you five recommendations on what you should do, how you should show up to make the most out of these virtual events, specifically, right now we're talking to People of Play. Okay, so number one, go through the list of the virtual conference sessions for the event, read the titles, check off the sessions that you believe you would get the most value of pro tip Monday at 10am, November 16. The who, what, where terms acronyms and more. That's my panel. It's a panel I'm a part of. So I hope to see you there. Okay, so step number one is just to go through the list, circle all of the events that you think you would get value out of, and then move on to step two, narrowing down your list. So now you're going to go back and you're going to narrow down your list so that you only have two events back to back, that's two hours back to back, you need to give yourself time and breathing room to take a break, eat something relax, watch a little bit of bad TV so that you can come back to the event and show up at your best as your best self for the next couple of sessions. So give yourself a break. Give yourself that time, it's so important or you will burn out early and you won't get the full advantage of the speeches and the panels and the keynotes that would be most valuable to you. Number three, I want you to put whatever is left on your list on your calendar ASAP. You want to block that time off as busy set an alarm to go off 10 minutes before and put a direct link to get into that conference or that keynote into your event page inside of your calendar invite. So it's easy for you to access when the time comes. We have to remove all roadblocks anything that might say Oh, I can't find the link right now. Guess I'll miss it. No, we need to make this as simple as possible. Now, number four for me is the most important and it's going to be the longest so buckle in number four is go to this event. But before you go make sure you brand yourself. Virtual events can be really impersonal. And the purpose of these events is supposed to be to connect. Yes, we want to learn but most importantly, we want to connect. So now speaking as someone who's done many virtual panels, I want you to know a few little tips and tricks. Now when you submit Q and A's through most panel platforms like zoom, for example, your name pops up alongside that question. Also the moderators can see your profile pictures. So it's really important that you consider your Q and A's inside of these panels as your first introduction to top toy industry professionals. You want them to remember your name and your brand name, don't you? So why not update your zoom name to not just say your first name, but also your business name. So for me, that might be a gel, the toy coach or Azhelle Wade, the toy coach, the business part of your name could be in parentheses, so as not to be confused with your own name if they want to reference your name when answering a question, or you could just include a comma after your name to clearly show that they're separate. Now the next thing I like to do, is I really like keeping my image consistent. Now, anytime you post a question, or if you end up in a group meeting, like a group zoom meeting, and it's not a flat webinar, where you can only see the presenter, and let's say your video is off, your default picture is going to represent you on whatever platform you're using, most likely, it's going to be zoom. So you want to keep that image consistent, and get people comfortable seeing it and seeing it attached to your name, which would be Azhelle Wade, The Toy Coach and your company name, right. So you want to rest assured that when you send out an email to someone after the show, they're more likely to open that email because they already kind of know even if it's subconscious, they kind of know your brand. And remember, if you end up in a meeting that is not just a webinar panel, and you can see other people inside of that meeting, all of those people are networking opportunities for you. So you need to show up as your best branded self. In all of these meetings just in case, you want to reach out to somebody that you meet inside of a panel that is open so that you can see all of the other attendees. Okay, the final piece to the branding puzzle is setting up your website. Now I know, everyone gets freaked out and they're like, Oh, no, I don't have time to set up a website. But just like Take it easy, calm down, go to Squarespace. They have pre made templates for you. I use Squarespace, which people are always surprised about because they love my website. But it is a very simple platform to use. And you can easily create a really beautiful cover page that talks about you as an inventor, and just showcase yourself in the best light. Now your website can be super simple. One page, the most important thing is that it's consistent with your brand, I would recommend that it has a picture of your face on it, and an easy way to contact you. You also want to make sure it is super clear what you have to offer. Are you an inventor? What categories do you specialize in? Who are you open to work with? Who have you worked with in the past, if you're an inventor who doesn't have a lot of product experience, you want to lean into your other professional or personal experiences that would make you a valuable inventor. So that might be Oh, I'm a teacher. I've been a teacher for 30 years. And these are this is how many years of experience and how many students I've taught and I've helped. Because of that experience, I have come up with, you know, dozens of inventor concepts based around education, which is very important to parents and kids today. So that is the kind of message you want to send with your website just in case somebody from the event looks you up. Maybe they discover you from your pop pro profile, and they want to see your website, they want to learn more about you. Make sure it's very simple to understand who you are, what you do, easy to book time with you, or email you or view your past work. Okay, so my final tip, final tip for preparing for these virtual shows is to bring a notebook. Now there's something about having an actual notebook on hand and jotting down memorable moments that makes these virtual events just feel more connected. And I say this again, from personal experience, I want you to jot down important notes that you want to remember and then even jot down the timestamp of when those points were made. That way if you are given a recording after the event, you can jump right back to that most valuable tidbit of information and listen to it over and over again. If you're anything like me, I like to listen to things over and over again until they really sink in. Okay, toy people, that is all I have for you today on CHITAG, People of Play. I know it was a lot of information and I might have laid it out for you really quickly but I just got really excited about this event for you guys. Remember to head over to the toycoachcom forward slash 42 to get your 10% off on your people of play ticket registration. Okay toy people I hope that you've enjoyed this overview into the biggest upcoming virtual summit for toy inventors. I always tell my students inside of TCA Toy Creators Academy that the first step to creating anything for the industry is to know who the players are. And this event is going to help you do just that and so much more. This is an opportunity to educate yourself in the industry, and better yet be one of the first on a new social platform designed for connecting your ideas to the companies that need them. As always, thank you so much for joining me here today. I know you've got a busy schedule q4 is crazy. And there are a lot of podcasts out there that you could be listening to. So it means the world to me that you tuned into this one. Until next week. I'll see you later toy people.
Intro/Outro + Jingle
Thanks for listening to Making It in The Toy Industry podcast with Azhelle Wade, head over to thetoycoach.com for more information, tips and advice.
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🎓Learn more about how you can develop and pitch your toy idea with Toy Creators Academy® by clicking here to visit toycreatorsacademy.com and join the waitlist.