Episode #98: The Virtual Toy And Game Pitch Event You Should Be Preparing For
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If you’ve ever had a toy idea or a game idea, it’s likely that you’ve wondered where you should go to get that incredibly groundbreaking idea in front of toy companies. Well, this week on The Toy Coach Podcast, we are going to learn about one of the biggest toy industry events for toy inventors and game inventors that you need to know about.
The event, formerly Chitag, is currently called the People of Play Innovation Conference. The event is entirely virtual for the second year in a row which makes it extremely accessible no matter where you are in the world. In today’s episode, you’ll learn what this event is, who it’s for, who will be there and why you should attend.
Toward the end of today’s episode, I’ll share with you how the event has changed since going virtual and what you can do on your own, to replace one of the benefits of the in-person show. This Innovation Conference starts mid-November, so if you don’t know what POP Week is, I want you to hit play and learn all about it ASAP.
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Ready to register for the POP Innovation Conference? Try the links below.
Register For The POP Innovation Conference (free)
Apply to be a Professional Inventor at POP Week
Register for the POP Innovation Conference As A Student Or New Inventor
Register for 2021 POP for the TAGIEs award show only! (free)
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You were listening to making it in the toy industry episode number 98.
[00:00:04] Hey there toy people, Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of the toy coach podcast, making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by thetoycoach.com. For today's episode I'm going to teach you all about one of the biggest virtual toy industry shows for aspiring inventors and entrepreneurs.
[00:00:41] Now pre COVID this event was held in Chicago and called the Chicago toy and game week, but known in the industry as Chitag for short. Now I'd only attended this event and show once to support my boyfriend, Christian Castro for his 2019 award win for innovative arts and visuals of the year. And I got to say, I loved the show. Chitag was actually the catalyst for me becoming the toy coach, believe it or not. I met a few incredible inventors that I really wanted to help and work with. But at the time I was busy, I was working my corporate toy job and I just couldn't help. And that just made me want to switch and take it into a new direction.
[00:01:24] But today I'm so blessed that I get to work with new toy creators and inventors in incredible ways. Two different ways to be exact the first inside my program, toy creators academy and the second through my brand new one-on-one pitch perfect consultation sessions. So today we are going to dive into one of the biggest virtual toy industry shows for toy and game inventors and entrepreneurs. Now Chitag was rebranded as people of play. So throughout this episode, you'll hear me referencing pop week. And just so you know, when I do that, it means people have play week. Okay. By the end of this episode, you will know all about pop week, who it's for, why you should attend, how to register. And at the end, I'm going to share with you some of my favorite parts of the event in the past and how it's evolved today.
[00:02:19] And of course, as always, you'll be able to find links to everything that I mentioned in this episode. Once you head over to thetoycoach.com/98. I have got you covered. Okay. So if you're driving or working out and you can't take notes, don't worry. Just let's get ready to dive right in. Okay. So to get started, let's address the big questions that I know you have for me about people of play or POP week. You might be wondering, Azhelle what is POP Week? When is it? Who will be there? Should I be going? And most importantly, how do I get signed up? Well, let's start with that. What? Okay. POP Week is a toy industry wide innovation conference filled with speakers and pitch opportunities, young and vendor challenges.
[00:03:06] And it's kept with the infamous taggies award show. Now going on to the, when of it all the now virtual innovation conference will start November 15th and continue until November 19th. Now get this, all of the conference events are free to attend. Did I say free? Yeah, she said free, but to take advantage of that, you must register beforehand and registering is super simple. I don't want you sitting on this opportunity and missing out on it. Okay. So when you're done listening to this episode, I want you to head over to thetoycoach.com/98 to grab all of the registration links. And the reason I want you to finish this episode first is because there are a lot of different tracks that you can attend this event on.
[00:03:51] And I want to make sure you sign up for the right one to fit your needs. Okay. But when you are ready, the links will be waiting for you. Well, now we know what the event is, when the event is, but who is going to be there? Well, once you're registered for the virtual conference, you're going to be able to attend a number of events, featuring high level executives in the toy and entertainment field. Starting at 9:00 AM central time on November 15th, the conference is going to kick off with a series called POP Duos. It's a series featuring speakers like Richard Dickson, who's the president and COO of Mattel, Exploding Kittens, co-founder Elan Lee and Brian Volk Weiss creator of the toys that made us. So if you want to hear from a huge collection of successful toy people who have made it in the toy industry, then you're going to want to clear your calendar from the 15th to the 19th, to make sure that you can hit every single one of these talks.
[00:04:47] After hearing stories of toy dreams, becoming reality. Look, it's no doubt that you're going to want to take action and make some of your own toy dreams come true. And that is where the networking benefits of this conference pass comes in. You actually can network virtually with toy industry professionals and take advantage of office hours for free 15 minute consultations with manufacturing, media, and financial businesses. And if you need a little bit of extra support, I have to say you can always reach out to me at thetoycoach.com/pitch, because I did recently start taking on some one-on-one pitch consultations to help people just like you getting ready to pitch at events, just like this one.
[00:05:32] Now you might be wondering, should I really be going to this event? I don't really have anything to pitch Azhelle. Well, yes. I mean, even if you don't have anything to pitch, but you're thinking about diving into the toy industry. This event is a great way to start getting to know who the players are and start learning from them. But if you have an idea and you're looking for opportunities to pitch your toy or your game, or if you just want to jumpstart in building your toy company, contactless, which I'm telling you, it's a huge part of what I even teach my students inside of toy creators academy. Then yeah. Yes, you should be going. And I want to pause here because I know I, I speak so fast, but if you want to know more about TCA, about toy creators academy, you can go to toycreatorsacademy.com to learn more.
[00:06:20] Okay. So getting back to the business of POP week, why you should be going? I know it's hard to invest your time and your energy into something that you don't understand or you don't know much about. So that's why my friend, we are going to break down the different tracks of this event for professional inventors, for new inventors, for student inventors. So you can really understand all that POP Week cast offer you, okay? Let's start by talking about those professional inventors. And I think now would be a great time to define exactly what professional inventors are. Well, if you've been following me for some time, You may have already heard me use this term before, but I'm not sure if we've really sat down and just spent time talking about what it means.
[00:07:07] Well, pro inventors are typically defined in the toy industry as an inventor who's licensed two to three products to a toy company before or an entertainment company before. And by licensing I mean, they they've essentially sold two to three ideas to a toy company. If you follow me, you might've heard me say this before, but I want to say it once again, the big difference between inventors and entrepreneurs is that being an inventor, you are essentially selling an idea and being an entrepreneur, you're essentially selling a product. Right. Okay, so back to that meaning of professional inventors. Pro inventors, professional inventors have typically licensed or sold two to three toy ideas.
[00:07:51] But being a professional inventor also implies that you have this higher level of skill in concept development in prototype creation and in pitching. So during pop week professional or pro inventors are invited to pitch their toy or game ideas directly to toy company executives. So you might be wondering agile, how do I apply to pitches a professional inventor? That's me, I have licensed an item before. Well, it's all done with an online application. So in the application, you're going to be asked to fill out your general contact info, your experience as an inventor as well. So that's going to include information about the inventions that you've had licensed in the past. So we're not making things up here. We have to talk about what we've actually done and it can be checked so don't play any games.
[00:08:42] But just to make this link easy to find, I'm going to leave a link directly to this pro inventor application in the show notes. So I want you to head over to thetoycoach.com/ 98 to grab that. But what if you are not a professional inventor, what if you're a student or just a new inventor who wants to learn more about the toy industry and also once a chance to pitch. Well, don't you worry, pop has something for you as well. You can register for the innovation conference as a new inventor or a student to gain access to something super special. You can get a 30 minute mentoring session with a product acquisition executives. And speed pitches with select toy companies now to register for that option of pop week, you're going to use a different link.
[00:09:36] And that's why I wanted you to listen to this whole episode before you went searching for all the links right. Now, don't worry I'm going to clearly define which link is for which track at the pop innovation conference, but you're going to use a different link so that you can register as a new inventor or student. if you are planning my friend who pitched your toy or your game idea to a toy company, whether it's now or in a couple of weeks with pop week, or it is on your own, through a connection you've made, or you have with a friend or, you know, you formed in some other way. I want to invite you to book a pitch perfect session with me to help you get that pitch in order.
[00:10:17] I recently had a session with one of my students and she found immense value in it. I actually was told by toy and entertainment companies that the organization of her pitch materials was perfect and the quality and clarity of it really allowed them to see the value in her IP and her mechanism that she presented. And I'm telling you, I would love the same thing to happen for you. In a pitch perfect session, we can look over your materials. We can perfect the angle of your pitch to fit the company you're pitching to and prep you for the hard questions that a toy company's likely to ask you. So if you want to book a pitch perfect session with me, head over to thetoycoach.com/pitch.
[00:11:04] Now that we know what you can expect from the pop week innovation conference, we know what it is when it is, who will be there and why you should attend. I want to give you a quick overview about what the registration process is like. So you don't have any surprises at all. When you go to register. Now registration for the event happens through various event, bright pages. And depending on the track that you wish to take, whether you are a new inventor or a pro inventor, you're going to choose that registration link and it will take you to an eventbrite page.
[00:11:39] And the process is super simple. You just provide your name, your email, your job title, your company, the country you're in, and you may actually need a pop profile depending on the track that you choose. Now for my podcast insiders club members, I'm going to actually dive into what a pop profile is later in this episode, if you are not a member of that club, don't you worry because you can head over to peopleofplay.com to learn more about how to create your own pop profile. Now for the general inventor conference, where you get to listen to the talks that I mentioned earlier, like the pop duo talks or the pop trio talks. Registration is actually completely free. The only time you're going to have to pay for something so you can register is if you want to pitch in some foreign, as a new inventor or as a pro inventor.
[00:12:35] And when you hit that registration button, you'll find out all the information for what you need to do there. Now I want to dive in a little bit to my favorite parts of this show. First being the young inventor challenge. I absolutely love the young inventor challenge. It is a toy and game invention competition for kids ages six to 18. And, if you've been following me awhile now than you actually know that before. I ever knew I wanted to work in the toy industry or that it was an option for a career path. I actually wanted to work with kids first as a teacher. Then I did exhibition design with kids in mind for kids museums. And eventually I moved into the toy industry and work with kids in that way.
[00:13:20] So I love working as a judge for the young inventors challenge. I absolutely love it. It's so much fun. The videos that these kids put together, the ideas that they have. It's so inspiring and so exciting to see what is coming to the toy industry and like the ideas that they have now, this young inventor challenge of pop week is a chance for truly budding toy inventors to share their inventions with professionals in the toy industry who review their concepts. Their videos, their rules, and give them really constructive feedback. I mean, the forms that they have, you fill out as a judge are super detailed and it allows you to get real specific, not just on an overall concept, but on the interest Cassie's of the concept. And really judging everything as separate parts. And then as it's whole.
[00:14:14] Now the coolest part of this whole thing is that past winners of this young inventor challenge of actually landed licensing deals and had their product manufactured and had it ended up in retail stores. I know ridiculous. So it's super cool. The second thing that I absolutely love about this event, which honestly, I wish it was still in person, the TAGGIEs. I loved the TAGGIE event. The toy game international excellence awards, it's an annual presentation of toy awards, recognizing creators in the industry for all of their contributions to the world of play. So pre COVID, it was just this gala like event with a sit-down dinner. The year that I went there was like a rocket shooting. What was it shooting? I think like t-shirts across the room. On this fancy gala stage, which I love the juxtaposition of that. Like fancy gala and then like a big like rocket mechanism that a bunch of kids were Manning at the time.
[00:15:13] And anyway, it's a sit down dinner with young inventors, toy industry executives from all across the globe, right? We're all sitting at these big round tables, conversing meeting each other, watching these presentations and awards. And now the event has moved completely virtual, you know, you can imagine the Emmys or the Grammys CMS, right. But for toy creators, do I intend on dressing up when I attend this event virtually? Yes, I do. Now the TAGGIEs are also more than just an award ceremony. They actually feature a live entertainment, stunts, animations, and they're always fun to watch, you know, this year's award categories for the taggies include toy innovator of the year, game innovator of the year, rising star, most innovative PR and marketing, most innovative end design visuals, most innovative supplier, most innovative retailer. I think there's a licensing one and a young inventor of the year.
[00:16:15] Now the ceremonies also going to recognize lifetime achievement, nominees and game changers and your girl, the toy coach is one of the game changer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to listener Jeff Lawber who nominated me for this award and to the board that chose me as one of the recipients, so thank you. And also there will be just celebrations of life for industry greats that we lost this year, and it was a rough year, just all around. So listen, the TAGGIEs are a lot of fun and if you don't want to attend the entire conference, you can actually just register for the TAGGIE separately. But if this is your first time, I'm going to say, why wouldn't you go to the free conference just to listen in and see what's going on.
[00:16:59] Okay. Now let's talk a little bit about the pitch event because I wanted to address what the Chitag people of play event used to be before it went virtual. And before it went virtual due to COVID and everything we're dealing with right now in the world and in the toy industry, this event was like the perfect place to bring your toy or game, get a table and have an opportunity for people from outside of the toy industry to play with and interact with your product to give you valuable feedback. And then at the same time, it was a great place to actually pitch to toy companies and entertainment companies. So one of the things we're missing out on, because this event is now virtual, is that you're not getting that market research time. So I did want add in this portion that you should still make an effort. To do that market research aside of developing your toy product, just because this event doesn't have that available because most events are still not in person.
[00:18:15] You still do want to find the time and make the time. To collect survey responses about your product, to send samples, to people who are willing to test your product, that aren't your family members or your friends, so that you can get honest feedback on if your toy functions well, if your game is actually fun. That, is really going to help you develop a product that consumers will love. That market research that real-time testing with kids or adults. If you have no idea where to start. I mean, I want to tell you, you can start online with your social media following, even if it is at the moment, just friends and family. You can put up a post on your Facebook and tell people you have a product that you're working on and you want their feedback, your friends and your family might see it.
[00:19:12] And if they comment on it or share it at your request, that can help you break outside of your friends and family circles. So you can get more objective reviews of your product, right? So even though we don't have a chance to be in person at this particular event, there are ways that you can create that same experience for getting your product reviewed by people other than your closest friends and family who are likely to be biased and be positive about your toy or game, no matter what it is.
[00:19:43] Now, before I jump into my summary of today's episode, I'd like to take a quick break and give a shout out to Ehi. So Ehi and I connected during a consultation and she joined my group toy creator's academy and quickly headed over to the women in toys empowerment day and had a great experience there. And Ehi, I just want to welcome you into this industry, I saw so much potential in your product and I'm excited for you to start pitching it and potentially lending deals with your innovations. I mean, I know you have more than the one that we met about, and I know you have so much more to come, so I just want to welcome you into this industry.
[00:20:25] Now let's talk about what we learned today. I want to do a quick recap for you toy people. We talked all about pop week. I know I talked a little bit fast this episode, so I apologize if maybe normally you play me on two X and today you had to slow that down. But we learned really, really quickly a ton of information about pop week and the innovation conference, all the different events that are a part of it who it's for how to register when it is. We also covered my favorite parts of pop week, including the taggies and the young inventors challenge. Absolutely love that.
[00:21:06] Finally, we talks about the piece that is missing since this event had to turn virtual, right? We talked about what you might be missing out on and how you can do your own leg work. And you can do some research and get that direct consumer feedback by polling people already in your social media community. By sending out surveys by sending out product to be tested and getting your own feedback so that when you are pitching at these events, just because there is no, you know, live event where you can have kids and parents interacting with your product and getting their feedback real time, you can do that legwork on your own now before the event comes. So when it is time to pitch your toy or your game idea, you, my friend are prepared because you have done that legwork and that research, you understand what consumers need and want from your product, and you can improve upon it before you pitch.
[00:22:06] Let's dive in to your action item. To do this week I want you to send me a message on Instagram and let me know what questions you have about pitching your toy or game idea. I love Instagram. I'm there the most, you're likely to get a voice note from me. If you send that message, which is even better than a text, in my opinion. Head over to Instagram at the toy coach and tell me what do you want to know about pitching your idea. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there. So it means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week, I'll see you later toy people.
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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.