Toy Fair Begins

This should be a very interesting four days for Toy Nation. We are going to be getting everyone in one very big room at one time and as a result we should get a feel by the end of the week what kind of a year our citizens think it is going to be. 

I am going to be tracking several things:

Paradigm shifters

Times of turbulence are when breakthrougs occur.  I am going to keep an eye out for products that I think may define how business is going to be done.  I have seen three products in the last six months, one in Dallas, one in Hong Kong and one in Nuremberg, that I found to be groundbreaking.  They are paradigm shifters not so much in terms of play value (although they do have it) but in the impact I believe they will have on how business is done.  I will be doing an assessment of these in a blog posting after the show.

Attendance

Attendance in Nuremberg was down a little and I would suspect it will be down for the New York show as well. If there is are fewer attendees I would not make too much of it. Yes, there are fewer retailers this year (KB is gone as are some other smaller retailers) but what will have a bigger impact is the likelihood that companies will send fewer salespeople and buyers.

Buyer outlook

In Germany, buyers had shaken off the shock of last October and November’s fall off in sales and were looking for new and innovative products. Will that be the case in New York and if so will buyers find what they are looking for?

Manufacturer outlook

In Germany, manufacturers reacted to the seizing up of orders in October and November by holding back on new and innovative products for 2009. Will they do that in New York as well and if so will buyers leave disappointed?

Mood

In Germany, it was business as usual. Will that be the case in New York?

We’ll find out. See you at the show.