The Toy Fair of the Future #1: Timing

Toy Fair 2009 is now history although many of us who attended are still engaged in follow up. I have, however, been thinking about the next Toy Fair and those to come after and thought it would be interesting to have a community wide discussion of what Toy Fair might look like in the not too distant future. (By the way, you can see from the accompanying picture that I don’t think getting in to Toy Fair will get any easier if you don’t have your name badge).

We in Toy Nation, though our collective attendance, ultimately determine the fate of the show. Maybe through our collective thinking we can paint a picture of what the Toy Fair of the future will look like?

The first point of discussion I would like to open is that of timing. When will Toy Fair take place? 

Toy Fair was started over one hundred years ago to fill the needs of a country and an industry (there barely was one) that exists only in memory. Travel was slow and difficult, communications were limited and a retailer was lucky to see a salesperson once a year. 

Toy Fair was designed as an order writing show. It came in February because most retailers were small, independent stores who needed to wait for Christmas to be over in order to know how they did and what they needed. February allowed them enough time to figure all of that out.

In today’s world, travel is fast (and still difficult) and communications are instantaneous. Retailers and buyers, due to computerization, are able to know how they are doing in real time. In fact, most major buyers want to start looking at goods in October.

By the time February comes around, these major buyers have either been to Mattel or Hasbro; the Dallas Toy Preview and / or Hong Kong. By February they are finished looking at goods and some see New York as an increasingly unnecessary cost of time and money. 

Smaller retailers will assert that they count too and that February is still better attuned to their needs. They are indeed important; in fact they are crucial to the industry (more on that in a later blog). Either way, in order to maintain a show the size of Toy Fair, everyone needs to be there.

So, I predict Toy Fair  is going to move to an earlier time in the year, probably October. It will take the place of the current Dallas Toy Preview and, as a result, we will have only one show.  It will mean that many smaller manufacturers are going to have to rethink their product development schedules and retailers their buying schedules. It’s an adjustment but one that will be made. 

When do you think the Toy Fair of the future will take place?