Toy know-how for the toy industry
The Toy Business Forum presents exciting lectures at the Spielwarenmesse. Top-class international speakers bring the visitors up to date with complimentary presentations. The spectrum of topics ranges from current market developments and the latest trends from the world of retail and toys to change management and marketing.
Webcasts
There will be exciting lectures at the Spielwarenmesse again in 2022. So that the waiting time is not too long, you can find selected webcasts from the last Toy Business Forum here.
What's next in toys, games and kids technology: Come experience a visual cavalcade of new ideas, trends and technologies shaping kids' toys, play products and experiences in 2020 and beyond. Explore emerging trends with a global perspective, and be inspired by the latest generation of toys, games and play! Gain new knowledge, meet new players, and be inspired.
Reyne Rice is a world-renowned global trend hunter & CEO/founder of ToyTrends, a journalist published in 60+ countries, and Co-President of the Int’l Toy Trade Magazine Association. She travels the globe with a keen eye for focusing on new play trends and emerging kid’s technologies. She attends 24+ trade shows annually and is a keynote speaker at 20+ global events.
How is sustainability understood by new parenting styles and translated into the toys and games sector? The speech will reveal the main findings of the European research on changes in the awareness of sustainability. Examples of products will be provided and reasons given why Millennial parents are demanding them. The talk will highlight how to create business opportunities through new materials.
Clara Blasco is a design & trend researcher at AIJU. She has worked as a designer, UX researcher and lecturer. She detects user insights and trends to advise toy and childcare companies, coordinates R&D projects and facilitates innovation workshops from a Design Thinking perspective. She has written several publications. She is currently doing a PhD on innovation management in the toy industry.
Demographic shifts in population plus structural shifts in how the world does business means that the toy industry must anticipate inevitable change and adapt to it. A look at how the toy industry can take advantage of a changing world and prosper.
Richard Gottlieb is the CEO of Global Toy Experts, founded in 1994, which provides consulting services to U.S. and international toy companies. Richard is also the publisher of Global Toy News, a web-based magazine founded in 2009, co-producer of the annual Toy Talks Forum in Shenzhen, China and co-anchor of The Playground Podcast.
Marketplaces, voice and digital assistants in brick-and-mortar stores – digitalisation is in full swing in the retail sector and has already had a lasting effect on how consumers behave and what they expect of retailers. In this presentation, opportunities and risks are discussed in equal measure. When looking to the future, we should be aware of the benefits of digital tools in retailing and precisely analyse which developments are truly essential to our business or would simply be nice to have.
Mailin Schmelter is the Strategic Insights Team Leader and Assistant Division Managerof Customer Insights at IFH Köln and the ECC Köln brand based there. In addition to strategic issues, she is primarily involved in individual market research and consulting projects focusing on the customer experience, cross-channel strategies, the customer journey and payment.
A journey into retail concepts and digital applications that wow customers in the form of installations that serve the need for information, facilitate infinite product variety or offer premium service quality. A glance at the concepts clearly shows that just one screen on its own is not enough. Find out what works in terms of digitalisation, what it is better to forego and what is coming down the tracks.
Caroline Zöller is the Founder of the Forteam Communications Agency. As a lecturer at the Retail Academy, she focuses on the topic of digitalisation and helps to organise workshops, seminars and store tours. She favours concepts that prioritise customer needs over technology.
The era of holographic storytelling has dawned and Kevin Proesel shows how mixed, virtual and augmented reality are creating new opportunities for presentations and experiences. As powerful mobile devices become increasingly ubiquitous, web-based AR in particular will prove a key technology for consumer experiences in the future. He highlights the seamless media changes from print or packaging to AR that this will facilitate and what this will ultimately mean in terms of a paradigm shift from content marketing to discovery marketing.
Kevin Proesel has been part of the Saint Elmo’s Group since 2008. He has played a significant role in the agency’s focus on holographic content. His team has been creating seamless augmented reality experiences for brands and products since 2016.