We’re Going to London Toy Fair!
January 18, 2007 by Lei
Filed under Children's Toys, General Play Library Goodies
With the exception of one person who didn’t care whether I was going to London Toy Fair or not, I wanted to thank everyone who offered encouragement and support when I was busy stressing myself out yesterday. I especially appreciate the folks at Toyology who sent me a private email urging me to go and to bring my son with me. They’re experienced trade show goers who know what it’s like so the email went a long way towards calming my nerves. I hope I’ll get to meet the toyologists in person next week!
The London Toy Fair will be the first non-science related trade show I’ve ever been to and the first I attend as press. I can’t wait until next Wednesday partly because I’m still not sure if I can manage to get myself in! But I will try to be my most charming and persistent self. *cough*
So the plan is to take my four-year-old with me (shhh, don’t tell his school) on Wednesday. We’ll spend as much time there as we can and if I need to, I will return the following days on my own. I don’t have any high expectation for the trip. I’d be happy just wandering around looking at stuff, enjoying the atmosphere, getting a few pictures and junk toy swag to share with all of you here. If I can get enough cool freebies, I will definitely do some sort of contest here at Play Library!
And since it will be hard to live-blog the event with child in tow (even if he weren’t with me, I wouldn’t bring my honkin’ big laptop with me anyway), I’ve decided to twitter my Toy Fair romp. Every time, I see something cool, I will use my mobile phone to text a 150 character message or less to twitter. I better go top up my phone now in preparation!
Tags: london toy fair, toys, children, kids, parenting, family
Well,
Throwing cold water on an idea isn’t usually my style but… I’d recommend not taking your child.
I worked in the toy industry for many years and attended Toy Fair in NYC – not a place I would go to go with my 4-year-old – maybe yours is calmer
. Picture Toys’R Us with clerks behind every counter and often not REAL toys but rather, fragile prototypes that are NOT kid friendly.
Do go- it will be very interesting but, probably one of those “why did I take my child” experiences.
MC: Hi there! The PR office for the Toy Fair was very encouraging about bring the kids. So I’ll try it for a day and see. My son’s pretty good about keeping his hands off things because of our frequent museum trips. I think my bigger problem might be him being scared of certain toys or if the place is too noisy! I’ll let you all know how the first day goes and how it differs when I return on my own subsequent days. It’s a shame you’re not attending this one, MC, I’d love to meet you in person!