by SUE WARFIELD, President, American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA)
One other 12 months of exhibits — together with ASTRA’s Marketplace & Academy — has come and gone, with only one extra massive occasion on the horizon: The Toy Affiliation’s LA Fall Preview Market Weeks. And as soon as that’s completed, the trade will start trying to subsequent 12 months’s packed schedule of commerce exhibits, reward markets, and extra.
Making choices on which exhibits to attend is at all times powerful, as all of us perceive the significance of budgeting. Earlier than deciding which exhibits are value it, determine your targets and ask organizers how they may help you obtain them.
With many choices for specialty retailers, our objective at ASTRA is to make Market & Academy higher every year so that every one attendees really feel their time and monetary funding is properly value it. After listening to all of the in-person feedback at this 12 months’s occasion in San Antonio, listening to suggestions on our follow-up Zoom conferences, and studying by our survey outcomes, we started planning for subsequent 12 months’s present in Milwaukee, ensuring we will handle as lots of the ache factors as doable. To that finish, listed here are only a few of the issues both finalized or within the works for subsequent 12 months:
We efficiently shifted the dates of ASTRA’s Market & Academy to June 5-8, 2026, to keep away from an overlap with the Atlanta Reward Present, which begins June 9. Transferring something that was booked greater than a 12 months in the past will not be straightforward, as conference facilities are booked stable for a few years out. Nonetheless, after working with The Baird Middle, our lodge companions, Summit Expo, and Beth Miller with ConferenceDirect, we made this occur.
Many exhibitors and ASTRA members have expressed their want to fulfill with new retailers. We’re working with further organizations to draw new teams of shops to Market & Academy.
Primarily based on survey responses concerning our academic classes, we’re actively in search of new sources to collect enter and curiosity in presenting. Moreover, we’re within the technique of forming subsequent 12 months’s committees with new members, giving extra voices within the ASTRA membership an opportunity to take part. In case you are desirous about being on a committee, please contact Ashlee Sawyer, Kathy Trivisonno, or me in the event you haven’t already been referred to as or signed up.
Whether or not you’re searching for new merchandise, writing orders, or chasing inspiration, we want you the perfect because the 12 months winds down. Right here’s to a robust fourth quarter for all, it doesn’t matter what comes our manner. We’re a resilient trade, and there’s a lot to sit up for within the 12 months forward.
Keep on the Pulse of Play!
A model of this characteristic first appeared within the 2025 LA Fall Toy Preview Difficulty of The Toy E book. Read the full issue here!
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