Added Feb. 14, 2000
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Cherise Lambert, inventor of the movie trivia board game Mad About Movies, currently is in New York City at the International Toy Fair trying to win attention for her game. Cherise has agreed to writie a series of daily reports to give those of us who couldn't make the event an inside look at what we're missing.
Following is her first report.
Have you ever wondered how a game inventor is able take a game from the idea stage to store shelves? After years of product development, business plan development, working to raise captial and finally, production, it is time to present the game to prospective buyers at the New York International Toy Fair.
More About Toy Fair 2000: Part 5 from Cherise Lambert Part 4 from Cherise Lambert Part 3 from Cherise Lambert Part 2 from Cherise Lambert K-ban Reports from Toy Fair Share your thoughts about this news and anything else related to board games on the Board Games Forum. |
After enjoying a very successful holiday season following the game launch, Toy Fair 2000 is the first time Mad About Movies is featured at the show.
Pre-Show Preparation
We began preparing for the Toy Fair shortly after Christmas. We gathered favorable press for Mad About Movies (luckily all has been favorable so far) to include on sell sheets and signing, designed and printed sell sheets, designed and ordered booth and signing, ordered custom clothing with the game logo, developed a sales pitch, produced lead cards and order forms, recruited sales staff, and made travel arrangements for our exciting trip to New York City.
Day Before Fair (Saturday, Feb. 12)
We arrived in New York City (after 2 hours sleep the night before) checked into our hotel and headed straight for the show.
We entered New York's Jacob K. Javitz Center pumped with nervous energy. We wondered -- Will our booth materials be there? Once our booth is assembled, will it look as good as it did in our heads? Will "they" come? Will we get our money's worth?
As we walked down the hall, away from the noisy sounds of drilling and hammering from the much bigger companies constructing thier elaborate, impressive towering display islands, we found the Game Zone aisle where smaller entrepreneur game inventors were setting up their simple-but-effective 10' x 10' booths.
We were thrilled when we arrived at our booth and found all the equipment we shipped waiting for us. We spent the day setting up and reviewing our sales pitch. After everything was set, we vowed to resist the temptation to head out for a night on the town and instead, go to bed early, wake up early and eat a big breakfast so that we would be well rested for our first big day at our first Toy Fair.
Day 1 at Toy Fair 2000 (Sunday, February 13)
We arrived at 8:30 a.m. to merchandise our tables and review our our sales pitch. At 9:00 a.m. people began approaching our booth. Throughout the day, we met people from all areas of the toy industry -- other inventors, individual store owners, members of the press, foreign licensors, catalogs and prestigious toy retailers like FAO Schwartz.
We gathered many leads as well as valuable insight from other inventors. It was a great day! At the end of the day, we enjoyed dinner at one of the many fabulous New York restaurants, and again, headed home for an early bed-time.
More tomorrow... gotta hit the sack.
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