People of Play - the Story

FEATURED CONTENT

People of Play - the Story!

by Mary Couzin, Founder of People of Play

Our name, People of Play, says it best. We are an organization of all the people who make all the play: toys, games, puzzles, plush, and all the other kinds of fun stu . People of Play has a long legacy of bringing the people of the play industry together in lots of ways, and at wonderful events that connect us all, forging new relationships that make even more play. Formerly known as Chicago Toy & Game Group, and hosting events formerly known as Chicago Toy & Game Week, and the Chicago Toy & Game Fair, our international impact had grown to be undeniable. We were connecting people of play from countries all over the world, and because our reach was so much bigger than Chicago, and ever-increasing, we needed a name that didn’t sound regional, and we wanted our brand to focus on our core, which is not product, not company, but people.

e process of nding a new name that re ects our identity was a challenge that took many months. Our Executive Committee and Advisory Board almost dismissed the name People of Play at rst because we thought, certainly, that its trademark would be unavailable. But we are the People of Play, and the Trademark was available! It was kismet.

Covid shuttered everything the very next week. e silver lining? Without the usual travel schedule, we could nally bring a north star project to fruition at a time when it could help people more than we dreamed. For many years, people have reached out to me as a great connector - to ask if I knew someone who could do this or that - if I knew someone for a particular role - if I knew how to do something or where I could nd information on some topic. I was becoming a master matchmaker for our industry!

For years we tested various platforms that might work to share this information with the industry. Nothing was adept and nimble enough for what we wanted to deliver, so we started to build a custom website from the ground up. Super scary for sure…but I trusted our team, and it was full speed ahead! I was, and still am, completely determined to build an e cient and vigorous conduit for all the good information everybody wanted, and needed to share. Most people would challenge others to bring an industrychanging platform to life, but I jumped into the fray myself. Our incredible team challenged and pushed me, and I’ve never worked more diligently or thought harder in my life. ey had my back, and the phrase, “it takes a village” took on extra meaning, but the process yielded something the whole village needed: the POP Database.

We built and launched the POP Database in beta mode with the Inventor Community, the incredible group that brought me into our industry. e rst tests were at our Inventor Pitch events. We made a POP membership and pro le mandatory to participate. Product acquisition execs could look at an inventor’s pro le, see what products they were involved with, their skills and expertise, where they were located, and more. A POP pro le showcases a person in three dimensions, and brings them to life on screen– like a delicious mix of LinkedIn and IMDB.

e beta test with the inventor community was a smash success, so we reached out to other segments of our industry. POP is now the largest and most robust directory in the Play Industry. You can nd people and companies, searching by skills, expertise, clientele, names, products…limitless facets. Simply search PR, marketing, logistics, insurance, legal, yadda, yadda, yadda…it’s as easy as pie! Of course, the POP directory is only as good as the information put in by its members, so we remind everybody to update their skills, expertise, and other details o en. Here are just two people for whom new business was fostered on POP:

“I highly recommend that if anyone in this industry wants to be found, they join POP and ll out the skills and expertise section of their POP Pro les. I’ve had companies and a major media network reach out to me for a show based on my skills and expertise a er nding me on POP.” - David Yakos, Founder of Streamline Design and Co-Owner of Salient Technologies.

“I recommend populating your skills and expertise as well as writing about subjects you love. People will discover you on POP - I was just asked to keynote for a big event!” -Gert Garman.

Our CHITAG website had always been a resource for people starting in the toy and game industry, so we combined all the articles from our various websites, videos from past events, the all-important Bloom Report into POP. We have created new Book & Media Review sections, a Memorial section, and much more in our new Wiki. Soon there will be over 1,000 articles, interviews, commentaries, videos, and reviews, searchable by category. During the rst year of the pandemic, we hosted incredible virtual events showcasing 35 panels with over 200 speakers from across 17 countries! e following year, we created ‘POP Duos’ with top creatives in our industry paired with top creatives from other industries. For example, Elan Lee, Co-Founder of Exploding Kittens, had a dynamic conversation with Je Probst, Host and Exec Producer of TV’s Survivor. is series of 10 POP Duos was so successful, we are continuing with a new one every month. All this fantastic content lives in our Wiki for all People of Play to peruse.

During lockdown, we very much missed our live events, and we all missed being with one another even more. People have a visceral need to get together, even if it must be remotely. We worked with Zoom and developed our POP Pub rooms, which we used for events like monthly pub nights, a 3 Truths & a Lie Show, our Marketing and PR Pro Series, Professional Inventor meetings, and more. ey are simple one-click Zoom rooms, and everyone loves them!

e next feature we developed was based on frequent complaints we hear about social feeds being clogged with ads and other information people didn’t need,. In response, we created two feeds just for toy and game people. One feed targets consumers, and the other is the Bloom Report 24/7 news feed, amalgamating toy and game news from all over the world.

Our plan was always to have two levels of membership: one for industry people, and one for consumers, each with di erent levels of information. We would grow the industry membership, then reach out to consumers. Before promotion has even begun, consumers have found and are engaging with POP! e very same thing happened with IMDB – consumers want info, and lots of it. Without e ort, 80% of POP tra c is organic, and mostly consumer driven. Soon we will move the Bloom Report itself to POP, and we expect the number will skew more to the direct tra c from the industry… but with the monthly unique visitors growing as they are, it won’t be long before it corrects back toward consumers again. While we didn’t expect the consumers to nd us so soon, we are happy they did – consumers are People of Play too! POP’s homepage social feed is a great place for you to post about your products and what you are doing…both consumers and industry members will take notice!

Many more features will be ‘popping’ up on POP soon! If you haven’t already, get in on the ground oor and join. We have many levels of membership ranging from free to fully loaded, with all bells and whistles! To get the most out of it, we recommend joining with the works, a la mode! e more you get into POP, the more you’ll get out of POP!

is year, it’s super exciting to have our POP Week back in person in Chicago! is includes our Inventor Pitches, Innovation Conference, POP Roast, Young Inventor Challenge, Toy & Game International Excellence Awards (the TAGIEs) and our Toy & Game Fair with the addition of Girl Scout and Boy Scout indoor overnight campout events. e Inventor, Innovation, Young Inventor Challenge, and TAGIE events will be in November as always, but we’re taking the location on the road, with a di erent company hosting in a di erent city each year. e consumer-facing events will now be in December at their new holiday home in Chicago’s Rosemont Convention Center. Many sweet and exciting partnerships will be announced soon.

A huge thank you to the toy and game industry for your support growing our POP platform and our many events around the world over the years – we could not have done it without you – the People of Play!

Mary Couzin is Founder and President of Chicago Toy & Game Group dba People of Play or POP! You can reach her at mary@chitag.com. She’d love to talk to you about POP’s November and December events or the POP platform!

www.peopleofplay.com - Come for the resources, stay for the memes.