BTHA Briefing - an update on The British Toy Hobby Association’s activities

BTHA Briefi ng

The British Toy & Hobby Association (BTHA) is busy this month and next launching its fi rst podcast series for parents and carers, followed by a free training webinar for its members, as the association’s public relations and events manager Rebecca Deeming explains

This month the BTHA’s non-commercial campaign, Make Time 2 Play, is launching its fi rst podcast series. For those that don’t know about Make Time 2 Play, the campaign aims to provide hundreds of free play ideas, research documents and information about the benefi ts of play to parents and carers.

Users can access the play ideas on its website www.maketime2play.co.uk and on Facebook and Instagram. The campaign also has its own app which is free to download and has more than 450 play ideas which users can fi lter to suit their child’s needs.

The podcast series continues to explore the important role of toys and play for healthy child development. Presented by infl uencer Georgia Jones, there are six episodes with an episode released weekly and will cover topics including play and mental wellbeing, toys and play for deaf children, play therapy with Great Ormond Street Hospital, and toys and play for autistic children plus more. You can listen to the podcast episodes weekly on all usual podcasting platforms and we would be very grateful if toy companies would be willing to share the podcast on their own social media platforms. If you would like to fi nd out more about the campaign and how you can get involved, contact me at Rebecca@btha.co.uk. The BTHA Training Hub has already hosted four free training webinars for members this year. Next month the Training Hub will be hosting a free webinar for members alongside Vulcan Consulting on authorised representation. This webinar is exclusive to BTHA members and will take place at 2pm on 23 September. If you would like to register to attend, please email me. We are always looking for ways to help members, so if there are any particular industry issues you would like assistance with or more information on, get in touch and we will try and arrange a relevant webinar.

If you would like to learn more about BTHA membership, contact Tracey@btha.co.uk. You can view all the benefi ts of BTHA membership on our website at www.btha.co.uk.