Toy and Game Shows for the Rest of Us

If you really love games, you'll probably be spending Labor Day Weekend - August 30-September 1 - at Chicago's Navy Pier, attending the Chicago International Toy and Game Fair, "the first show in the Western Hemisphere to provide consumers with the opportunity to preview, play and purchase the widest selection of toys and games offered directly by manufacturers before the fourth quarter when the hot new products are introduced." This is a big first for the playful American many. The only equivalent that I know of is the Essen Game Fair in Germany - the International Speiletage, and it's bugged me for years that the closest we've come are trade shows, like the Toy Fair, where nobody plays and the public isn't invited.

If you are as much of a game inventor as you are a player, you'll probably be spending the next weekend, September 5-7, 2003, in Las Vegas, at the Toy and Game Inventors Forum, because, according to their site, "TGIF is the only event in the world where the public gets to meet, learn from and sell their ideas, inventions, or services of your company to the "who's who" of the toy industry. TGIF boasts a speaking faculty of over 50 key toy and entertainment executives from companies that include: Mattel, Hasbro, Hasbro Games, Fisher-Price, MGA Entertainment (Bratz Dolls), Tomy, Brio/Alga (Sweden), Toys R Us, Pressman, Radica, DSI Toys, Binney & Smith, Spin Master, University Games, K'NEX, Ohio Art, Ravensburger (Germany) and many others. "