President’s Letter – June 5, 2012: Never Too
Old
I have been practicing association management for over 35 years, and
could deceive myself into thinking that I don’t have much left to
learn. I would be wrong. I was reminded recently about the
importance of getting out from behind my desk to learn new
things.
Last week I attended the 10th annual meeting of the Exhibition and
Convention Executives Forum (ECEF). This is a gathering of over
200 executives from organizations that host the largest and most
prominent trade events in the U.S. I give great credit to Sam
Lippman, who organizes the event for his courage and success in
presenting a program about event management to a roomful of very
experienced managers. Our VP, Meetings & Events, Marian
Bossard and I came away from that one-day meeting with a long list of
new ideas that will make our Toy Fair and Fall Toy Preview that much
better.
The next day, I attended the Social Innovation Summit at the United
Nations. This annual event is aimed at bringing industry and
philanthropy together to identify opportunities and inspire new
initiatives to make our world a better place. The event had a
star-studded program with speakers like Craig Venter and Laura
Arrillaga-Andreessen. Our industry’s Alan Hassenfeld was a
speaker on a panel about “The Business Case for Shared Value and
Social Innovation,” and throughout the event we heard new ideas
about how an industry like ours can “do well by doing
good.” We came away with some great new insights into how we
can make our Toy Industry Foundation even more effective for children in
need.
And of course, our own PlayCon and Washington Fly-in the preceding
week offered a wealth of new insights and ideas for executives in the
toy business. I don’t know how companies succeed without
constantly learning new things.
TIA is offering an opportunity for toy designers to spark their
creativity at our inaugural ToyDesignCon at The Strong Museum of
Play in Rochester, NY, June 24-26.
I hope to see many of you there. We are never too old to learn new
things.
Warm regards to all,
ckeithley@toyassociation.org
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