08/06/2024
by Victoria Ritter
From June 2 to 5, thousands of retailers, manufacturers, reps and affiliates congregated in St. Louis, MO for Astra’s annual Marketplace & Academy. This year’s trade show offered several new and improved aspects as organizers continued to seek to provide the best experience for all in the specialty toy industry.
“It was very well attended,” said Astra President Sue Warfield. “This year, we heard from a lot of people that it was one of the best shows they’ve been to.”
Improvements pay off
Months before the show kicked off, Warfield and show organizers got to work analyzing survey results from people who attended the 2023 show. One of the results from the survey was an improved registration process.
“Our members do judge the show by some of those details,” Warfield explained. “They judge by the food lines and registration process at the desk and those little things more than what they actually came for – the education sessions and trade show products. When you don’t hear negative feedback about the products on the trade show floor and you hear very few other complaints, you know it’s a success.”
The 2024 Marketplace & Academy featured a different show floor layout that provided wider aisles between vendor booths. While some manufacturers have since commented how they felt they didn’t see as many people roaming the floor, Warfield explained that attendees were simply spread out more.
The show welcomed 1,800 attendees while the show floor was capped at 370 exhibitors.
“Our retailers, overall, like the bigger aisles because it gives them room to walk, look at things and even try things,” Warfield said. “When you have smaller aisles and people are crammed together, it’s going to look like the show is way busier, but it also means that the retailers don’t have room to move, look and try things.”
Mentors meet
As Astra highly values interactions and forming relationships, the organization offered a mentor program for Marketplace & Academy. The program saw 41 “apprentices” paired with an equal number of “ambassadors.” The apprentices were either new Astra members, were attending the show for the first time or hadn’t been to the show in a while. Meanwhile, the ambassadors were required to have attended the show for three years out of the last five years.
The two groups were able to connect during the Meet & Greet Reception on June 1. The reception was split into two parts, with new attendees arriving an hour before the main reception.
“That room was packed,” Warfield recalled. “I think it was, from all of my recollections of attending our shows – I’ve been doing this since 2002 – the most well-attended. People hung around until the very end. It’s a great way to start out.”
Warfield hoped that participants in the mentorship program would be able to connect with mentors and learn how to get involved and get the most out of attending the show. She hinted at plans to hold the mentor program outside of the show and make it available for retailers and manufacturers, thus further connecting the specialty toy industry.
Listening and learning
The first day of the show was a time of learning and fun. Instead of hosting a keynote speaker for the opening breakfast, Astra organized roundtable sessions. Participants were able to sit at a table that was designated to one of six topics – communication, events, licensing, membership, online sales sites and sales reps – where, with the help of a few prompts, they could share their input. Sticky notes were available for note-taking and collected by Astra staff. After 15 minutes, the discussion groups disbanded and regrouped at other tables. The responses were made available to Astra members.
“A lot of people not only said they loved hearing discussions on the topics, but also got to meet people they probably wouldn’t have had a chance to meet on the show floor,” said Warfield, adding how the roundtable sessions were an “organic icebreaker.” Warfield hopes to replicate the event at future shows, possibly with different talking points.
The rest of the day comprised of 45-minute sessions, plus a lunchtime panel discussion on staffing issues. The popular Game & Kit Event and Opening Party at the St. Louis City Museum rounded out the night.
The most popular educational sessions revolved around the topics of kidults and STEAM, with more than 120 people in each classroom. Even the least attended session had 75 people attend. Overall, the education sessions were “well received” based on the class surveys, said Warfield.
A star-studded night at the gala
A new feature at Marketplace & Academy was Astra’s Awards Gala on June 3. The sold-out event was a “huge success,” according to Warfield.
The atmosphere resembled the glitz of old Hollywood with a red carpet, cocktail hour, buffet dinner, photo opportunities and dancing. The main event of the evening, however, centered around awards. Honors were announced for small and large booth judging, the Astra Play Awards and Excellence Awards. Astra also introduced the new Astra Specialty Hall of Fame, into which they inducted previous Lifetime Achievement Award winners (see sidebars on pages 8 and 10 for a list of the Astra Play and Excellence award winners).
After much deliberation, the Astra board decided to do something different from selecting one person to honor for the Lifetime Achievement Award. In place of the award, they started the Astra Specialty Hall of Fame and inducted past Lifetime Achievement Award winners. Amy Soldana, last year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, gave a speech on behalf of previous winners on the importance of Astra. “Going forward, we’ll have additional inductees throughout the years,” Warfield said.
Looking ahead to San Antonio
The 2025 Astra Marketplace & Academy is set for June 1 to 4 in San Antonio, TX. The Astra team will continue to review the feedback from this year’s show to make the 2025 event the best it can be. Warfield explained that overall reaction for this year’s show has been “extremely positive.”
She went on to explain how her team is very aware of how cost can be a prohibitive factor as retailers and manufacturers decide whether to attend. Astra has financially recovered from the 2020 pandemic and is working on methods to make the show more cost effective – an example would be offering a subsidy for hotel rooms and discounts to those who register for the show early on.
“We want people to be able to come to the full conference,” Warfield said. “We’re working at making it more cost-effective for as many members as possible to attend.”
Warfield is personally looking forward to meeting members face to face, hearing about what’s working for them, what they need, what they’re enjoying, what they need to succeed and getting to know them better in a personal environment.
“To me, all the interactions we have throughout the year culminate with where I can actually see members in person and interact with them,” she stated. “We truly are a community-based organization. When you can see people, chat with them and hear how things are going with their organization in-person, that’s what I look forward to the most, every year.”
To learn more about Astra and its upcoming events, visit astratoy.org.
