You hit the nail on the head with your comments about ChiTag. I would like to add that this is an incredible venue to reach “influencers.” As many of us in marketing know, “influencers” are a group of people who spread the word about great products. At breakfast on Saturday morning, I met a woman at ChiTag whose hobby is being a “game ambassador.” Note this is not her job and she does not get paid… she runs a game club for 120 people in the Minneapolis area. They get together once a month to play games. In addition, she and a couple of friends created a game program for their local Boys & Girls Club. Through her game club, she lines up volunteers to work at the Boys & Girls Club weekly and play games with the kids. This is someone who promotes our industry’s products for FREE and she could be reaching thousands of people for us. She was just one of thousands who attended ChiTag! I wonder who else was out there?

As you pointed out, there is more than selling product at a show like this. It is a great opportunity for unknown inventors to learn about the industry. It’s also a great place to sample your product, so when people are ready to buy for the holidays they are looking for your product online, in the mass market or at independent retailers. It will be interesting for those who exhibited at ChiTag to see if they have any sales increase in the Chicago area over the next two months.

I will continue to support ChiTag and I think it would be great if even more of the toy industry would as well.

I'd like to echo Richard's sentiments - from a
slightly different perspective. I am one of those
smaller companies who exhibited at the show (and, for
point of reference, I believe may be the company
referenced in his article who sold six cases of
product).

I had thought about attending CHITAG since Mary
Cousins first told me about it 4 or 5 years ago. This
year everything just came together to allow it,
especially in light of the expanded offerings the show
provided in 2007. I knew, going into it, that the show
would be an investment for my company, so I had set
several goals for the show that would ultimately be
the criteria for success. Least among them were actual
sales.

My first goal was to test what I already suspected,
that there was a market for my hobby-game products in
the larger mainstream community. The games, built with
'Dungeons and Dragons' styled hobby gamers in mind,
are at their core, fun for a much broader target but a
hard sell for the more mainstream specialty and chain
retail buyers. Happily, even the games that I felt
might be polarizing sold pretty well. Lower numbers
than we were used to at hobby game consumer shows -
but strong enough that we covered more than half our
expenses. Which, I understand, was a significant
landmark for most at the show. I had hoped too that
some of those buyers might be in attendence and notice
the draw our products had. This associated goal was
not realized but I was happy with how the products
performed none the less.

My Primary Goal, however, was to take advantage of the
show as a venue to network within the industry. This
year, Mary had created a board of industry
professionals, each with a unique and important
perspective and a wealth of information to impart.
Moreover, she provided the opportunity to speak one on
one with members of the board. As an inventor, this
was an incredible and rare opportunity. And one I did
not feel I could pass up.
And, indeed, the aspect of the show that was the most
rewarding.

Knowing that Mike and Dave, the Inventor Relations
guys from Hasbro and Mattel respectively, would be
among those we could speak with, we prepared two
products to present for licensing consideration. While
Dave was unavoidably called away last minute (hope all
is well), our meeting with Mike went as best as we
could have possibly hoped for. Both our concepts were
enthusiastically received and made the first step of
what we know is a very long and near impossible
journey. But admittedly, leagues ahead of where we
were just weeks prior. This type of opportunity is as
rare as they come and well worth the price of
admission.

But, lest anyone forget, the other exhibitors have as
much to offer as the panel. We met folks from Fundex
Games and found we were mutual fans of one another. I
had a great conversation over dinner with a number of
panel members including the owner of Zobmondo, which
was more than just plain fun to get to know them, but
was an invaluable source of information about the
inner workings of the industry. I even got the name of
a great lawyer for toy and game licensing down the
road.

And the panel discussions were of the highest quality
as well. Fun, informative and led by professionals who
were passionate about what they do - and compassionate
with regard to the audience who came to hear them
speak.

In summation, Richard was dead on. CHITAG offers far
more than a venue to sell product and it is up to each
attendee to find the real value in the investment you
make. That holds true for the smallest of inventors
and companies to the biggest kids on the block.

Thanks Mary. We'll be back.
Curt Covert
Smirk and Dagger Games

Just wanted to say thank you to Mary Couzin and her staff and to let them know how beneficial Chitag was to helping us better understand the gaming industry. My husband and I were very impressed with the Ask the Expert Panel as well as the various seminars. The Ask the Expert individuals we spoke with not only provided us with constructive feedback, they helped us to understand how we can better improve our current board game. The seminars we attended, such as the Inventor's Forum and the Retailer's Round Table, helped us to understand the inner workings of the game and toy industry, thus helping us to improve our current business plan.

Thank you for providing a forum that allows the average game inventor direct access to gaming industry decision makers. My husband and I both agree that becoming a member of Discover Games was a great investment!


Phyllis Mohrman
Idyllworks, LLC

Richard, thank you for your suggestions. We have been working to incorporate them. We will have 2 days before the Fair for Inventors and Start-ups packed with topics and the opportunity to meet face-to-face top industry executives from here and overseas. This is an outgrowth of our very successful mini-forums this past year. We will have a seminar to show exhibitors how to effectively use the show and create buzz. We have always provided exhibitors with media opportunities and contacts before and during the show and will do so once again and on a bigger scale. One of the many new events we are planning this year is an Inventor Celebration Dinner to honor and recognize our industry inventors. In addition to our exhibitors and industry, we are inviting the public and media to attend. We believe that making our inventors our celebrities as they are in other industries such as film, literary, music and fashion, we can compete better with the public’s many entertainment choices. Chi-Tag is the ideal vehicle for such a dinner and promotion to the public. Regarding the Fair itself, we are moving the Fair back to Navy Pier and working with the City of Chicago on a number of promotions and ideas, including promotion with the Festival of Lights Parade which brings over 1 million people to the City looking for activities to keep them busy downtown. The weekend of November 21st looks to be the ‘Perfect Storm’ of entertainment and fun as well as an opportunity for us to show the public how excited we are about our industry and what we have to offer.

Richard, your Chitag suggestions and observations are right on. We have only missed one Chitag event. (for medical reasons). Last year, we did not even take product to sell. We demo'd our games and simply provided "where to buy" brochures and took two prototypes to test. It was amazing how so many attendees enjoyed helping us out when I asked for their feedback on the new games. One consumer suggested a scoring method by how confident they were about their answer on a scale of 1-5 to advance on the board. Loved it. Chitag is always great fun and a learning opportunity.

As a past exhibitor at Chi-Tag, I have not only had a booth, but also brought my bigger than life giant board and team building games for special showing to entertain the public. We found it very enjoyable to see the public participating in many team building games that they would normally not be exposed to. We were very successful in our outreach to both sell games and recieve marketing exposure. I met many managers and executives while entertaining their children who expressed further interest in utilizing out games to create a learning environment at their organizations.

We enjoyed exhibiting at CHITAG, a gathering of inventors, publishers and consumers. The concept for this show is fantastic and I think every game/toy producer and shop should be promoting this enthusiastic event. We made wonderful industry and press contacts that are still paying dividends today. Finally, I would say the organizers of this show are supportive and aware of the industry trends and needs.

Tony & Brenda Kvale
Kvale Good Natured Games, LLC
Saint Paul, MN