Category: Events

Women in Toys, Licensing & Entertainment (WiT) has announced that WiT Empowerment Day, the organization’s annual event that helps women who are looking to take their business, brand, or product ideas to new heights, will be held on Thursday, May 23, 2024 during Licensing Expo at Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Imagine you have a groundbreaking idea for a toy, game or consumer product. You’re passionate and driven, but navigating the complexities of the toy and consumer products industry feels like an insurmountable challenge. That’s where Empowerment Day steps in. Through access, mentorship and education, you will find yourself sitting across from top toy companies, retail buyers, and industry executives, pitching your idea with confidence.

Media entrepreneur, comedian, podcaster, writer and performer Cally Beaton has been confirmed as host of this year’s Brand & Lifestyle Licensing Awards (B&LLAs) taking place on Thursday 25 April. Cally has three decades’ experience distributing TV programs and formats around the world – combining working with on-screen and production talent with business planning and strategy, bridging the divide between creative and financial priorities. But that’s not all! While working for Viacom’s Comedy Central, she also developed a parallel life as a performer and stand-up comedian.

Toy Fair exhibitors are encouraged to mark their calendars for six upcoming Exhibitor Academy sessions, which will provide valuable insights and practical tips for a successful Toy Fair, taking place March 1 to 4, 2025 at the Javits Center in New York City. Key contacts will receive an email when sessions are open for registration.

Now entering its 17th year, the TAGIE Awards, presented by People of Play (POP), will once again honor the best and brightest innovators, designers, retailers, suppliers, PR and marketers in the toy and game industry. Each year, the TAGIEs bring together the many communities that make up the larger industry of play, including professionals and fans from all over the world. This important recognition, honoring contribution, innovation, and spirit of community is the very heart of POP. Nominations are now open for the 2024 TAGIE Lifetime Achievement Award!

To celebrate the opening of Columbia Pictures/Alcon Entertainment’s The Garfield Movie in the UK, special preview screenings will take place in cinemas across the country on Sunday 12th May, ahead of its debut in cinemas via Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) on 24th May. SPE and participating cinemas are generously donating all income received from ticket sales to support the work of MediCinema.

The Halloween & Costume Association (HCA) is thrilled to announce the launch of the first annual Spooky Awards, an industry celebration of innovation, creativity, and all things Halloween! Open to Halloween product manufacturers, HCA members, and non-members alike, this thrilling event promises to be the pinnacle of the Halloween calendar. Steeped in the mystique of the season, the competition beckons to daring souls who weave new wonders. Eligible submissions include only fresh apparitions, newly conjured within the past year or set to materialize in the next ten moons. While prototypes are welcome, beware—prior incarnations haunting the market do not qualify. Only the freshest, most fiendish creations may ascend.

Family Entertainment Live, one of the world’s leading presenters of live family entertainment events, and Mattel, Inc (NASDAQ: MAT) a leading global toy company and owner of one of the strongest catalogs of children’s and family entertainment franchises in the world, announced record breaking performances of Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow Party that took place this past weekend, April 13-14, 2024. The tour made its debut in Mexico as 70,027 guests attended four sold-out Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow Party shows at Arena CDMX.

The Pokémon Company International has shared further details about the 2024 Pokémon World Championships, which will be held in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, this summer. Pokémon fans who attended the 2024 Pokémon Europe International Championships (EUIC) in London over the weekend, and those who followed the action via the official Pokémon livestream, were delighted to find out that the 2024 Pokémon World Championships will take place from August 16 to 18, 2024, at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. The artwork created especially for the event was also revealed, showing off Pikachu and friends on a snorkeling adventure.

Registration for AAHA Con (formerly known as Connexity) is available, and attendees should secure their registration by April 15th for the best price. Celebrating the every day “Superheroes” in veterinary medicine, the annual veterinary hospital conference will be held from September 12 to 14 at the prestigious Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Open to veterinary professionals across the entire spectrum of the profession, AAHA Con will provide over 75 hours of continuing education (CE) credits in medical and practice management.