A new open letter penned by Steve Pasierb, president of The Toy Association, offers a look ahead to how the global toy and play industry may evolve in a post-COVID-19 world, and how The Association will support it.
“As human tragedy on a global scale continues to unfold, we each foremost focus on safeguarding our families, loved ones, and co-workers,” Pasierb writes. “At the same time, we are trying to rationalize the complicated balance of staying safe and one day returning to what was once normal business — a normal that will likely never again be achieved, but together we must redefine.”
To redefine equals reinvention, and The Toy Association has begun planning for the future through collaborations with partners in the association community, including the National Association of Manufacturers, National Retail Federation, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“While the team at The Toy Association and our Board of Directors have placed total focus these past weeks on protecting the broad toy and play community, providing useful and actionable COVID-19 information and advocating to keep as much of the business of toys functioning for the families we serve, the real futurist work remains to be understood let alone done,” Pasierb writes. “That is where we are now shifting, to what comes next and how to master the challenges of 2020, 2021, and beyond … The Toy Association is taking a long view that will embrace ambiguity and emphasize the need to continually sense, respond, and adapt as we move forward in our mission as a unifying force. We already started reassessing our strategic blueprint a year earlier than needed and that move now seems prescient.”
In a recent guest column for the Toy Book, Pasierb outlined many of the efforts that The Toy Association is putting forth to assist members now, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread. Since that time, The Association has unveiled plans for Toy Fair Everywhere, and has ramped-up efforts to reopen parts of the manufacturing infrastructure in the U.S. and Mexico where companies and distributors have shown that they can safeguard workers. Additionally, The Association is working to push back against the closure of toy aisles in essential retailers in some states and jurisdictions.
Pasierb’s letter and a full suite of helpful information for the toy industry can be found on The Toy Association website.
