#188: You're Invited To Hasbro's FIRST Ever Women Innovators of Play Event
Listen Now
Tap Play Below or Listen On Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts
The biggest game company in the world is walking the talk with their first ever Women Innovators of Play Event, and YOU are invited. In this episode of Making It in The Toy Industry, The Toy Coach sit's down to chat with Tanya Thompson, the Senior Director of Inventor Relations and External Innovation for Hasbro Gaming. With over 16 years of experience in the toy and game industry, Tanya is a true luminary, having received the prestigious 2023 IDIOT (International Designer and Inventor of Toys) award and numerous other major awards and nominations.
This episode focuses on an upcoming Hasbro event designed to educate, celebrate and support Women Innovators in the toy industry. Tanya's dedication to supporting inventors shines through as she talks about her involvement in the Hasbro Women's Innovators of Play Event—an initiative aimed at bringing more women innovators into the industry. Hit play on this podcast and you'll quickly discover why this live event is more than just a webinar; it's a virtual experience offering a deep dive into the toy industry's inner workings. We'lll go over the run of show, the impressive lineup of speakers, and offer advice on how to prepare.
Whether you're an aspiring toy inventor or a seasoned industry professional, this episode is a must-listen, and the Hasbro Women Innovators of Play Event is a MUST attend. Join us on September 12th, 2023, to embark on a unique journey into the heart of toy innovation and creativity.
EPISODE CLIFF NOTES
This event is happening LIVE September 12th at 10am EST, block your calendar now.
If you're thinking you'll catch the replay....don't! We aren't sure one is coming, plus you don't want to miss the key announcement during the event's closing remarks.
Registration details and links mentioned in the podcast episode can be found at https://thetoycoach.com/188
All listeners of this podcast can email a screenshot of their registration confirmation to support@thetoycoach.com for a free digital gift. **This email screenshot must be received by September 12th, 2023 at 12:00am to qualify.
-
This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
CLICK HERE to Register for FREE to attend Hasbro’s Women Innovators of Play Event
-
You are listening to Making It in The Toy Industry, episode number 188. Hey there, toy people, Agel Wade here and welcome back to another episode of the Toy Coach Podcast, making it in the Toy Industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by the toy coach.com. My guest today is Tanya Thompson. She's got over 16 years of toy and game experience and is currently the senior director of Inventor relations and external innovation for Hasbro Gaming.
Previously, Tanya has led inventor relations, product development, and product sourcing for companies like Think Fun Marbles, the brainstorm and mastermind toys. Her passion is connecting with people, sourcing ideas, and playing board games and mechanical puzzles. Tanya is an avid supporter of inventors. She is always at our T C A virtual pitch events. Thank you so much Tanya, and she has partnered closely with many to bring hits. Like Gravity Maze Clue Escape Series Connect four, spin Sun Moon Rising and Twister Air to Market just to name a few.
She got the 2023. Idiot, I D I O T award, which stands for International Designer and in inventor of Toys, and it's given to only one luminary each year who's made an outstanding contributions to the toy industry. I. She's the United Inventors Association's Aspire Top 100 list. The MOJO Nations play creator, inventor relations Executive of the Year and recently she was nominated for the Women and Toys Wonder Woman of the Year Award in outbound licensing. Now, her proudest accomplishment today is raising three beautiful children with her husband Chris.
Tanya is amazing and I'm having her on the show today because, Along with all the work she does with Hasbro, she took it upon herself to start an entirely new event, pushing forward the initiative to bring more women inventors into this industry.
The event that Tanya started building with Hasbro is called the Hasbro Women's Innovators of Play. In this interview you're about to hear I tell her this event is more than just, you know, a webinar or a live event. This is an, this is an experience for all aspiring and current women innovators of play. As some of you know, I'm also involved in this event, really proud to be moderating a panel with two executives at Hasbro and we have been preparing like crazy. Not only are we preparing our speeches, our panels, our talks all in depth, we are doing virtual rehearsals, in-person rehearsals, the whole shebang. So this is a live event you are not going to want to miss.
Now, before we dive in the interview, I've gotta tell you, if you're thinking Agel, I know it's a live event, but it's virtual for me, and I'm just gonna catch the replay. Don't think so fast, okay? There may not be a replay available for this event. So I don't want you to miss it.
So I want you to head over to the toy coach.com/ 1 8 8 and scroll down to the mentioned in this episode area where you will find a link to register for Hasbro's Women Innovators of Play Event happening September 12th, 2023. Okay.
So I know I'm talking too much. You wanna dive in to my interview with Tanya so you can learn what this event is all about, who will be there, what you can expect, why you should attend. So without further ado, let's dive into the interview.
Tanya Thompson, welcome to the show. So happy to have you back. Thank you, Jack. Yeah. I'm thrilled to have you back. Everyone is reaching out to me excited that I'm a part of the first ever Women Innovators of Play event put on by Hasbro. Woo. So congratulations. Thank for being a part of it.
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for including me. Congratulations to Hasbro. If you're listening to this podcast today, it's happening very soon. September 12th, 2023. We wanted to get this podcast out to tell people what this event is, where they can go to register, why they should attend, who will be there, all of that good stuff.
Tanya, first of all, can you tell me what the Women Innovators of Play event is yeah, absolutely. I am so excited that we are doing this. It's just showing H'S commitment to inclusion and innovation. So what we're doing is we're gathering women together and we're we are providing an, an incredible program so people can come and learn and you know, get to know some of the speakers and things like that.
We want to connect with more women and, and innovation comes from a diversity of thought. So we're really looking at kind of like building this community of women women innovators in particular, but anybody can be an innovator. So if you're even curious about it, we would love to have you there.
And let's talk about some of the speakers. You've got, Elizabeth Hargrave, you, me, Kate Fais, Jennifer, BOS Winkle, Cynthia Williams, Aisha Tyler. Kim Boyd? Eleanor Black. Talk to me about these incredible speakers. How'd you get so many of them involved with this event?
You know, I have this incredible com committee of 15 people, and they helped. Everybody helped. And if I since. When I went around saying like, Hey, I'm doing this. I'm really excited about it. Like everybody was so enthusiastically supportive and willing to help this happen.
Elizabeth Hargrave is the Desi game designer of wingspan, which in my opinion really kind of changed the landscape of more complex games and made. Themes that were more accessible because she is a birder and her whole complex game is about birding. And she's gonna talk about that journey and, and the advice she wants to give other people who are interested in being an innovator in the industry. Also Aisha Tyler, super excited. You might know her. From friends. She was one of the girlfriends of Ross. Mm-hmm. She was also a host on, whose line is it?
Anyway she's a huge supporter of women's rights, so we're extremely excited to have her be a part of. The event. So she's gonna speak about her experiences and resilience
eleanor Black is a commercial director for Fuse London Limited. Fuse is a very successful invention house out of London, England. And they work with all the mass market companies as well as smaller companies for a while. So they know how to kind of get games and toys licensed.
Chris Cox is gonna open the days coming to do It Welcome, which I'm really thankful that he's able to do that.
Cynthia Williams is the president of Wizards of the Coast. So she is going to speak about imposter sin, imposter syndrome, and doubt. I really wanted a part of the day to be about real authentic topics that we as women face in the world. And so I'm really excited that Cynthia's gonna. Speak about that.
When I was kind of doing research as to what people might wanna hear, a, a lot of people asked about, like, what happens once an idea goes into a company? Like how does it go from there to shelf? So we've got you as our incredible moderator and Jen Bos Winkle and Kate Fcon, who are all, both women leaders at Hasbro.
One's in product management or marketing, and the other one's in design. One's for games and other one's for toys. Play-Doh and. In particular. Yeah. So that's gonna be a really, really phenomenal panel. And I'm so excited that you're gonna moderate it. Well, you're more than welcome.
The magic to working at a toy company is you get to know the inner workings of what works for them, what doesn't work for them. What I try to do with the pitch event that you guys are part of all the time is figure out what fits for this toy company versus that toy company.
Yeah. So this journey to mass market is about journey to mass market it Hasbro, and that's just insight that. Is it, you know, impossible to get unless you work there. And now we're gonna have an opportunity to have two people working there. One of them who's been with Hasbro for 10, 15 years? Yeah, yeah. They've both been there a long time, so or like a substantial amount of time. And they're in leadership roles, so they're the ones making decisions about design. They're the ones making decision about marketing.
And that's who you're gonna hear from as well as like, when I came to Hsra myself six and a half years ago I kind of thought I knew what made a mass market product, but then it's really hard to understand it until you're like in it and, and not a lot of people are.
In it, right? Yes. So it's kind of like what makes a difference between pitching to a small company mm-hmm. Or even an independent company to pitching to a mass market company. So what, what is, what makes it even mass market? Mm-hmm. It's something that everybody's confused about, like, it's so, yeah.
Well, what, how does this, why is this? Like, I think everybody will like that game. Is that enough and it's not.
At the Women Innovators of Play Event, you can check out their website at spark.hasbro.com/women innovators, and you'll see that it begins September, 1210 am to 12:30 PM Eastern.
It is an event On next Tuesday, an event centered on women's leadership, women's innovators, and women-led creativity. So as an attendee, you can expect a program that includes insightful presentations that are engaging from prominent women leaders and innovators in and around the toy industry. So you don't wanna miss it.
Head over to spark.hasbro.com/women innovators again, and I would love to walk through the schedule. I'll start prompting it, Tanya, and tell us anything, maybe a reason why they don't wanna miss that. So if you look at the, the schedule for this event, At 10:00 AM we're gonna have our welcome, as Tanya mentioned by Chris Cox.
Why don't they wanna miss this? Welcome. Well, I think what I was super excited about having Chris you know agree to participate because it's really important. It just shows to everybody. I mean, if the C E O. Can take time. Here he's gonna just, he's gonna welcome us to the day and I'm just really excited that he, he is going to actually participate. And then at 10 0 5 we're gonna have Elizabeth Hargrave with her Wingspan journey, sharing how the game came to be. And I know you love this game. We've talked about this several times.
I feel. That's cute. Yeah. I'm a, I'm a big fan of Wings Fan as well as Elizabeth, simply because it, it made companies believe that more neutral themes instead of just war and battles and medieval times, like and they didn't know, like kudos to Stone Meyer games for actually taking a risk on it.
'cause they didn't know, e Elizabeth will share that. They didn't know if it was gonna be successful, if they'd be able to sell a game about birds. And not only is it. Uber's successful. It's led the way for so many other incredible topics, so you don't wanna miss it because Elizabeth is probably the I would say the premier design game designer at the moment.
She'll share her journey as well as she's gonna give advice. To people interested in designing designing as well. She's gonna give some tips and advice as to from her experience you know, what will help them. So you don't wanna miss it. And then at 10 25, we've got you, Tanya, with the perfect pitch.
I'll talk about you. Why they don't wanna miss this. You did a podcast interview with me talking a little bit about pitching and, and developing the best sizzle reel, which people love. So I can only imagine if she's doing a focus talk on the perfect pitch for Hasbro.
You don't wanna miss that, you know? Watch this live, then go replay the podcast episode. Then you're ready to pitch to Hasbro. Right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, thank you. Thank you. I, Probably am involved in around 1500 pitches a year. Wow. A year. And I've been doing this, I've been doing inventor relations for 16 and a half years.
Wow. So, and I've, and I've been part of pitches for small specialty companies. Obviously Hasbro, the largest game company in the world. So yeah. I'm gonna give basically my 10 tips, how to prepare. What prepare for it, what you should do during it, and what you should do after the pitch. So what makes a perfect pitch?
Perfect. And then at 10 40 we have Journey to Mass Market with myself, Kate, and Jennifer. And you're gonna get an overview of the entire product roadmap. And this one you said Tanya was sparked by someone who told you, this is what we wanna know. We wanna know how things come from an idea to market at Hasbro.
Well, and because it's an inside look at something that isn't normally talked about. So from, from Haworth's perspective, so, mm-hmm. This is gonna be really valuable because it's important for you to know if you're interested in, I hope eventually submitting ideas.
To Hasbro at some point then you're going to get the insights scoop as to, oh, okay, this is what they do. They do the testing, they do this illustrations package design. Mm-hmm. But, and this is how they get it on shelf. So it's just really insightful and if you're interested in kind of our industry, it's a really great kind of look at that journey.
Just speaking to on my, on my own behalf, we really planned out this talk, so don't think, you know, we're just coming in and asking random questions and they're just gonna say random things. We planned this. So you can go from start to finish and we're being really particular with how we spend the time and the information that we share so that you can get a full picture of the journey to mass market at Hasbro.
Yeah. Which is, it's like, I mean, I have to say, all the talks are, I mean, we're not doing this lightly. We're taking this very seriously. So we've, we're doing run throughs and dress rehearsals and everything. Mm-hmm. Because we want it to be really smoothly so you can focus on the content and the people the day of.
So yeah, you guys have put a lot of effort into the, into the panel for sure. So I, I also have to say I follow this other online marketer and she always has this event and she calls it like the entrepreneur experience. And it is very much developed in this way where there are run throughs and there's an in-person aspect where she, she's in person with a group of people projecting this information and, and the show.
So I almost wanna say this is a women innovators experience. You know, this isn't just a webinar you signed up for and you maybe watch the replay. You wanna see this thing live. It's being developed like a production, like a show. And then at 1105 we have overcoming Doubt and Imposter Syndrome with Cynthia Williams.
And I mean, yeah, I, I wanna see this one. So like, I don't miss this one. 'cause even myself as women, we just struggle with this sometimes. We don't think we deserve all the things we've worked so hard for and. And yeah, I'm excited to see what Cynthia has to say about that. And then 1135 Cultivating dynamic resilience with Aisha.
Tyler, tell us what, what do we have to expect there? Well, so Aisha is, I'm so, I'm so thrilled that she agreed to be part of this event, because of her background, like, like being an entrepreneur, being an actor, and being a very successful one at that. And just so we all know that you know, it, things aren't always accomplished easily.
As a woman, a minority, she's gonna talk about just how important resilience is to anyone's journey.
Inspiring. And then at 12 we have Eleanor who has worked in the toy industry for for 20 years, and she's gonna be talking about how to be a successful inventor. Yeah, so she's got a lot of great tips for if you're interested in innovating in the game and toy industry. Then she's gonna share kind of her insight and, and where Elizabeth is Kind of the premier game designer.
She works with a lot of independent companies, I hope maybe has for someday. And then on the other side of the spectrum, fuse is a very professional company that's been around a long time. Mm-hmm. And have placed a lot of, a lot of toys, a lot of games. I, I actually worked with them when I was at Think Fund, so it was them who were the in the inventors of Gravity Maze, which is now one of think fund's.
Most successful products, so super excited to be, have brought that one in when I was with working for Think Fund. So you're going to get tips and, and insights from Eleanor about what it takes in, in terms of working with mass market companies as well as smaller companies.
'cause they do work with them all, but it, they're pretty unique in terms of how closely they work with us. So you're gonna have during this event the opportunity to learn from women leaders about their past experiences, the process of pitching a new idea, what makes an idea good for mass market, the journey of a product through the Hasbro Pipeline.
And then at the very end, at 1215, we're having a special key announcement in closing with you and Kim vod. Is there anything you can tell us about this secret announcement just yet? Is there anything? No, it's, It is a special key announcement that we're extremely excited to make. And Kimberly Boyd is also, actually, she's gonna be she's gonna ma moderate Aisha's q and a as well.
Kim Boyd is head of Toy at Hasbro. She's incredible and she is the one who has really been a champion for this event. Last year, she came to me and said, If you had an opportunity to do more what would that be? And so I pitched this event idea and she's been a hundred percent supportive.
I am so thankful to Kim. We're gonna make a special key announcement Tune in live to actually hear what that is. That's a good draw. There's something special you're gonna miss out on if you don't attend live.
Is it too late to get signed up for the Hasbro Women Innovators of Play event starting September 12th? Not at all. So you do have to register.
Spark.hasbro.com/women Innovators. Yep. We'll put it in the show notes as well. Awesome. Thank you. So you do have to be over 18, but anywhere, anyone from anywhere can sign up and it'll. Start on Tuesday at 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time and it'll go till 12:30 PM that day. And you'll register first and then closer to the event. We will send you a link. We'll send you an email with a link zoom link in order to be able to part, like, to sign on.
Don't make sure, don't wanna miss it. So make sure you use an email address that you know you actually check. Not gonna get the link when you sign up, use an email, you actually check.
Tanya, what is the best piece of advice you have for someone preparing to attend this event? Yeah. So one is go now and block your calendar. So block your calendar for Tuesday September 12th, 10 till 1230 Eastern standard time.
So block your calendar so you don't get something else. That you, you, you'll then therefore miss the event. And we're, it's unclear if we're gonna be able to publish the event later. So it, you really do wanna. You know, make sure you catch it all live. And then bring a notebook because I'm sure there's gonna be things that you'll wanna jot down that are, that you'll want to remember.
Yes, and I wanna tell my listeners, if you register, send me a screenshot that you've registered because I've got a little, some little special freebie giveaway for you, a digital giveaway, you know, that's what I do. So I'll send you little digital giveaway.
If you send me a screenshot, send it over to support@thetoycoach.com. And we will get back to you with a special little freebie, so if you register. Wow. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. Yay. Of course. Thank you so much, one for organizing this event and making toy industry education important. As you know, like we've been working, we've been like talking together about how different ways we could work together. So I'm just thrilled to be a part of this.
Thanks. I'm so, so thankful that you were able to do this, and you've always been very enthusiastic about it, so I really appreciate you participating and doing this today. So we can get the word out. Yep. Yeah, please, please, please, if you're at all curious, register and then come join us next Tuesday.
Before I let you go, Tanya, what was your favorite toy or game as a kid? So I really, really wanted baby alive. My mom was an obstetrics nurse. She was always around babies. So I was a, I was still, to this day ba a big baby enthusiast.
And so I really wanted a adult I could nurture. So when Baby Alive came out, I don't even know when it came out, but when I was a young child, I really wanted a baby alive. And so I got one for Christmas. I was so super excited. But then I started playing with it and the, the. The doll kept having blowouts, so like the diapers would leak and go all over the place.
And my mom was like, you're not having any of this. Not in my house. So she returned my baby alive. Oh my gosh. Which I don't remember that being traumatic. But anyway, so she returned Baby Alive and instead I got a little professor. And Little professor is a calculator by Texas Instruments, but not only is it a calculator, it's also like a quiz.
Like it, you, it, it sends you on the display rapid fire math questions. Yeah. And I loved it. I still have my little professor today. My dad was a math teacher. I became a math teacher. I love mathematics. That's where I started. My career was a teacher of high school math here in Canada.
So, mm-hmm. Yeah. So anyway little professor is my most impactful, memorable toy that I through through force, which is no calculator. But anyway, yeah. That is awesome. Thanks so much for sharing, Tanya. It was great chatting with you again. I'll see with the event really soon. Awesome. Thanks Elle. Thank you everyone.
Well there, you have it toy people. My interview with Tonya Thompson. I hope you enjoyed this episode.
And more importantly, if you love this podcast and you haven't yet left a review, well, what are you waiting for? Your reviews? Help this podcast get discovered by more toy and game people out there like you that need to hear it. And to celebrate those of you who leave reviews. I'm going to just read one real quick
this interview comes from Daisy. The clown. These episodes are the most thought provoking, exciting, and thorough tools to develop or find target manufacturer pitch, and more for driven newbie to the toy world. I'm so grateful for the organized easily understood delivery approach and homework given watch out world because here I come.
Okay, Daisy. So your homework for today toy people is to go to the toy coach.com/ 1 8, 8, and scroll down to find. Find the link to register for the Hasbro women innovators of play event. Okay. That is your work for today . Again, if you love this podcast and you haven't left a review, what are you waiting for? Scroll down to leave a review wherever you're listening to this podcast, my phone dings every time a new review rolls in and it lights me up and keeps me motivated to keep coming back week after week.
As always, thank you so much for being here with me today. I know there are a ton of podcasts out there so it truly means the world to me that to tune into this one until next week i'll see you later toy people
-
🎓Learn more about how you can develop and pitch your toy idea with Toy Creators Academy® by clicking here to visit toycreatorsacademy.com and join the waitlist.
Not ready for the Toy Creators Academy online course? Start by connecting with fellow toy creators inside our online community. Click here to join.