Category Archives: From The Editor

Updates from the Media Command HQ.

The Toy Foundation Announces Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards Finalists

August 15, 2022 Ken Pierce Leave a comment

The Press Release:
A magical crystal ball, a giant pyramid climbing tower, and the most diverse assortment of dolls ever are among the 122 innovative finalists for this September’s Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards. A long-treasured event, The Toy Foundation’s (TTF) TOTY Awards celebrate the creativity of the toy and play community and recognize the industry’s collective philanthropy for the benefit of children in need.

Following the new fall timeline, the TOTY Awards recognize the top toys, games, and licenses from the past two years across 17 categories of play in time for the upcoming holiday shopping season. The finalists (listed below) were selected by a panel of judges comprised of play experts, journalists, academics, retailers, and other toy experts, and now it’s up to the voters to determine the winners.
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From The Editor

Organizers Postpone The 2022 Debut Of Create NYC

August 12, 2022 Ken Pierce Leave a comment

The Press Release:
We’re pressing pause until 2023 with the postponement of Create NYC 2022 – When envisioning the future of the PHOTOPLUS brand, our team sought to reimagine how we could learn, connect, be inspired, and evolve the event format and content to meet the needs of our community. After much collaboration and discussions with our creators, in May 2022 our team announced Create NYC – a new platform to serve our growing creator community.

As any visual storyteller knows a great image requires just the right amount of exposure time. Since releasing the shutter on our plans in May, The Create NYC team has found that the first show needs a little extra time to produce the collective and inspiring experience imagined for this dynamic space. As a result, the Create NYC team has decided to pause our plans for this year in order to build a truly dynamic experience for 2023. 
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From The Editor

Celebrating My 15 Year Anniversary Achievement In WordPress

August 1, 2022 Ken Pierce Leave a comment

A few short days ago, I received a notification in my WordPress Administration screen that I had just reached a 15th Anniversary Achievement on the platform. Pretty cool right? Now since I love to discuss milestones and anniversaries I figured this was the perfect time to look back on that first sign on and how its all grown since then. So my initial process in creating a WordPress was to have a side blog to the already running for years PiercingMetal website. I created a very humble blogspot and called it “PiercingMetal Musings” but since it was related but not connected to the original site all of the traffic would not add to the numbers that the PiercingMetal site was accruing day by day. When I learned that an installation of WordPress could be placed under the proper domain, I took the plunge and imported those posts into that area and used the same name. Now the WordPress traffic would work with the proper HTML Site. The site was now 50% Old School and 50% New School. In 2014 I converted to WordPress on that side of the fence (discussed HERE) and then later on that same year merged the “PiercingMetal Musings” blog into the main site (discussed HERE). From then on it’s been all WordPress all the time with each of the creative branches and voila – 15 years deep into this method of web-publishing. Let’s take a look.

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From The Editor

The Toy Association & Adventure Media and Events Partner To Create “Play Date” Showcase

July 13, 2022 Ken Pierce Leave a comment

The Press Release:
The Toy Association, the not-for-profit trade association representing all businesses involved in creating and delivering toys and youth entertainment products for kids of all ages, and Adventure Media & Events, publisher of industry-leading media outlets the Toy Book and the Toy Insider, announced today a partnership to deliver a one-of-a-kind “play date” in March 2023 that will give media, investors, and the influencer community direct access to the toy companies, brands, and products that will be hot throughout the year, including spring and summer launches and a first look at the hottest toys for the coming holiday season.

“As the producer of Toy Fair – the toy industry’s most iconic and comprehensive play-focused experience for more than a century – The Toy Association is continuing its long-held tradition of unveiling the latest trends and hottest products in Q1, even as Toy Fair shifts from its former February dates to a new fall time frame,” said Kimberly Carcone, executive vice president of global market events at The Toy Association. “We are happy to partner with Adventure Media & Events to give toy brands the opportunity to spotlight their key drivers for holiday, and to provide media and trend-spotters with a first-look at the products that will be driving consumer toy purchases through holiday 2023.”
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From The Editor

Today: The Toy Insider’s “Sweet Suite” 2022 @ Chelsea Piers

July 13, 2022 Ken Pierce Leave a comment

Greetings my friends out there in the Ken Pierce Media readership, I wanted to take a quick moment out of the day to let you know that the Media Command HQ will be heading to the Chelsea Piers to participate in the Toy Insider “Sweet Suite” event today. You might recall that this great happening took place in the virtual space for the last couple of years based on the Coronavirus Pandemic, but now they are back and I am so looking forward to the experience. The virtual event allowed it to keep happening which was amazing but after my own work in the COVID safety world, I am so up for seeing people in person again and be done for this one. With the Toy Fair having cancelled the last two of their events it is very safe to say that I have missed my toy industry reps quite a bit. Thank the technical gods for Zoom sessions and WhatsApp to keep us all chatting over the last few dozen months.

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