I have just returned from spending two days at this year’s Distoy show in London. Ahead of the event, there was a lot of chatter on social media, with some people having strong opinions about what was going to happen, even before a metaphorical ball was kicked. As ever, I prefer to wait until after a show to pass comment, so I am going to attempt to sum up what I saw and heard as honestly as I can, with the caveat that – as with any event – different people will have had different experiences.
Let’s start with some irrefutable facts: there were fewer exhibitors, that much is undeniable – I believe the number widely quoted was 60 official exhibitors, with a couple of companies piggybacking on the show by renting rooms very close by, or by simply setting up camp in one or other hotel lobby. For context, that’s around half last year’s number.
Of course, there is no law against riding on an event’s coat tails, and in the case of a hotel-based show, it’s difficult (maybe impossible) to physically stop. Whether it is morally defensible is another matter entirely – I guess if people don’t have any compunction about gatecrashing someone else’s party and not even bringing along a bottle of booze, that’s up to them. You pays your money – or not, in their case – you takes your choice.
There were also fewer visitors. It’s hard to put a definitive number on that, but it was generally quieter than previous years, and some people stayed for a shorter duration. Whether the drop in exhibitors and visitors was because of global economic factors, a slow start to the toy year, the rise of LA showrooms or other factors, it’s hard to know for certain without asking the people who elected not to make the trip.
However, I managed to speak with a lot of exhibitors and visitors who did show up. It’s true that some were concerned about the lack of critical mass, and how that impacted their show experience. Some were pretty blunt in their assessment. Others had a different take: as with my report from Hong Kong in January, some people were happy to view it through a ‘less is more’ lens. Fewer tyre-kickers and time wasters and longer, more productive meetings were cited by quite a few. One exhibitor told me that one deal he signed (which he said he wouldn’t have got if he wasn’t there) covered the cost of the show and then some.
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