TrendCommittee 2026: Most memorable experience at the Spielwarenmesse

Every Spielwarenmesse writes its own stories. For 2026, we asked our TrendCommittee: What is your very own personal favorite memory of the fair? Discover the diverse, surprising, and sometimes even unusual experiences that our experts associate with the Spielwarenmesse.

Urszula Kaszubowska (first visit 2019)

I have been attending Spielwarenmesse since 2019. I remember extremely well my impressions from that first visit: astonishment, excitement, and… a sense of being lost. I didn't realize how many toys were on the market, how many companies operate in this industry, and how diverse the toys are. I remember that during that first edition, I had about 30 meetings and that after 3 days I was so exhausted, that I came home with a high fever and a serious cold.
The next edition, in 2020, was also exceptional. Everyone was asking themselves the Hamletian question 'to wear or not to wear' a mask – it was a time when the first signals of a mysterious illness appeared. Who could have guessed then that the in-person fair would disappear from the calendar for two years!
I also remember my joy and emotions when in 2023 I saw the banner above the entrance to the fair: „Welcome back!” It was like meeting a long-lost friend!
Two significant events come to my mind. The first was when I encouraged one Polish company to exhibit at the fair after they had won an award for their product at another event. And during their debut at Spielwarenmesse, they won the Toy Award!
The second similar event happened this year. I convinced one Polish distributor to visit the fair for the first time. He was really shocked by the scale and diversity of the offerings and he thanked me for the recommendation. A few weeks later, he proudly shared that he started distributing three brands which he discovered at the fair. I love when I can see the impact of my work :-)

Steven Ekstract (first visit 2006)

My First Spielwarenmesse: A Toy Story in Furth
It was January 2006, and I arrived in Nuremberg for my very first Spielwarenmesse Toy Fair, utterly unaware that I was about to walk more in three days than I had all year. Back then, I was new to the toy business, wide-eyed and eager, armed with a notebook, a half-charged Nokia phone, and zero understanding of just how massive this fair was.
Because I booked my trip late, I couldn’t find a hotel room in Nuremberg proper. Instead, I ended up in a cozy, slightly creaky Bed and Breakfast in the nearby town of Fürth. Run by a kindly elderly couple who spoke no English but served a stellar breakfast of dark bread, soft cheese, and coffee strong enough to reboot a laptop, it became my unexpected home base.
Each morning, I took the S-Bahn into Nuremberg, watching through frosty windows as the Bavarian countryside zipped by. I thought I was prepared—business cards in one pocket, map of the fair in the other. What I didn’t realize was that the Spielwarenmesse was gigantic—a true Disneyland for the global toy industry, spread across multiple cavernous halls that seemed to stretch to the horizon.
I wandered, I gawked, I got lost—repeatedly. Hall 12? Wasn’t that right next to Hall 3? No, it was three buildings over and up a flight of stairs that felt more like a pilgrimage. Every time I found the brand I was looking for, I was already late for the next meeting, and I’d have to sprint halfway across the grounds, dodging plush mascots and executives with espresso in hand.
By the end of Day 3, my feet were numb, my legs aching, and my pedometer (yes, I wore one) proudly displayed just over 20 miles walked. But I was hooked. I had seen the future of toys—from talking dolls to transforming robots, wooden puzzles to digital play—and I had met people from every continent, speaking every language, all connected by the universal language of play.
Back at the Bed and Breakfast in Fürth that night, sipping tea in the tiny lounge while snow drifted down outside, I remember thinking: This was worth every step.

Daniele Caroli (first visit 2001)

A special year at the Spielwarenmesse was 2011, when I was joined during the last days of the event by my daughter Laila, in order to assist me with interviews of exhibitors and pictures of new products and also to promote the Tocatì street and traditional games festival, which is held annually in downtown Verona, Italy. She was in charge of international PR for that event then.
Through her surprise and excitement I lived over again the experience of my first visit at the Nuremberg toy fair ten years earlier, when I felt highly impressed by the size and quality of the exhibition, features that would actually increase with the passing of time.
Laila, who was a contributor to the toy and nursery trade magazines that I ran in Italy at the time, had chances to meet not only Italian and foreign professionals of the toy business but also members of the fair’s organization and of the international press. Networking went on beyond the hours spent at the show, since we were invited to the dinners of Assogiocattoli, the Italian toy and nursery products industry association, and of the International Toy Magazines Association (I was the ITMA President then).
While we were sharing the discovery of new concepts and proposals in the fair’s halls, we also witnessed the first introduction of the issue of sustainability in the sector with the launch of the Toys Go Green area. This is a theme that I have been professionally interested in ever since.
On the last evening we went to a Chinese restaurant near the Central Station with two Dutch colleagues and, everyone being relaxed having done their job and looking forward to returning home, we had so much fun – laughing all the time – that it became an unforgettable occasion.

Clara Blasco (first visit 2008)

My first time at Spielwarenmesse… and the most glamorous misunderstanding of my life

The year was 2008, and I was attending Spielwarenmesse for the very first time—wide-eyed, full of excitement, and ready to soak it all in. I was strolling through the halls, completely captivated by the buzz, the toys, the atmosphere… when I spotted a stand that looked straight out of a design magazine: stylish, meticulously curated, and with a decidedly exclusive air. I thought, “Let’s see what they’re up to here.”

I approached with a smile, my best English (which was enthusiastic but… let’s say ‘creative’) and launched into a few thoughts on innovation and design. Somehow—perhaps due to my delivery, or maybe just the sheer confidence—they came to the conclusion that I was a journalist from a major trend magazine. And before I could blink, I was being whisked away to a VIP lounge, offered coffee, chocolates, and even given a private presentation of their products.

Correct them? Oh no. By the time I realised what was happening, the snowball was well on its way downhill. So I nodded, asked (hopefully) intelligent questions, and eventually made a discreet exit.

Since then, I’ve learned two things: one, never underestimate the power of a confident smile; and two, always have a graceful exit strategy ready for when life accidentally promotes you to VIP status.
 

Reyne Rice (first visit 1999)

One year, I introduced a relatively new Spielwarenmesse exhibitor in the Top Trends Presentation at the Toy Business Forum, for “Story-telling”.  The product introduced was Rory’s Story-Cubes, a dice game, where players rolled a set of nine dice, and then proceeded to use the pictures shown on the dice to create a story. The inventor was Rory O’Connor, from Ireland (represented in the USA by Asmodee, where I had been introduced to the product). The second day of Spielwarenmesse, I stopped by Rory’s booth and introduced myself, and expressed how much I loved his new dice game, and explained how I had included it in the Top Trends for Spielwarenmesse presentation the day before. He laughed and then thanked me.  He said he was so inundated by people interested in his StoryCubes dice game, that he hadn’t even had a moment to take a quick lunch break, for the past two days! We have since become great friends and visited each other in both his home country of Ireland, and in many locations across America and the world. StoryCubes is the game I still travel with, in my handbag.

Philippe Guinaudeau (first visit in the mid-90s)

One year, I was rushing between meetings, completely disoriented (as often happens on Day 2). I was in Hall 12 and running late for a meeting with a potential client in Hall 3, the complete opposite end of the show, of course. And to make things worse, I did not have his phone number.
Running through the crowd, I accidentally bumped into a man wearing a badge from a small French toy company. Serendipity!
We laughed about being equally late and stressed, and decided to walk together, rather than run, since that was what had caused the collision in the first place. But our conversation became so engaging that we stopped for a coffee… and completely forgot about our meetings. Then that turned into an impromptu lunch.
It turned out he had been coming to the fair for over 20 consecutive years, and his stories were part industry legend, part fairytale. He introduced me to people, mostly French also, whom I never would have met otherwise.
Since then, we meet every year at the same spot, then same coffee stand, same time. We have never done business together, just shared stories, advice, and, more than once, tried to rebuild the world over espressos.
Spielwarenmesse gave me a global network, but also a friendship that spans generations and time zones.