The Chicago Toy and Game Group announced the 2019 schedule and speaker line-up for the annual ChiTAG Inventor Conference, taking place Nov. 21-24, 2019. Kicking-off Chicago Toy and Game Week (ChiTAG) at Chicago’s Navy Pier, ChiTAG’s inventor conferences are a professional development forum within the toy and game industry and inventor community, complete with opportunities for education, pitching ideas, collaboration, trend discovery, and more.
Registration is now open for the following conference tracks:
- International New Inventors and New Business Track, November 21-22
- International Professional Inventors Track, November 21-24
- International Product Acquisition Executive Track, November 21-24
- Design Student Track, November 21-22
- Play in Education (PIE) Track, November 23; in partnership with the Illinois Institute of Technology. In addition to great content, participants will receive transferable continuing education credits.
Each conference track includes access to luminary keynote speakers. Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear Tips from the ToyBox where top professional inventors share their secrets of success in just one minute.
The 2019 keynote speakers include:
- Richard Dickson, President & COO, Mattel, Inc.
- Joanne Domeniconi, Co-Founder & Chief Discover Officer, The Grommet
- David Fuhrer, Managing Director, BlueSquare Innovations
- Robert Fuhrer, Owner at Nextoy LLC and KenKen Puzzle
Additional 2019 speakers include:
- Karri Bean, Senior Licensing Manager, Disney Parks Experiences & Products
- Tracy Dudkiewicz, Owner, TAP Marketing
- Robert Gehrke, Owner, RPD Consulting
- Richard Gill, VP International, PlayMonster
- Megan Hinterman Kanous, National Accounts Manager, PSI Inc.
- Mike Hirtle, Paladin LLC
- Michael Kohner, President, Michael Kohner Corporation
- Catherine McMillen-Gill, President, McGill Associates
- Matt Nuccio, Co-Owner and Creative Director, Design Edge
- Katherine Nguyen, Owner of Building Blocks
- Wai Or, Managing Director, Longshore
- Gary Swisher, Executive Vice President of Design, Spin Master
- Tanya Thompson, Director Global Product Acquisition and Inventor Relations for Gaming, Hasbro
Along with professional development, the ChiTAG Inventor Conference offers both students and industry professionals the opportunity to pitch toy, game or app prototypes, products, ideas, and capstone projects to dozens of top companies.
“The ChiTAG Inventor Conference is a must for anyone in the toy and game industry,” said Mary Couzin, CEO and founder of the Chicago Toy and Game Group. “The access to professional development, pitching, and networking is like nothing else out there and attendees come from over 25 countries.”
Sponsors helping to make this a top-notch event include Longshore, Big G Creative, Cartamundi, and G2/Verisk Financial.
The main conference will be held on November 21-22 at Navy Pier. Both days start with breakfast at 8 a.m., followed by speakers and sessions from 9 a.m. through 10 p.m. CT. For more information and to register for the ChiTAG Conferences, visit chitag.com.