Working those sights

Every year we travel to Europe to meet up with incumbent suppliers and prospective brands for our company. Our standard itinerary includes a week in London attending the British Toy Fair followed by a week in Nuremberg attending Spielwarenmesse, the toy industry’s largest international trade show.

While in the UK we meet two of our top five brands before they go to Nuremberg, thus freeing up time for other meetings in Germany. The British show also gives us an inside edge on new and emerging brands before they exhibit at Spielwarenmesse. Over the years this strategy has resulted in us nabbing two impressive brands ahead of the competition, Bigjigs Toys, and HEADU.

This year, while in London, we also met with the UK-based investor behind our new third-party logistics warehouse in Sydney. Scott Sully was our first meeting in London. We joined him for a light breakfast a few hours after we arrived in the UK. Traditionally, we’ve based ourselves in an apartment in Soho for the week. However, this year all of our prior haunts were charging insane rates, so we ultimately opted for a refurbished apartment near Edgware Road Station in Marylebone.

This location allowed us to explore parts of London we hadn’t seen since leaving the city in 2010. While in the UK we had to buy a suitcase to carry toy samples back to Sydney. On a whim, we decided to take advantage of some good weather and combine our shopping expedition with a walk from Marble Arch, through Hyde Park, and past Kensington Palace, before stopping to buy a suitcase at TK Maxx on Kensington High Street.

We eventually walked more than 5 km, stopping briefly to view the Albert Memorial and Albert Hall, before stopping at Kensington Palace to view the Princess Diana Memorial Garden and the recently unveiled statue of Diana surrounded by children. While the gardens were bare for winter, this meant that we enjoyed a relatively private viewing of the statue, as tourists were few and far between.

The following day, Australia Day, was spent exploring a few new sights and sounds in the City of London. This included a visit to the recently opened Horizon 22 observation deck which delivers an impressive uninterrupted view of the Thames, including The London Shard. We also took time out to enjoy the immersive Vincent Van Gogh Experience in Spitalfields, before making our way back to Monument Station via Spitalfields Market and the stunning Victorian Leadenhall Market.

The Van Gogh Experience was something different. The event wasn't showing any original works by the artist. Instead, the venue delivered a range of immersive, and interactive, experiences that explored the essence of his art. Without a doubt, the highlight for both of us was a virtual reality fly-through of his most famous pieces. It was simply mind-blowing to put on a VR headset and then wander through his bedroom at Arles or through the wheat fields as crows flew by.

The 360 projection room was equally impressive, Using technology to recreate animated displays of his masterpieces you’re immersed directly in the paintings themselves, looking up at The Starry Night and watching the stars dance around the room in Van Gogh’s iconic style.

Later that evening we caught up for dinner with our good friend Martin at the highly acclaimed Argentine restaurant, Zoilo. It was a wonderful evening reliving old memories and catching up on events since our last meal in January 2023.