The Deauville Show

Inter­view – Fabi­enne Taylor, Dir­ect­or of the Toy and Game Preshow
‘It’s all hap­pen­ing in Deauville’

Event from Monday 17 to Fri­day 21 November*

Q: The Toy and Game Preshow has estab­lished itself as an unmiss­able event. How did this trade show come about?
F.T.: The Preshow was launched 22 years ago on the ini­ti­at­ive of Bruno Bokanowski, edit­or-in-chief of La Revue du Jou­et. At the time, buy­ers spent a lot of time trav­el­ling around France to vis­it dif­fer­ent show­rooms. The aim was to bring every­one togeth­er in one place, recre­ate the show­room envir­on­ment in Deau­ville, and provide an effi­cient and friendly work­ing envir­on­ment. The event star­ted at the Roy­al before gradu­ally expand­ing to oth­er venues.

Can you explain how the event works?
Fabi­enne Taylor: Buy­ers arrive at 8 a.m. with a sched­ule of appoint­ments that has been set for nearly six months. They move around in com­pletely enclosed show­rooms, which are actu­al spaces with immers­ive stands. This is where they get a sneak pre­view of the fol­low­ing year’s Christ­mas col­lec­tions. Sup­pli­ers and dis­trib­ut­ors, includ­ing many inter­na­tion­al brands, present their new products there. This year, the event takes place from Monday 17 to Fri­day 21 November.

Q: French man­u­fac­tur­ers also seem to have a strong presence.
F.T.: Abso­lutely. The Asso­ci­ation of French Toy Design­ers and Man­u­fac­tur­ers brings togeth­er 22 brands at the Pavil­lon des Bains. They pro­mote French expert­ise in the face of large inter­na­tion­al groups. They include Lansay, a fam­ily busi­ness, Gipsy Toys in Nor­mandy – now run by the second gen­er­a­tion – and Doudou & Com­pag­nie. The show brings togeth­er mul­tina­tion­als and small innov­at­ive com­pan­ies alike.
Q: What types of products are on display?
F.T.: Dis­trib­ut­ors exhib­it pro­to­types and per­man­ent toys. The toy industry is highly innov­at­ive: real invent­ors work behind every new product, and a product can become a huge suc­cess if it wins the title of ‘toy of the year’. After the Preshow, man­u­fac­tur­ers launch pro­duc­tion based on orders, and products can be adjus­ted accord­ing to feed­back and com­ments from buyers.

Q: Who are the vis­it­ors to the Preshow?
F.T.: We wel­come 100% of the French retail sec­tor: large food retail­ers, spe­cial­ists, multi-spe­cial­ists. A new net­work is also devel­op­ing: amuse­ment parks, pet­rol sta­tions, H points in hos­pit­als, garden centres, etc.
In total, 15 coun­tries are rep­res­en­ted among the vis­it­ors and 17 among the exhib­it­ors. We are expect­ing 430 buy­ers, 20% of whom are from abroad. Of the 156 brands present, 48 come from abroad — a fig­ure that is con­stantly rising.

Q: The Des­tin­a­tion Deau­ville is heav­ily involved in the event. What spaces are you using?
F.T.: The entire CID is being privat­ised: halls have been trans­formed and con­fer­ence rooms refur­bished. The Villa Le Cercle is also being privat­ised by a brand that requires more space. In addi­tion, the Roy­al is reopen­ing for the occa­sion and the Pavil­lon des Bains, the O2, the Salon des Ambas­sadeurs and the Fran­cis­caines are host­ing related events. The whole town is liv­ing to the rhythm of the Preshow.

Q: What hap­pens next?
F.T.: After the trade fair, the toys enter the final­isa­tion phase, mar­ket­ing is put in place and com­mu­nic­a­tion cam­paigns are launched. What buy­ers dis­cov­er here will be found under the Christ­mas tree in 2026.

*The Centre Inter­na­tion­al de Deau­ville (CID) is build­ing 3,300 m² of booths, occupy­ing the entire site with the excep­tion of the Michel d’Or­nano aud­it­or­i­um. The meet­ing rooms are being privat­ised and trans­formed into real toy shops.

The event rep­res­ents a major under­tak­ing for the CID teams, requiring:
• 7 days of set-up,
• 5 days of operation,
• 3 days of dismantling.

The organ­isa­tion is based on:
• 3 pro­ject man­agers: Alis­son Her­vou­et, Julia Coté, Océane Canonne
• 3 stage man­agers: Jean-François Vin­cent, Michael Ondet and Jean Porreye.
This is a large-scale logist­ic­al oper­a­tion that requires exem­plary rigour, giv­en the import­ance of the exhib­i­tion. The event is par­tic­u­larly appre­ci­ated by the CID teams because of its scale and dynamism.
This event also rep­res­ents a real oper­a­tion­al chal­lenge, as the set-up takes place at the same time as the Inter­na­tion­al Mara­thon of Deau­ville. The CID there­fore ensures smooth and har­mo­ni­ous coordin­a­tion with the mara­thon organ­isers and the City of Deauville.