In the first of a new regular column from Licensing International, Steve Manners highlights one of the body’s key initiatives – the Young Professionals Network.
If you’re not familiar, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Licensing International, the trade organisation for the global brand licensing industry. We’ve been around for nearly 40 years and our mission is to support, educate, elevate, and professionalise the industry.
For those who do know us, you may be surprised by how much our offerings have expanded recently. The team at LicensingSource.net have kindly offered Licensing International a regular monthly column to keep you up to date on everything we’re working on, with a focus on the UK.
Over the next few months, I’ll be making sure that you are kept informed about the services we offer, new initiatives and how we can help you develop your business. Additionally, I’ll take a closer look at wider events and how they may affect the licensing industry.
To start, I know that many members are not aware that having in-territory company membership automatically gives all employees the ability to have their own individual membership at no further cost – you don’t need to share logins and passwords. This applies to whatever discipline you work in at your company – sales, marketing, creative, product development, finance, legal, operations – all are welcome, and we have the resources to assist you. Just contact me and I can give you individual access if your company is a member.
And with this first column, I wanted to highlight one of our key initiatives – our Young Professionals Network (YPN), which is aimed at those in the industry aged 35 and under.
YPN is designed to help up-and-coming brand licensing professionals expand their skill base, their network and their horizons with educational and social events tailored to their unique interests and needs. YPN is all about connecting in order to cultivate new relationships, develop new skills, and, of course, have fun.
We’ve just established a new committee for YPN in the UK – Hannah Redler from The Point.1888 is chair and the committee also includes The Point.1888’s Olivia Wiggett, Max Pilcher from Mattel, and Phoebe Coles from Brandgenuity. All are working with me to firmly establish YPN in the UK.
We recently held our first event of 2023 at Monopoly Lifesized in London. Following the extremely creative and fun gameplay (do try to visit if you haven’t been yet), we were joined by executives from Path Entertainment, the company behind the experience.
Julia Posen, head of content, and Tom Beynon, creative producer, gave the YPN group insight into how they developed the gameplay, how such an experience works from a commercial viewpoint, and the challenges of opening during the pandemic.
We are currently finalising events for the rest of 2023 and 2024 including events at both Licensing Expo and Brand Licensing Expo. If you would like to be kept up to date, just join our YPN mailing list here. Or you can just drop myself or any of our committee a note and we can add you.
And finally, for this month, I hope you are aware of the inaugural Licensing for Retail Day on 19 April, brought to you by Brand Licensing Europe, Licensing Global and Licensing International. This is a unique event created to respond to feedback from retailers on their desire to understand licensing and its benefits to them. We have brought together 140 retailers across all disciplines to enjoy trend presentations, case studies, and panel discussions all in the context of brand licensing, followed by exclusive networking drinks.
It’s the perfect opportunity to establish vital business relationships with decision makers. Two ticket options are available for brand owners, agents and licensees, either the all-day pass or evening networking only, starting from £85. Licensing International members receive a 10% discount, just contact me for your discount code and register here.
If you have any questions regarding Licensing International and how we can help you, don’t hesitate to contact me.
See you next month!
Steve Manners is head of global marketing and UK managing director at Licensing International.
Founded in 1985, more than 1,500 Licensing International member companies in over 40 countries enjoy access to an array of benefits, including extensive educational programming and worldwide networking events.
Visit www.LicensingInternational.org for more information.
