In April, I travel to Asia for the first time. I’m not going with answers. I’m going with questions.

There is a particular kind of professional excitement that comes not from knowing what you’ll find, but from suspecting that whatever it is will change how you see things. That’s where I am right now.

From April 8 to 11, I will travel to Shenzhen for the first time as part of the International Delegation organized by LAMS to attend Toy & Hobby China and China Licensing. It’s my first trip to Asia. I’ve spent years following this market from Europe — reading reports, tracking growth numbers, and watching companies like Pop Mart and Miniso expand at a pace that’s hard to fully grasp from afar. Despite this familiarity with the data, I realize I’ve never actually seen it in person. Not the real thing.

I go to Shenzhen to bridge the gap between industry knowledge and true understanding, especially the unreported essentials that become clear when you experience something firsthand, beyond reports.

What I am most curious about is the product. Not just the idea of a product, but the physical, tangible reality of what is being made in Shenzhen right now and why it resonates on a global scale. The licensing industry often discusses IP, content strategies, and brand extension. But at some point, all of it must become an object someone picks up, wants, and takes home. Asia has developed a remarkable instinct for that moment. I want to understand it firsthand.

There is also the question of technology and how it is incorporated into products in ways that still seem surprising to European eyes. Connected collectibles, digital experiences integrated into physical goods, and products designed from the start to exist in both physical and digital worlds at the same time. In Asia, a toy that connects to an app doesn’t feel like a toy with an added feature. It feels like a single idea expressed across two surfaces.

There is another important aspect of this trip that I believe matters just as much as what I will see on the show floor — and that is the conversations. The international delegation we have organized can sit face-to-face with people shaping the industry’s future and listen carefully, without an agenda.

The European licensing industry has genuine strengths — a tradition of long-term brand stewardship, deep storytelling craft, and a serious attitude toward IP value that takes years to develop. However, those strengths can also become a kind of comfortable certainty, a belief that we already understand how this works. What I hope Shenzhen disrupts, at least temporarily, is exactly that certainty. The most valuable thing I can bring back from this trip isn’t a list of contacts or a catalog of products, but a clearer, more honest picture of where we currently stand.

From Shenzhen, I travel directly to Bologna, and the contrast is almost startling. Toy & Hobby China and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair showcase two very different creative cultures — yet they are increasingly part of the same conversation about where IP originates, where it goes, and how it finds its audience.

At Bologna, LAMS will showcase its European licensing rights for Jimmy Liao — one of Asia’s most acclaimed illustrators, whose work has been translated into over twenty languages and features a visual universe unlike nearly anything else on the market. Bringing that IP to European audiences with the depth it deserves is one of my biggest professional passions right now. The opportunity is genuine, and we will do everything we can to be the right partner in expanding his incredible creativity internationally, beyond his books.

Arriving in Bologna directly from Shenzhen feels right — a reminder that the most interesting opportunities in this industry often emerge at the intersection of creative traditions that don’t usually connect. East and West, collectible culture and literary illustration, product innovation, and storytelling craft. These elements are not as separate as our industry sometimes presents them.

For now, I go with curiosity, excitement, and an open mind, ready for an experience beyond my current frame.