The open session on November 18, 2021 was be the final webinar of the virtual CIBJO Congress 2021, and it featured the second of two online events hosted jointly by CIBJO’s Marketing & Education Commission and Ethics Commission, moderated by their presidents, respectively Jonathan Kendall and Tiffany Stevens, assisted by Edward Johnson, moderator of CIBJO’s popular Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series. They will be joined by Stéphane Fischler, Chair of CIBJO’s new Technology Committee.

This session focused on the jewellery business operating in an increasingly digital environment, and more specifically on the implications, opportunities and pitfalls of working with big data, and more specifically personal data, particularly where it related to consumers at the retail end of the distribution chain.

With online trading platforms, artificial intelligence and experiential shopping and marketing fast being adopted by players in the industry, the jewellery business is being transformed. Consumer data has become a valuable commodity, but there has been very little discussion to date about how it should be collected, securely stored and used. These are subjects that were considered by the expert panel.