CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, has announced that the gathering of its General Assembly, which had been scheduled to take place in Vicenza, Italy, on January 24 and 25, has been postponed to Thursday, March 17, and Friday, March 18. It will be held at the same venue.

The announcement comes after the Italian Exhibition Group (IEG), which will be hosting the CIBJO event, said that it is postponing its January VICENZAORO trade show to March 17-21, 2022, as a result of the global upsurge in COVID-19 infections that currently underway. The meeting of CIBJO General Assembly will take place in the Vicenza Exposition Centre concurrently with the trade show.

The CIBJO General Assembly will be the closing session of the 2021 Virtual CIBJO Congress, which took place over eight days from November 4 to 8 and November 15 to 18. It will be a hybrid session, with delegates meeting in person during the show in Vicenza, while the event is simultaneously streamed live to other participants around the world.

“Under the new circumstances, IEG has generously offered to host a rescheduled CIBJO General Assembly session at its show in March, providing the same facilities that it would have done in January,” wrote CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri in a letter to the organisation’s Board of Directors. “Given that we are subject to the same uncertainty concerning travel and public safety, the most prudent decision is to take IEG up on its offer.”

As would have been the case at the show in January, CIBJO will present two seminars at the VICENZAORO show, dealing with responsible sourcing, social activism and sustainability in the jewellery industry. Those will now take place on Saturday, March 19, 2022. They are part of an ongoing programme conducted by IEG and CIBJO to promote such principles in the jewellery sector, which is endorsed by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, where CIBJO has special consultative status.