On April 22, 2020, as the full extent of the COVID-19 global health crisis was just becoming apparent, the World Jewellery Confederation launched an original series of webinars entitled “Jewellery Industry Voices.” Cognizant that accurate information would be a critical commodities during the unprecedented times, a decision was made to create an industry-wide forum that would discuss and address challenges being posed, both health-wise and economically, to the jewellery value chain and its stakeholders.

The series was conceived of and developed Edward Johnson, a veteran educator and sustainability expert in the industry, and Steven Benson, the Confederation’s Communications Director. Mr. Johnson took the role of lead moderator, assisted by Mr. Benson.

The first series of Jewellery Industry Voices webinars ran weekly, through July 30, 2020. It concentrated on the economic and social impacts of the pandemic, with each webinar taking the form of a panel discussion, featuring three to five panellists. Broadcast live, they were also recorded and uploaded thereafter onto CIBJO’s YouTube channel. Many seminars dealt with issues related to responsible sourcing and sustainability.

The response to the series was most encouraging, attracting thousands of viewers around the world. It, thus was decided to broaden the subject material, including all matters of relevance to the full gemstones, precious metals and jewellery value chain.

A second season of Jewellery Industry Voices started on September 2020 and ran monthly through July 2020. It included two hybrid seminar/webinars broadcast from the first international industry event to take place live since the COVID-19 lockdown in Europe, which was held in Vicenza, Italy. The first of those considered CSR and sustainability in the jewellery and gemstone sector in the post-COVID environment, and the second was on the growing jewellery industry in Africa and its effort to change the economic paradigm on the continent, where to date almost all raw materials mined are exported and processed elsewhere.

The third season of Jewellery Industry Voices, whose monthly webinars were now must-attend events for many the industry, ran from September 2021 through August 2022. As was the case with the second series, it will begin with a hybrid seminar-webinar in Vicenza, Italy, and that was repeated again in March.

A fourth season was scheduled to began in January 2023.