CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar and seminar series will conclude its successful third season on Sunday, September 11, 2022, with two consecutive live events from the VICENZAORO show in Vicenza, Italy. They will take place before an in-person audience on the Main Stage in Hall 7 at the Fiera di Vicenza exposition centre, which will be live-streamed simultaneously to a global audience.

The first seminar/webinar, which will take place 11:15 AM-12:15 PM Central European Time, is entitled A new paradigm for marketing diamond jewellery: Shifting the focus from men to women. It will consider whether the classic approach to marketing diamond jewellery is outdated. For many years, it has involved predominantly targeting men buying for women as the purchase decision makers, especially ahead of specific life events and calendar occasions. The panel will investigate whether the focus today really should be on women consumers, who are more likely to make the critical decision as to whether to buy an item of jewellery. The seminar/webinar is sponsored by the Natural Diamond Council.

Moderated by Elle Hill, and co-moderated by Edward Johnson, the first seminar’s panellists include: Mina El Hadraoui, France Director of the Natural Diamond Council; Bérengère Treussard, creator and producer of Like A B, a French publication and website concentrating on the promotion of jewellery and watches; Katerina Perez, a leading jewellery influencer who produces the popular Jewellery Insights by Katerina Perez website; and Roberto Coin, the founder and owner of the renowned Roberto Coin Jewelry retail brand.

The second seminar, which will take place 12:45 PM-1:45 PM Central European Time, is entitled Developing a global approach to jewellery supply chain regulation. It will consider how, in an industry where almost all supply chains cross multiple borders, it is possible to formulate global principles and methods for responsible sourcing and sustainable environmental management, which will protect the reputation of the products and those who handle them, and at the same time provide fair access to all participants in the industry, large and small, who act with integrity.

Moderated by Edward Johnson, the second seminar’s panellists include: Tiffany Stevens, President, CEO and General Counsel of the Jewelers Vigilance Council (JVC) in the United States; Sara Yood, JVC’s Deputy General Counsel; Iris Van Der Veken, Executive Director of the Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030; and John Mulligan, Climate Change Lead & Market Relations, World Gold Council.

To view the webinars online, viewers will be able to link directly to the live feed on September 11, 2022, via the VICENZAORO website at: https://www.vicenzaoro.com/en/

A long-established maxim in jewellery marketing is that one of most significant predictors that an individual will eventually purchase a high-value item of jewellery is that she or he has already done so in the past. A first acquisition whets the appetite for more.

Consequently, the age at which people acquire their first piece of fine jewellery is of supreme importance. Younger is better, for not only does age indicate the number of purchases likely to be made over the course of a lifetime, but also how much will be spent on jewellery over that period, with the value of purchases tending to increase as maturing consumers become more economically secure.

But while the marketing maxim still holds true, the world is changing. Younger consumers are offered a wider range of alternatives to spend their discretionary income. Furthermore, in many countries they are less independent financially than their parents were at their age, and they are marrying later and not as frequently. At the same time, new markets, which 25 years ago hardly registered on the jewellery industry’s radar, are today prime targets.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar on August 25, 2022, will examine what is required to raise demand for jewellery among younger consumers. It is entitled “Connecting a New Generation with Jewellery.”

The blue-ribbon webinar panel includes Zhenzhen Liu, Director of Global Corporate Marketing at Platinum Guild International (PGI); Han Ye, Lead Partner at Kantar China, Consulting Division, an expert in branding, consumer understanding and market research in both the Chinese and international markets; Mu Chen, Founder and CEO of BigOne Lab, a Beijing-based omni-channel e-commerce consumer analytics consulting firm, which helps companies navigate the latest trends; Jenna Kirschner, Director at New York-based 360 Market Reach, who is an expert at developing research that build brands, supporting successful product innovations and enabling effective communication with target audiences; and Suvankar Sen, Executive Director of Senco Gold & Diamonds, a major Indian jewellery manufacturer and omni-channel retailer.

The seminar will be co-moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri will welcome participants.

The webinar is sponsored by Platinum Guild International (PGI), which is also the Platinum Sponsor of Jewellery Industry Voices Season 3.

The world stands on the cusp of the next technological revolution, which will permanently affect the way in which we live, interact, recreate and do business. Popularly referred to as the metaverse, it will develop not as the result of a single scientific or engineering breakthrough, but rather because of a series of simultaneous and interconnected advances, among them virtual and augmented reality, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, 5G, blockchain, and the growing trade in cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The metaverse that is being created is a shared 3-D virtual environment that people access via the Internet. Wearable devices facilitating virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) create a sense of physical presence in a digitally-generated world, which increasingly feels like it is real. Unencumbered by their physical location, time zone and even the languages they speak and understand, individuals operating in the metaverse can meet, play with and compete with one another, collaborate, create and trade.

As was the case earlier with the introduction of the computer, the Internet and the smartphone, no sector of the business community will not be affected or changed by the metaverse. And like those previous technological revolutions, the change will not just be adaptive, but fundamental – transforming the way in which businesses are structured, how their supply chains are monitored and managed, and how and what they design, manufacture, market and sell.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar on May 26, 2022, will focus on the approaching technological revolution, considering its elements, impacts and overall significance. It is entitled “JEWELLERY IN THE METAVERSE: Virtual, Augmented & Real.”

The webinar panel includes Mahiar Borhanjoo, CEO of UNI Diamonds, a data and technology company serving the international diamond industry; Elle Hill, the founder and CEO of Hill & Co., a diamond, gemstone and jewelry launch and growth consultancy firm; Laura Inghirami, the founder of Donna Jewel, a firm providing consulting services to jewelry companies in the digital, marketing and creative fields, who was named by Forbes Italia earlier this year as one of the top Under-30 leaders of the future; and Erik Jens, the founder and CEO of LuxuryFintech.com, which focuses on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, for reengineering banking and finance models for the luxury industry sector, and more particularly the jewellery and art worlds.

The seminar will be co-moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri will welcome participants.

The webinar is sponsored by UNI Diamonds, which is also the Technology Sponsor of Jewellery Industry Voices Season 3.

When it comes to marketing jewellery to socially and environmentally aware Millennial and Gen Z consumers, pearls should be a slam dunk. Cultivated rather than mined, requiring pristinely maintained marine biospheres, and often supporting communities at risk of extreme climactic events, these much-loved biogenic treasures also have the rare distinction of being among the few truly sustainable gem varieties in existence.

Where the pearl industry lags, however, is in its capacity to mount a coordinated marketing approach, highlighting those key qualities which should attract younger and sustainability-conscious consumers. This is in stark contrast to the diamond, gold and coloured gemstone sectors, all of which are served by international associations, and in the instance of diamonds and gold by bodies dedicated to category marketing.

While the benefits of generic marketing would seem patently obvious for the pearl sector, the task of establishing a structure that could manage such an undertaking is fraught with difficulty, and its operation would be restrictively expensive. But there are solutions that, while falling short of what is being done in the gold and diamond sectors, could nonetheless coordinate the messaging of pearl companies around the word, while at the same time enabling each of them to strengthen their own brand identities.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar on April 28, 2022, will focus on the potential of developing a collective marketing strategy for pearls, with the cooperation of independent companies around the world. It is entitled “A GLOBAL PEARL NARRATIVE: The Case for Generic Promotion.”

The webinar panel includes Christine Salter, Creative Director of Paspaley Pearl Company; Marion Branellec de Guzman, Chief Marketing Officer of Jewelmer; Shari Turpin, Owner of the Pearls by Shari brand; and David Norman, Owner of Aquarian Pearls.

The seminar will be co-moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri will welcome participants.

The webinar is sponsored by Paspaley Pearling Company, which is also the Pearl Sponsor of Jewellery Industry Voices Season 3.

For the third time since CIBJO’s webinar programme was launched in April 2020, Jewellery Industry Voices will conduct two live seminars/webinars from the VICENZAORO show in Vicenza, Italy on Friday, March 18, 2020. They will take place before an in-person audience on the Main Stage in Hall 7 at the Fiera di Vicenza exposition centre, and be live-streamed simultaneously to a global audience via the Internet.

The first seminar, which will take place 11:15 AM-12:15 PM Central European Time, is entitled Emphasising jewellery’s positive impact on society, as an integral part of its value proposition. It will consider the cultural shifts that have accelerated among consumers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have required jewellery brands to place added emphasis on the social value of their products and the jewellery, precious metals and gemstone industries.

Moderated by Edward Johnson, the first seminar’s panellists include: Charlie Betts, The Betts Group, United Kingdom, Hayley Henning, Greenland Ruby, Greenland; Justin Hunter, Fiji Pearls, Fiji; Huw Daniel, of the New York-headquartered Platinum Guild International (PGI); and Christopher Bull, Dimexon, Belgium/India.

The second seminar, which will take place 12:30 PM-1:30 PM Central European Time, is entitled Innovation and technology in jewellery manufacturing, supporting creativity and driving sustainable impact. The seminar is sponsored by Platinum Guild International.

The second seminar will look how new techniques in jewellery manufacturing, such as 3D printing, laser welding and innovation in alloying precious metals, are enabling manufacturers to create a wider range and type of jewellery items than was possible before, attracting a more inclusive and diverse range of jewellery designers. Furthermore, with a greater focus on sustainability in production, such innovations allow retailers to demonstrate the positive steps jewellery manufacturing is making to improve efficiency, decrease waste and reduce energy usage.

Moderated by Edward Johnson, the second seminar’s panellists include: Damiano Zito, Progold, Italy; Josh Helmich, Helmich Luxury Group, USA; Peter Crump, Vipa Designs, United Kingdom, and Kelvin James, Diamond Centre of Wales.

To be able view the webinars online, viewers are requested to register on the Italian Exhibition’s Jewellery Golden Cloud at: https://visita.vicenzaoro.com/reserved-area/digital.

Moneyball was an Oscar-nominated film released in 2011 that told the story of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, whose general manager succeeded in putting together a winning season on a limited budget, by assembling a group of under-valued players. He did so by taking what at the time was considered an unconventional approach, and that was relying on a sophisticated statistical analysis of players’ performances. The success of the experiment, which was indicated by the team’s winning 20 games in a row, led to a general reconceptualization of how baseball players should be evaluated.

Like it once was in baseball, decision-making in the jewellery and gemstone trade has often been a finger in the wind exercise. Financial risk is a persistent threat, with decisions to invest in costly inventory based mainly on experience and intuition about what the market demands, or what it will demand in several months time. The reason for the unscientific approach was not only force of habit, but also a lack of readily available information.

Times have changed, however. A new category of jewellery and gemstone companies, conducting sales online and sometimes aggregating inventory from multiple suppliers, are in possession of massive pools of accurate data, on which statistically significant analyses can be conducted. What this means is that decisions increasingly can be based on measurable market trends, reducing the level of business risk and providing the possibility of taking advantage of sales opportunities that a company may not have earlier been aware of.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar on February 17, 2022, will focus on the growing use of statistical analysis in the jewellery and gemstone business, and the new tools and services that are available. It is entitled “DATA DRIVEN: Rethinking decision-making in the gem and jewellery business.”

The webinar panel includes Mahiar Borhanjoo, CEO of UNI Diamonds, a data and technology company serving the international diamond industry; Sophia Kravchenko, Senior Manager at Bain & Company in Moscow, who is part of the unit that annually conducts the consulting company’s widely followed review of the diamond business; Julie Yoakum, a Senior Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer at Helzberg Diamonds, a Berkshire Hathaway company and one of the largest jewellery retailers in the United States; and Raj Mehta, a Director at Rosy Blue, one of the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of diamonds.

The seminar will be co-moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri will welcome participants.

The webinar is sponsored by UNI Diamonds, which is also the Technology Sponsor of Jewellery Industry Voices Season 3.

The third season of Jewellery Industry Voices, the widely followed webinar series presented monthly by CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, will kick off the same way that it did in 2020, with an in-person seminar in Vicenza, Italy, which will be live-streamed simultaneously as a webinar around the globe.

The two-hour, two-part seminar/webinar is a featured event during the second day of the VICENZAORO September jewellery show. It is entitled “Sustainable Development Goals: Meeting Their Challenge,” and is part of a joint programme of CIBJO and the Italian Exhibition Group, endorsed by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), to promote the principles of sustainability, responsible sourcing and social engagement in the jewellery and gemstone sectors. It is being co-presented by the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC).

The event will focus on industry strategies to support actualization of two of the 17 interlinked Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are the set of global objectives designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.” They were approved in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.

The first part of the seminar/webinar will focus on SDG 5: Gender Equality. It will look at the growing role of women in the mining and extraction of precious materials for the jewellery industry, and consider the significance of their increased involvement. Moderated by Edward Johnson, its panel members include Iris Van der Veken, Executive Director of the Responsible Jewellery Council, which under her leadership launched the Generation Equality Campaign for the global jewellery and watch industry and has just released an in-depth gender equality report; Feriel Zerouki, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs at the De Beers Group, who also is the General Manager of the GemFair artisanal miner empowerment programme in Sierra Leone; Cristina Maria Villegas, Director of Mining at Pact, a NGO operating in 40 countries, who is an expert in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM); and Diana Culillas, Secretary General of the Swiss Better Gold Association, which supports sustainable development of artisanal small-scale miners and establishes responsible gold value chains from these operations to the end market.

The second part of the seminar/webinar will concentrate on SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. It will address a growing movement within the jewellery sector to adopt the principles of a circular economy, addressing global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste and pollution. Moderated jointly by Edward Johnson and CIBJO’s Executive Vice President, Jonathan Kendall, who initiated the confederation’s Jewellery Industry Greenhouse Gas Measure Initiative, its panel members include Danielle Keller Aviram, a sustainable jewellery and fashion consultant specializing in the development of circular economies; Philipp Reisert, Managing Partner, C. Hafner GmbH & Co., a German precious metal refining company and producer of semi-finished products and components for the luxury goods, technical and dental industries; Gabriel Andre Sauer, Managing Director of Sauer, one of Brazil’s best known jewellery companies; and Oren Schneider, CEO of CIRCA, the leading global buyer of pre-owned high-end jewellery and watches.

The two-hour seminar will take place on Sunday, September 12, 2021, 2:30-4:30 PM Central European Time (5:30-7:30 AM Los Angeles; 8:30-10:30 AM New York, 1:30-3:30 PM London, 3:30-5:30 PM Moscow/Tel Aviv; 4:30-6:30 PM Dubai; 6:00-8:00 PM Mumbai; 7:30-9:30 PM Bangkok; 8:30-10:30 PM Hong Kong; 9:30-11:30 Tokyo; 10:30 PM-0:30 AM Sydney).

The in-person seminar will be conducted on the Main Stage of Hall 7 of the Vicenza Expo Centre, and the webinar will be live streamed at https://www.vicenzaoro.com/en/