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RAPAPORT... A jewelry community forum titled “The Jewelry Industry Summit” is planned for August 16 to 19, 2015 at the Palmer House in Chicago for the purpose of enabling open discussions on sustainability and responsible sourcing. The goal of this event is to create awareness of supply chain challenges and develop tools to take action in a way that mutually benefits the jewelry industry and creates business opportunities and new sources of value for suppliers and the consumer.
Organizers of the summit plan an interactive event to facilitate dialog with members of the diamond, colored gemstone and precious metal industries, trade associations and financial institutions, as well as those in the international communities. Participants will have the opportunity to shape the outcome of the discussions and to develop tools to ensure that the industry can support the entire supply chain.
The changing expectations from consumers of jewelry as well as the increasing interest of the government to regulate the industry were important reasons behind creating this event. The mission statement of the summit states: “Our community of individuals from all sectors in the jewelry industry seeks at the summit to develop a shared vision to meet the challenges, to sustain our business and to improve the supply chain for our products. The goal of the summit is to discuss challenges and opportunities in the jewelry industry that can better support everyone in the supply chain.”
The summit will be funded through registration fees, contributions and with a crowd-funding facility hosted on Indiegogo.com. Please visit www.jewelryindustrysummit.com for more information.
The planning committee members for the Jewelry Industry Summit include Ann Arnold of Ann Arnold Advisory Group, Lita Asscher of Royal Asscher, Anna Bario of Bario Neal, Robert Bentley of the Robert Bentley Company, Mihir Bhansali of Firestar Diamond Inc., Edward Boehm of Rare Source, David Bouffard of Signet Jewelers Ltd., Eric Braunwart of Columbia Gem House Inc., Lisa Bridge of Ben Bridge Jewelers, Bruce Bridges of Bridges Tsavorite, Brandee Dallow of Rio Tinto Diamonds, Bill Farmer of Farmer’s Jewelry, Jeffrey Fischer of Fischer Diamonds Inc., Rebecca Foerster of Leo Schachter Diamonds, Karen Goracke of Borsheim’s, Stewart Grice of Hoover and Strong, Mark Hanna of Richline, Hayley Henning of True North Gems, Steve Hodgkins of Rolex USA and Ferial Zerouki of DeBeers Group of Companies.
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