Holiday season is here! And so was the biggest jewelry show of the year for South Florida. I was there for four days straight and enjoyed discovering beautiful diamonds and the latest trends in the industry.
This year, JIS partnered with Centurion South Beach and created an even bigger and better show than they have in the past. The show had pavilions ranging from Italian Jewelry, to Fashion & Affordable Jewelry, to Equipment & Tech and everything in between. Centurion, likewise, featured exclusive designers and manufacturers such as Forevermark Diamond, Rahaminov Diamonds, and Julius Klein.
JIS had many new things to offer the trade market this year, including hundreds of new exhibitors, new pavilions, and lots of technology. My favorite part about the show was the Smart Event Technology, powered by Konduko! I was able to retrieve information from booths, and vice versa, with a badge reader (JIS app on my phone)!!! All emails and contacts were sent directly to my email address after a long day of work and networking.
I also loved that JIS did a networking event prior to the start of the show for industry workers to get to know each other, because in the end- we can all benefit from one another. Lastly, JIS provided hourly talks during Saturday and Sunday right on the floor- if you were passing by you were able to stay and listen to the presentation going on.
My favorite talk was on the perception of Retail Jewelry Trends today and the greatest takeaway is that jewelry is perceived as gifts and involved with romance most of the times. As 1 in 5 women have had negative experiences at jewelry stores and would rather look at clothes than accessories, retail needs to work harder on attracting these 20% women and converting them onto permanent customers.
It was a wonderful experience overall! I topped my weekend of brilliance and sparkles with a Jewelry E-Commerce conference organized by Centurion South Beach. I'll be writing a blogpost on my takeaways, too! Stay tuned!!
For more information about JIS go to jisshow.com