Once again I’ll be attending the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, the largest fine jewelry tradeshow in the world. It’s an event that has grown so large it is now held at two separate venues:* The Asia World-Expo next to Hong Kong International Airport for diamonds, colored gemstones, pearls and equipment will be held September 19-23; and
* The Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, in the Wan Chai district overlooking Victoria Harbor for finished jewelry, September 21-25.
The combined exhibition space totals more than 1.4 million square feet. For the first time since the show was expanded to two venues, I will attend the Asia World-Expo portion of the show.
In 2011, the show saw 16 percent growth in attendance to 51,500 industry professionals from 155 countries and regions who had a chance to look at the products and services of more than 3,450 vendors from 46 countries. Obviously, the draw is the high-growth Asian market led by China. Hong Kong bills itself as the gateway to the economic powerhouse.
Luxury, designer and mass-produced and antique jewelry will be on display using all known jewelry making materials, including, a pavilion dedicated to jadeite, extremely popular in China.
One of the new additions to the show is free digital marketing workshops. Presentations will include know-how and practical tips but also statistics and data taken from JewelleryNetAsia’s original research and analytics.
Another new focus is The JNA Awards, an industry-wide event that honors and recognizes excellence and achievement in the global jewelry trade with an Asian focus. The awards ceremony and gala dinner will be held on September 20 at The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong. The awards are organized by Jewellery News Asia in collaboration with the UBM Awards.
I am looking forward to seeing the luxury and designer jewelry coming out of Asia to see how much it has grown and changed from last year.
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