By Danielle Max

 

Billed as the “World Jewellery Meet,” the Fourth Dubai City of Gold Conference offered a mine to market snapshot into current issues in the jewelry industry. Organized by the Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group, the conference attracted more than 500 delegates as well as a prestigious line up of speakers.

 

 

The first session was an overview of the industry and trade related finance. Colin. A. Griffith, executive director, gold of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) kicked off the presentations with a summary of the growth of the DMCC. He was followed by Blackie Marole, managing director of Debswana Diamond Company (Pty) Ltd., which is owned in equal shares by the government of Botswana and De Beers Centenary AG, who told delegates of the need to maximize contributions from the country’s diamond resource to the local economy.

 

 “An economy such as Botswana’s will always face an imbalance in that, for all its wealth-creating potential, the mining industry is inherently a capital intensive business providing relatively few employment opportunities. It is the manufacturing end of the diamond business which provides the bulk of the industry’s global employment, and productive employment opportunities are almost more valuable to us than the diamonds themselves.”

 

Botswana is the world’s largest rough diamond producer by value and the world’s most diamond-dependent economy. Marole proposed the establishment of a vertically integrated industry in Botswana, which will cover the spectrum from mining to manufacturing.

 

“There is now a compelling commercial case for completing the final sorting and presentation sorting of Botswana diamonds in Botswana, instead of carrying out those procedures at much higher cost elsewhere. Similarly, with the centre of gravity of world production shifting towards Botswana, it now makes sense to bring other productions to Botswana for the process of mixing goods in preparation for sale. By a logical progression, the industry can now obtain efficiency gains from selling to clients in Botswana and then, at the next stage, by those clients establishing cutting factories in Botswana.”

 

Marole said that both De Beers and the Botswana government have accepted the logic that more value-adding processing of Botswana’s diamonds can and should be done locally in a fully competitive environment.

 

The second session covered the broad topic of innovation and included talks by Ellen Lau, Charles & Colvard managing director for Asia who discussed the impact of technology in the jewelry industry and by Dr David Watkins, head of goldsmithing, silversmithing, metal work, and jewelry at the Royal College of Art, London, who presented a model for the education of post-graduate jewelry designers.

 

The final session of the first day examined the role of education in the industry. Speakers in this session included Chaim Even-Zohar, managing director of Tacy, who reported on the impact of anti-money laundering compliance programs on the international diamond and jewelry trade and industry; IDEX Online Research Analyst Ken Gassman, who gave a presentation on research methods for targeting customers; and Tom Moses, senior VP GIA Laboratory and Research, who spoke on the topic of synthetic and treated diamonds. 

 

Moses told attendees that, “developing technologies in both diamond treatment and synthesis have created new challenges for the gem and jewelry industry.” He added, “The evolving technology with synthetic diamonds also continues to bring more products to the market.”

 

Opening the second day of the conference, Tawhid Abdullah, chairman of the Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group spoke about the positive impact that the City of Gold conferences have on gold and jewelry trade in the UAE and across the entire region. “We are confident that this year’s assembly of leading lights in the industry will help further enhance the standards and raise the bar with regard to achieving innovative strategies and business excellence,” he said.

 

Following him in the session on marketing, World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) President Dr. Gaetano Cavalieri spoke about increased competition for jewelry dollars in the luxury goods market. He warned industry colleagues that global jewelry marketing efforts should focus on education and marketing to younger people.

 

“There is a tendency in our industry to focus predominantly upon a middle-aged audience, because it is reaching the height of its earning capacity,” he said during his speech ‘The Need of a Unified Global Jewelry Marketing Plan.’ However, Cavalieri stressed the importance of targeting younger people so that when they reach the stage of having a greater disposable income, they will already have a penchant for jewelry. “To guarantee our future growth, we must nurture a love for jewelry in our youth,” he told the audience.

 

“But, if we do not invest more effort in developing a youthful and trendy fine jewelry culture, we will discover that those consumers are not as attuned to buying jewelry when they reach middle age.”

 

However, it was not only representatives of the large organizations who had the floor. Among the smorgasbord of sessions on offer over the two-day conference was a talk by Dr Howard Reed, the director of the Dubai Women’s College, Higher College of Technology. Reed talked about his school’s professional diploma in jewelry business management, which is helping Dubai’s women to enter the region’s flourishing jewelry sector.

 

“The Higher College of Technology wishes to support the Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group in establishing Dubai as the jewelry destination of the world. This will occur not only through developing trade and market opportunities, but by training a new generation of entrepreneurs to grow the industry, “ said Reed. “We believe this professional diploma in jewelry business management will develop the skills of a new generation of national entrepreneurs, who will become employers rather than employees and contribute new ideas, passion and commitment to the growth of the industry.”