JA New York Summer Show Off to 'Lively' Start

The JA New York Summer Show opened its doors on Sunday morning at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, with brisk foot traffic, optimistic exhibitors and timely, on-point educational sessions helping to bring a palpable sense of energy to the show floor.

According to show organizers, this latest edition of the JA New York Summer Show features 85 more exhibitors than last year's event, and opening day attendance experienced a slight increase over the 2009 show's opening day.

"Considering the challenging marketplace, we're extremely happy when the bar goes up," Drew Lawsky, group show director for the JA New York shows, said.

The increase in attendance has held strong for JA's previous two shows, Lawsky said, including the Special Delivery Show, held in October of 2009, and the Winter Show, which opened in late February of this year.

"It has been a successful and lively opening day [in terms of] foot traffic and buzz on the show floor," Lawsky said on Sunday. "With over 900 exhibitors, this show is bigger than last year, which is a sign things are heading in the right direction."

Retailers checking must-have items off of their shopping lists had a wide variety of specialized product areas from which to choose, including the "New Designer Gallery" featuring the industry's emerging new talents, the elegant "Inner Circle" of high-end designers and manufacturers, a series of international pavilions including Italy and Hong Kong, a gift gallery, supplier and store décor areas, among many others.

In addition, attendees appeared eager to take advantage of all that the opening day had to offer, including networking opportunities and free wireless Internet in the show's "WiFi Lounge," "East Village HotSpot" and "West Village HotSpot." Show organizers said that the JA New York Summer Show is the first show in the industry to offer up wireless access to attendees, helping retailers and manufacturers alike to stay connected with their clients by checking e-mail and posting updates to social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Emerging technology was a topic of focus at the opening day's well-attended "Twestival" keynote session, which challenged attendees to take part in the social media revolution. Later, those sitting in on the seminar listened in as the Gen-Next Jewelers presented a talk on another of the industry's most pressing topics: social responsibility.

Also taking place Sunday were a trio of bench jeweler seminars hosted by Jewelers of America, including a close-up look at CAD/CAM technology, how-to steps for pricing repairs and a session on identifying common problems during the repair take-in process.

The JA New York show runs through Wednesday at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. For more information, including details on the educational seminars, visit JA-NewYork.com.

JA New York, along with National Jeweler magazine and NationalJeweler.com, is part of the Nielsen Jewelry Group, which also produces the Couture show in Las Vegas. The Nielsen Jewelry Group is part of Nielsen Expositions, whose parent company is the Nielsen Co., a global information and media company.