Sands Expo Center, Venetian Hotel Resort Casino and Las Vegas Convention Center were the location of a 16th annual jewellery fair JCK Show Las Vegas, which was held from 1 to 5 June 2007. Over 3 400 exhibitors took part in this year’s event, and there were more than 21 000 specialist traders from 70 countries.
JCK Show Las Vegas is the biggest and considered the most important jewellery fair in the United States. The purchasing power of the American market places this fair among the most significant in the world.
For the Polish exhibitors offering Baltic amber it was important that in June issue of JCK magazine appeared a report on this year’s Amberif fair. On as many as 7 pages the author of the text, Anthony DeMarco, presented the latest trends which he found meticulously during his stay in Gdansk. The article entitled “Not Your Grandmother’s Amber Jewelry” suggests that these trends go far away into future and do not constitute a stereotypical presentation of amber jewellery. The text and accompanying photos prove a thesis from the title. The article together with the adverts of Polish companies was a well visible chapter of the magazine. Polish amber trade has not had such huge promotion so far in any fair issue of JCK.
Opinions of Polish exhibitors
Among Polish exhibitors presenting amber on the fair were: Ambermoda, Dejwis, Jubilex, S&A Bursztynowa Bizuteria and on a joint stand of Amber Association: Edyta Smorawska and Marcin Tomaszewski, Pawel Podzorski, Solo and ABC Gold. There were two Polish companies from outside amber trade – Agent-Pol and Marcinkowski Jewellery, the company offering prestigious golden jewellery with diamonds and enamel.
Grzegorz Dejcz from Dejwis does not have a very high opinion on this fair. According to him nowadays fair events in the world lose their importance, they are not as effective as ten years ago. High costs for exhibitors and visitors lead to choosing a different way of getting through to a customer. Furthermore, Las Vegas in Nevada is quite far away from American big cities and this fact increases the costs of visiting the fair. Many times it is cheaper to distribute individually and to find customers on one’s own initiative. He claims that the only reason why it is nowadays worth to get exhibited at JCK is the possibility to find big, chain customers, what he has managed to achieve this year, although he had anticipated more representatives of big chains. According to Dejcz, JCK Show Las Vegas is the fair where you have to be present but nothing more than that. When asked about trends and sales forecasts he answers that after talks with customers he predicts a very optimistic Christmas season. He thinks that it is possible to notice an increase in the awareness as it comes to value of amber and a tendency to seek through traders good, expensive and exclusive amber combined with gold as well as with diamonds. Dejwis presented such collection during the fair and Dejcz concludes that designing of this collection was a nail on the head. He also mentions that he does not see a threat in fakes and Colombian copal because this mineral becomes dull after a few months and this fact excludes a dishonest producer from permanent cooperation with important wholesalers.
Grzegorz Dejcz’s opinion on a demand for expensive amber are confirmed by the observations of Ewa Rachon, an exhibition organizer of Amberif and Ambermart, who in Italian pavilion visited three stands of the companies offering amber combined with gold and diamonds. They were Donini Jewellery with Dominican amber, Alpha Style with Sicilian amber and Lucifer Vir Honestus, the company offering exceptionally expensive jewels, which during JCK presented amber drops set in gold with diamonds. Amber was present also on Michael Zobel’s stand – this designer, known also in Poland, had in his offer a few objects with amber combined with diamonds, both in diamond cut and in a form of raw, not cut stones.
Slawomir Fijalkowski, a designer in S&A Bursztynowa Bizuteria, remarks that in general the design of the jewellery presented during this fair is not particularly sophisticated, and the jewellery in conservative, one-format designs does not stand out with anything interesting. He recalls that apart from jewellery with diamonds, constituting quite a big part of exhibitions and where there is a gigantic competition which is impossible to compare with our trade, they sell a lot of cheap and very cheap jewellery. In the offer of Italian companies, generally being trendsetters in the trade, he did not notice anything new.
The president of MSB and the owner of Ambermoda, Mariusz Gliwinski, emphasizes that JCK is one of the most important fairs in the world but still it lacks a good promotion of amber. He adds that there is an example of perfectly promoted stone recently: decorative larimar, a blue variety of pectolite found only in Dominican Republic. Nota bene larimar has been recently appearing also in combination with amber. Its colour reminds turquoise a bit but it is more delicate and, what is important for the traders, there have not been found fakes of this mineral yet.
The event was accompanied by a series of lectures, presentations and seminars with the aim to introduce a specificity of American market. The fair is organized by a leading organizer of business events for jewellery trade. All JCK fairs are designed in such a way so that thanks to a diversity of exhibitors’ offers they ensure the best possibilities to conclude agreements.
