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Tucson Countdown #5 – Free Seminars
January 30, 2008
Tucson Countdown #5 – Free Seminars
OK – 5 down, 5 to go, and only 5 days until I take off for sunny Tucson. (It is sunny isn’t it? Better click on weather.com here and check. Ah, sunny and mid 60s throughout the week – but look at those evening temps! Brrr. Hi 30s! No tanning this year!)
Well, time to check out which seminars I’ll be reporting. No, I haven’t forgotten the other 40 gem and mineral shows, but I thought I would take a quick break and talk about the seminars that I will be attending… and the ones you might want to attend if you are going to be there.
The free seminars are one of the great bennies for going to Tucson. AGTA goes all out again here with this year’s list of presenters, including Jeffrey Post, Maggie Pedersen, Elisabeth Strack, Eric Braunwart, Alan Hodgkinson, Robert Weldon, David Federman, and a host of others. Who are these people? Well, OK, real quick… Post is the curator of the gem hall at the Smithsonian. Who wouldn’t want that job? Pedersen is the world’s leading expert in organic gem materials (think amber, coral, ivory, horn, etc… and if you don’t have her book…), Strack is the world’s leading authority in pearls (and if you don’t have her book…), Braunwart is leading the charge for Fair Trade Gems – a true mensch, if you don’t mind me using a little Yiddish here, Hodgkinson is this wild and crazy Scotsman – look for the man in a kilt - who thinks he can identify gems simply by holding it up to his eye! (and guess what – he can!), Weldon is one of the best gem photographers on the planet, now with GIA but former JCK gem editor (hey, that's my job!) and he’s willing to share every year? Are you kidding? Got to go see him…, and Federman, award winning writer, former JCK gem editor (hey, that sounds familiar!), former Modern Jeweler editor, now editor-in-chief for Colored Stone Magazine, who’s going to predict the future of colored stones sales… now THAT will be interesting!
OK, now you could easily spend your entire week going to seminars, some free, some not – Stuller has their set of seminars, Rio Grande has theirs, Antoinette Matlins always has Gem ID Made Easy, GIA has theirs, and I’m sure you can find more here.
But I go to Tucson for the gems, which leaves only a few hours to catch just the first seminars each morning. I have to be very picky here, because it’s not only going to the seminars, it’s talking to the presenter and writing it up for the magazine. Not much time to cruise back and forth from one seminar room to another (but… been there, done that too.)
The easiest seminars to attend are the ones that are scheduled from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., before the shows open. The problem with this is that you can only go to one seminar and there are usually two or three that you will probably want to attend. Make the hard choice, and go to the one that you will benefit from the most. (And then if it’s not exactly what you thought it would be, sneak out and go to your second choice!)
So, starting Thursday the 7th, I’ve got to be in three rooms all at the same time. Richard Drucker is going to be doing his annual Best Buys in Tucson – and it always amazes us that he knows what’s going on in Tucson even before the shows open! Then you’ve got Doug Hucker talking color in Own the Color Brand in Your Market – Doug ALWAYS gets you psyched up to go buy the right color stones – it’s not just his job, it’s really his passion. And then you have Gail Levine, from the Auction Market Resource, telling us that “Aspirational Luxury Clients Can Afford Estate” jewels – Perfect! OK – who do I go see? Not tellin’. I’ll let you know on Friday the 8th.
Friday the 8th is the added JVC seminar at 8:30 a.m. – What? 8:30?? - with a member of the NRC talking about irradiated gems. I have to report on that. But then I’m not certain whether or not I will be able to get to the 9:00s … which would be a choice of seeing the Tanzanite Foundation introducing the AGTA grading reports, or Ramona Gautreaux from Stuller talking “A Color First Approach.” Ramona’s great, and this would be excellent, if only I can make it there.
Federman’s this afternoon. Afternoon sessions are so tough to get to, not because of the location, but because you are on the show floor, with stones right there in front of you. How do you drag yourself away from that? Hope to see you Dave, but don’t take it personal if I don’t. Dick Hughes, Caroline Stanley, and Antoinette are all in the afternoon as well… How do they expect me to get any work done on the show floor with all of these great seminars going on?
Saturday’s no picnic. At 9 you have Strack and Braunwart going up against each other as well as Lore Kiefert! I’m going to have to clone myself. In the afternoon, it’s Post against Pedersen. Good grief! I’m exhausted just thinking about it!
Sunday morning, the 10th, I reserve for gemology, so I’ll probably see either Kiefert or the GIA research team. Almost sounds relaxing.
But Monday the 11th rolls around and now we have me in three rooms at once again – Weldon up against Betty Sue King – Pearls 101 - and Alan Hodgkinson – men in skirts – I mean kilts - I mean “Gemmological Tricks and Treats”….
Tuesday the 12th – no seminars? Pack me up and ship me out…. I’ll sleep on the plane.
Next up? #4 - The AGA, the NAJA, and “The Outer Shows”
Posted by Gary Roskin on January 30, 2008 | Comments (0)
