The Gemological Institute of America is offering an
informative, hands-on educational track at AGS Conclave with classes ranging
from pearls to field gemology.

The Conclave, held April 27–30 in San Francisco, will
feature seventeen hours of hands-on GIA Lab classes and lectures designed to
further the gemological and business skills of the AGS membership, and to
provide practical tools that can help members take their business to the next
level.

The classes include:

• Advanced Diamond
  Clarity Grading with Shelly Verwymeren, CG, GIA
  Participants will cover proper lighting techniques and
  viewing geometry to determine the best environment to identify clarity
  characteristics and enhance grading accuracy. 
• Pearls will be the focus of another workshop taught by Verwymeren.
  Students will learn the methodology GIA Laboratory uses to classify the value
  factors of freshwater and saltwater pearls, as well as how to adapt these
  techniques for their own use.
• Synthetic Corundum in
  Review with John Koivula, CG, GIA
  Participants will use a specially selected collection of synthetic
  rubies and sapphires in a hands-on clinic in order to become more expert at
  identifying these lab-grown products.
• Join the Learning
  E-Volution with Craig Danforth of GIA
  This session will feature a tour of GIA”s newest eLearning
  offering, pearls.
• Chronicles from Gems
  and Gemology: The Bizarre and Unusual with Brendan Laurs, editor of G&G
  magazine
  Laurs will lectures on some of the strange and bizarre
  stones published in Gems & Gemology over the years

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