The word from NYC this week was upbeat and busy at the show. Everyone I spoke with who either exhibited or attended told me that they were having a good show. In most cases…. to their own surprise given what we hear every day about the economy.
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The last of the three MJSA Innovation Award winners, V-Ray for Gemvision Matrix was one of my picks as well for jewelry technology of the year. V-Ray along with the team at Gemvision have provided our industry with the ability to render a CAD jewelry design that is so realistic that you believe it was made of metal and stone. V-Ray for Gemvision opens a whole new era in jewelry marketing. Over the next decade digital rendering will provide a reduction in physical inventories as our industry migrates from brick and mortar to the internet. It will also facilitate the ability of thousands of would be jewelry designers to realize their dreams at a lower cost than ever before. We may indeed look back later this decade and think about this product being the turning point for our industry.

MJSA did a great job this year on the education programs and from what I saw they were very well attended. The most interesting to me was the JVC/JBT presentation on Consignment and Memorandum in our industry. For many small manufacturers this was a very sobering look at the evolution of their “hand shake” agreements. The UCC filing process and legal paperwork are laborious in protecting everyone’s interest. In my humble opinion however, this problem is screaming for a political and technology solution from within our own industry.
 

For years the JBT has provided manufacturers with guidelines for credit risk. What I would propose is to extend that service to include a registry of consignments that the membership could query prior to making a sale or consignment. Contracts could be generated that were uniform and binding in the courts while providing an inexpensive and expedient way of registering a memo within our industry.

If our industry is to continue as it has in the past, there will be a huge need for consignment to spawn retail sales in the years to come. If not our JBT, perhaps another private entity, or would you prefer the UCC system. Your comments are most welcome on this subject

Look for more info later this week on new tools I found at Rio Grande, Stuller and Gesswein this year.

JCK