As a part of this year’s AGTA Spectrum Awards, The American Gem Trade Association, in conjunction with MVI Marketing, is introducing a new awards division–Consumer’s Choice Honors sponsored by MVI’s Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council.

AGTA will automatically enter all participants in the AGTA Spectrum Awards into the Consumer’s Choice Honors sponsored by JCOC. There will be no additional entry fee for these new honors.

AGTA will forward to MVI Marketing the details of each entry along with quality digital photography for display on the internet. JCOC will create, develop, and deploy a consumer market research study focused on selecting consumer winning choices for the Consumer’s Choice Honors awards. One consumer selected winning style will be identified in the same five categories of the traditional AGTA Spectrum Awards, which include Bridal, Business/Day Wear, Classical, Evening Wear and Men’s Wear.

JCOC will make a presentation to the five winning designers at the AGTA GemFair Tucson in February, 2009, during the AGTA Spectrum Awards Dinner Dance. AGTA will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Spectrum Awards at the event.

“The consumer is the most important voice in the jewelry industry. Our JCOC panel will love to vote on their favorite jewelry designs and we are looking forward to honoring talented jewelry designers on behalf of our panelists,” said Liz Chatelain, MVI president.

“We are thrilled to have JCOC involved with the Spectrum Awards,” added Douglas K. Hucker, AGTA chief executive officer. “It should be interesting to see how the consumer’s choices compare with the results of our traditional judging methods.”

JCK