JUST WONDERING WHERE SODIUM WILL BE SELLING OUR STONES.
being based in Antwerp you would have thought last week would be the sale.
but I looked up the sale and the list of sellers and no sodium.
anybody any idea? do they sell under a different name?
Bourses turning trading halls into trade shows to create business
02.02.2015
The fourth edition of the International Diamond Week at the Israel Diamond Exchange due to take place from February 8 to 12, following the sixth edition of the Antwerp Diamond Trade Fair at the beginning of February, coming two months after the third Israel Diamond Week event at the New York Diamond Dealers Club (DDC) last November and the Indian Diamond Week at the DDC before that shows a clear pattern. Good ideas are quickly copied – and in these instances it is clearly for the good of the global diamond industry. In addition, the shows are also creating much-needed solidarity between the major diamond hubs and their members at a time when trading conditions have become increasingly difficult.
But they also show something much more basic in an age of sophisticated social media marketing – people simply like to meet face-to-face and chat and do business in an old-fashioned way. And the new 'tradeshows' have also given new life to the trading halls of the bourses whose usage has been on a downward trend over the past decade or more as diamantaires have increasingly preferred to conduct business in the privacy of their offices.
In addition, the shows have also revived the idea of buyers heading for the diamond centres on purchasing trips. In Israel, at least, the number of buyers has declined drastically from the situation pertaining around 20 years ago when the bourse attracted scores of foreign buyers every week.
The success of the International Diamond Week at the IDE can be seen in the numbers of people – both buyers and sellers – taking part. The first edition of the show in March 2013 featured just under 150 Israeli diamantaires with specially constructed booths in the IDE's trading hall offering around $1 billion of goods for sale to approximately 200 foreign buyers.
The last edition of the show was due to take place last September, but was cancelled due to security concerns since the Israel-Hamas conflict was taking place at the time. That edition of the show would have seen well in excess of 200 foreign buyers and more than 350 Israeli firms exhibiting and offering around $2 billion of goods for sale to the foreign buyers. In addition to a large delegation of buyers from the United States, there were two buying delegations from India, as well as a group from Russia and another from Hong Kong.
The winter 2015 edition of the event in February is expected to see more sellers and a larger number of buyers, all the more so since the organizers, the IDE, have signed a cooperation agreement not just with the DDC, but also with the Antwerp Diamond Bourse, which is working to persuade members to attend the event.
Meanwhile, at the third edition of the Israel Diamond Week in New York in November, there were more than 700 buyers from the United States and across the world. More than 100 IDE members exhibited goods on the DDC trading floor, alongside some 70 DDC members.
As organizers of the shows quickly discovered, there are many advantages to using a diamond exchange trading hall as a trade show venue. There is in-built high security, buyers and sellers are put in a highly targeted manner, and the cost of taking part is very low by any standards and in no way compares with the cost of taking part in an overseas industry tradeshow.
But perhaps the most striking feature of the events is the way they are able to introduce a new/old change in the way of doing business by bringing people together on the trading hall in an atmosphere that it totally conducive to buying and selling. "I heard time and again – both at the diamond week in our Israeli exchange and at the Israel Diamond Week at the DDC – that people were surprised how pleasant and important it was to meet and have a physical contact with buyers and sellers," commented IDE President Shmuel Schnitzer.
"Unfortunately, we seem to have become accustomed to not having that human element. We are so used, nowadays, to doing everything from the comfort of our offices. The excitement and the buzz in the air is extraordinary. There really is electricity in the air and that is conducive to doing business. It's difficult to get a potential buyer excited when you are sitting in a quiet office. But when you are surrounded by many hundreds of people who are negotiating and discussing prices, it creates an ambience made for doing business. These events also create a lot of goodwill and comradeship. You run into old business acquaintances and friends that, in some cases, you have not seen for many years or simply to put a name to a face.
"And with buyers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, South Africa, India, Hong Kong, Turkey, Japan, China, Spain, Canada, Russia and Switzerland, to name just some of the countries, there really is an international business atmosphere," Schnitzer added.
The show at the IDE also features other aspects, such as bringing a well known figure from the international diamond jewellery business to open it – such as former Diamond Trading Company CEO Varda Shine or Roberto Coin of the eponymous jewellery brand. There are also auctions of rough and polished diamonds.
Proof of the way interest in the shows catches on like wildfire was seen in the first Israel Diamond Week at the DDC in December 2012. With just 15 Israeli firms initially showing an interest, the final figure was 50, and more than 100 Israeli diamantaires overall participating. The IDE confirmed the special role the International Diamond Week has quickly achieved in its annual calendar by officially announcing, in December 2014, that it will be held twice a year.
It's fair to assume that the recent trend of bourse trading halls being used as the setting for industry-specific tradeshows goes back five years to the initial Antwerp Diamond Trade Fair. The target for the inaugural show was simply to bring together, by-invitation-only, high-end jewellers from across Europe to meet leading Antwerp diamond manufacturers. But the show has developed and expanded every year with more visitors taking part.
The sixth Antwerp Diamond Trade Fair (ADTF) taking place from February 1 to 3 will bring in 100-150 buyers, among them a significant group of first-time visitors, the organizers say. The event now hosts around 700 visitors from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, Russia and elsewhere, with around 90 exhibition booths. The success of the event is seen in the fact that while the first two shows were held in the trading hall of the Antwerp Diamond Bourse, it has expanded into the Diamond Club of Antwerp and the Diamantkring, the rough diamond exchange, as well, and now also includes breakfast educational seminars and lectures.
The event remains an exclusive, by-invitation event, with firms and individuals needing to officially apply to receive an invitation. If they are approved, the first-time visitors are given an 'airport-to-airport' service, being picked up from Brussels airport and taken to their hotel with all charges covered by the ADTF. There is a full day of activities, and there are also evening programs.
"This show has enabled Antwerp to profile itself and bring people here who may have been doing business with local companies but who had never visited the city," said one of the organizers. "Coming here allows them to see the wide variety of goods on offer and that Antwerp can offer much more than the narrow range of goods they bought in the past."
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