Make Time for Education at the Next Jewelry Trade Show You Attend

IJO Dallas begins this week and we are just as excited about attending as the hundreds of jewelers that will be flying in from every corner of the country undoubtedly are!

The first thing most will think of with regards to a jewelry trade show event would be the process of actually physically buying jewelry that will be sold at their retail stores. Many jewelers are already planning for Q2 and Q3 of 2024, and use the time on the buying floor to place their orders for several months out.

However, an often overlooked perk of every jewelry trade show is the educational sessions that take place every day.

According to Penny Palmer, Director of Member Services at IJO, she believes that attending the educational sessions is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your business. She urges attendees to bring their younger employees to these sessions as well to really light a fire in them to always be learning more.

Michael Burpoe, Director of User Experience at Punchmark, sat down with Penny on the In the Loupe podcast to talk about the value of education for jewelers. The following is a portion of the interview.

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Penny Palmer:
[And] people love to share and they also love to learn. So they and again, because nobody competes in IJO, there's more sharing than at other shows around the world. So that's another thing. That's just very, very positive, all that people share with one another.

Michael Burpoe:
When it comes to education. I guess how is that formulated? Is because, obviously, education needs to be topical at its heart. There's different techniques and tools that are being innovated every single year when it comes to the agility industry. But also, at the same time, you can't only work on, I guess, topical topics. You have to also have some fundamentals or important things that are involved there, because I'm sure that there's value to a lot of the first timers, like you mentioned. How's the education scheduled, kind of created or thought about?

Penny Palmer:
We have a critique form after the show and some of the speakers just get all 'Excellents' from people and they want them to come back and we need to have a mix. We have a huge mix of seminars and things. It's something for everyone, and a lot of times you will leave a general session with a full heart and ideas charged up about something.

Michael Burpoe:
Yeah, Ross [Cockerham, CEO & Co-Founder of Punchmark] is going to be presenting. I know you're not saying it's advertising, but it's always our best kind of way of drawing in new people because, like you said, people actually sit down, they make an event of it. But the actual reason why people are going there is to learn techniques and tools that are cutting edge and being innovated upon, and  that is actually why people are willing to spend so much money. The fact that you know IJO and other trade shows have buying as what people think it's about, but that's only 30% of the show. It's actually all these other things as well.

Listen to the Full Interview on Spotify:

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Speaking of education, Ross will be conducting an educational session at IJO Dallas. Make time to stop by and learn more about your online presence!

Controlling Your Digital Narrative: How to Tell Your Brand Story to the World
Saturday, March 9th @ 2:00 pm

Make an appointment and stop by the Punchmark booth while at the show to receive a tailored audit for your online presence!