(Finance) – Young people, synergies and sustainability to promote Italian excellence, a protagonist in the global value chain of jewellery. These are the themes that animated the Italian Jewelery Summitorganized by Italian Exhibition Group (IEG) with the Municipality of Arezzo, the Arezzo-Siena Chamber of Commerce and Arezzo Fiere e Congressi, which has just concluded at the Arezzo Auditorium. Born in 2021 thanks to the participation of the protagonists of the gold sector and trade associations, the Jewelry Summit, now in its third edition, confirms itself as the reference event for the industry which, at the end of the year, meets in the heart of the most important gold district in Europe to take stock of what has happened and outline new strategies. Market, exports, training, generational transition and sustainability: the key themes, challenges and opportunities for the national supply chain are on the Summit’s agenda.
“With the Italian Jewelery Summit, Italian Exhibition Group intends to strengthen the link with the gold production districts of Italy – declared Maurizio Renzo Ermeti, President of the Italian Exhibition Group – in particular with that of Arezzo, with which IEG shares leading projects and initiatives, such as the Oroarezzo fair, which highlights the best of Made in Italy goldsmithery and technologies in the world. The Summit represents a confirmation of our commitment to making the Arezzo branch increasingly relevant within our gold and jewelery events and a further step forward in the collaboration between the Group and the local industry, as well as a recognition of the importance strategic role that the Tuscan district plays in strengthening the competitiveness of the Italian jewelery industry on the global market”.
The future he was the undisputed protagonist of the third edition of the Arezzo event, which saw several moments dedicated to the new generations and their approach to the sector. Among these, the presentation of a project Confartigianato for the provision of scholarships worth 500 euros to the most deserving students of local middle schools who in 2024 will choose training courses in the goldsmith field. Luca ParriniNational President of Confartigianato Orafi e Argentieri, underlined the need for manpower with professional skills: in the Arezzo area alone there are over 1,000 companies.
Theme also highlighted by Maximum Gascons, President of the Arezzo-Siena Chamber of Commerce: “Having qualified professional figures in the company today represents an indispensable condition for expanding into new markets”. Second Daniel Grassucci, co-founder and director of Skuola.net, the sector has a great yet unexpressed attractive potential for young talents: from the survey that Skuola.net carried out for Federorafi with the support of IEG, almost 1 in 3 secondary school students would be interested in a career in this sector. “We need to overcome a very widespread belief that technical-practical professions cannot guarantee a good economic-social status for those who practice them. This is absolutely not the case: we just need to tell the people directly involved”, declared Grassucci. event the award was also awarded Best Design 2023 of the Talents category of the Première di Oroarezzo competition, won by Marta D’Ambrosiostudent at the Margaritone Goldsmith Institute in Arezzo, with an opal necklace surrounded by rays studded with colored stones.
The event was an opportunity to take stock of the economic scenarios and industrial prospects of the Italian goldsmith supply chain. A sector which, as he underlined Jordan Giordini, President Orafi Confindustria Toscana Sud, is about to close the year under the banner of stabilization, after the record growth percentages recorded in the post-covid period. To face the challenges of the present, there are three factors to focus on: dimensional growth, heritage, understood as culture, tradition, creativity and design, and internationalisation. “From this perspective, a very important lever is the support of the ICE Agency which in recent years has developed many initiatives of great impact for our businesses – for example with large-scale retail trade in the United States – and with which we will undertake similar initiatives in France, Great Britain, Japan and Canada. At the same time, new markets are being evaluated such as the African ones which will be the next frontier of Made in Italy” declared Giordini, who recalled the importance of communication and narration of Italian jewelery all over ‘abroad.
L’internationalization was at the center of the speech of the Central Director for the Export Sectors of the ICE Agency Maurizio Forte: “The ICE Agency confirms its support for this important pillar of Made in Italy, consolidating the presence of Italian companies in foreign markets and strengthening the invitations of international buyers to the main trade fairs in Italy, in close collaboration with trade associations and trade fair partners”. In this context, Forte underlined, Oroarezzo represents a point of reference for the Made in Italy manufacturing of gold and jewellery.
The sector associations were also at the center of the Summit, which underlined the importance of synergies and the sharing of experiences and good practices between the various players in the supply chain, as stated Arduino Zappaterra, president of CNA Orafi Nazionale, who highlighted the need for greater dialogue between the districts, “to create an integrated system of training, research and innovation, which can guarantee the continuity of artisan know-how and the competitiveness of the sector”. Also in the foreground is the need to implement a renewal within the associations. Precisely to achieve this objective, the Federpreziosi Youth Group was created. “A team of entrepreneurs under 42 who constitute our generational transition – he declares Stephen Andreis, National President of Federpreziosi –. We felt that a meeting of this level was the ideal stage to focus on the future.”
There sustainability was another key theme of the 2023 Italian Jewelery Summit. Vincent Aucella, president of Assocoral and vice-president of Federpreziosi Confcommercio, talked about the latest projects and news for the coral supply chain. A material which, until 30 years ago, was fished mechanically, by scraping the rocks, while today it is collected throughout the Mediterranean Sea following specific rules: seasonality, limited number of licences, established daily and seasonal quantities of collection, traceability . “In 2019 we set ourselves the objective of not losing this traceability – explained Aucella –. Thus the collective brand MadeinTorredelGreco was born. A brand that currently has 35 certifiers and, 14 months after its launch, 1,067 certificates issued”.
At the end of the Summit, Corrado Peraboni, CEO of IEG, and Marco Carniello, Global Exhibition Director Jewelery & Fashion IEG, presented the 2024 appointments of the Italian Exhibition Group for the gold and jewelery industry. It starts in January, from 19th to 23rd, with Vicenzaoro January, T.Gold and VO Vintage, at the Vicenza fair, and then moves to the Arezzo exhibition center with Oroarezzo, from 11th to 14th May 2024. From 11th to 14th July it’s SIJE’s turn, at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Center Singapore, while from 6 to 10 September we return to Vicenza with Vicenzaoro September and VO’Clock Privè. Last events of 2024: Valenza Gem Forum, 10 October at the Teatro Sociale of Valenza; JGT in Dubai, from 12 to 14 November at the Dubai Exhibition Center (DEC); Italian Jewelery Summit, early December 2024 in Arezzo.
“The Italian Jewelery Summit is an essential piece of the agenda of the Italian Exhibition Group, which in recent years has consolidated its leadership in the organization of B2B events in the gold sector in Italy and abroad, thanks to a targeted acquisition program – has explained Corrado Peraboni, CEO of IEG –. The event, together with Oroarezzo, is thus positioned in a global business hub, which unites East and West, with a presence on markets that extends from the Middle East to Western Asia, from India to Africa. An event in which all the institutional representatives of the jewelery supply chain participate and which reflects the Group’s mission: to be the community catalyst at the service of operators, business, the media, institutions and schools of every sector to which it is dedicated. To promote the development of the Italian industry and economy by enhancing the excellence of our manufacturing, a sector which sees the Arezzo gold district among its protagonists”.
“The Summit is an event dedicated to the promotion of the sector and the comparison between the protagonists of the supply chain, to respond promptly to the requests and challenges that the industrial fabric finds itself called upon to manage – he underlined Marco Carniello, Global Exhibition Director Jewelery & Fashion IEG –. This year, in addition to the testimonies from the associative world, gathered to present the many initiatives implemented to encourage the entry of new talents into the sector, we opened the doors of the Summit to 100 young people from technical institutes and artistic high schools in the Arezzo province. An initiative to concretely promote dialogue between two worlds, that of training and that of production, which are too often distant, for the benefit of the goldsmith supply chain and the new generations”.
They are also intervened on the Summit panels: Steven Tranquilli, Director of Federpreziosi Confcommercio, Francesco Ponzi, Ponzi Gioielli and coordinator of the Giovani Federpreziosi group, Simone Haddad, AB World; as well as institutional greetings from Lucia Tanti, Deputy Mayor of Arezzo, Nicola Carini, Vice President of the Province of Arezzo, and Alessandra Joseph, Councilor of the Arezzo Fiere e Congressi Administration. Also present at the award ceremony for the Best Design 2023 in the Talents category of the Premiere competition of Oroarezzo were Beppe Angiolini, Art Director of Oroarezzo, and Mauro Benvenuto, President of CNA Orafi Arezzo, representing the Consulta Orafa of Arezzo. For this third edition of the Summit, students from the following schools in the Arezzo area were involved: “G.Giovagnoli” Higher Education Institute of Sansepolcro, “B. Varchi” Higher Education Institute of Montevarchi, “Giovanni da Castiglione” Higher Education Institute of Castiglion Fiorentino, Liceo Piero della Francesca of Arezzo, ISIS Margaritone of Arezzo, Istituto Omnicomprehensive “G.Marcelli” Foiano della Chiana, University of Siena, Campus of Arezzo.