Attire Accessories - Feb/Mar 2019 (Issue 74)

64 Situated in Hall 18, adjacent to the fashion accessories halls of Spring Fair, Jewellery & Watch is a dedicated jewellery industry trade event and buying destination, featuring widely respected brands, wholesalers and manufacturers. Exhibitors are split into seven show sectors, including watches, bridal and fine jewellery, costume and fashion jewellery and jewellery services and solutions. For visiting buyers and retailers, Jewellery & Watch is ideally placed to offer inspiration, visual merchandising ideas and helpful seminars at the start of the new year. The aim of Jewellery & Watch is to give buyers and retailers a platform to discuss Christmas trading and prepare for the year ahead. In a change to previous years, Jewellery & Watch 2019 will introduce The Studio – a seminar theatre offering a mix of talks by professionals from the jewellery and fashion accessories space. Highlights include daily sessions with emerging design talents, trends inspiration from internationally recognised trend forecaster Paola De Luca and insights into the online customer experience with Chris Moore of Cohesion Digital. The Studio will also welcome established jewellery designer Rachel Galley, marketing specialist Nyasha Pitt of Living Content, experts in the detection of synthetic diamonds and speakers in the bridal jewellery trends sphere. Those visiting Jewellery & Watch will also have access to the Spring Fair Main Stage in Hall 20, with speakers from Louis Vuitton, John Lewis and the V&A Museum, among others. A SPARKLING START Jewellery & Watch is back at NEC Birmingham with a host of exhibitors in the specialist jewellery sector. Here we preview what to expect from the Spring Fair co-located show Who: Jewellery & Watch jewelleryandwatchbirmingham.com What: With a sole focus on jewellery and watches, the show is located directly next to the popular Spring Fair event Where: NEC, Birmingham When: 3 rd -7 th February, 2019 Behind the scenes, Jewellery & Watch and Spring Fair are being transformed by new parent company ITE Group. Here Kirsty Broere, event manager Jewellery & Watch, explains what this means for the future: “This year Jewellery & Watch and Spring Fair secured a new parent company, ITE Group, and we are hugely excited about the energy, investment and ideas this brings to both shows. As part of this changeover, a new strategy has been introduced to develop both shows, which will formally commence in 2020. As a result, Jewellery & Watch 2019 will offer a sneak peek at some of these changes while also being a transitional year for our wider company. From 2020 onwards, we hope to continue to focus on content, seminars and business development. We will also turn our attention to a type of business match-making, which will see us play a more active role in introducing the right suppliers to the right retailers and buyers – this is a key focus for 2020. Overall, we want our buyers, retailers and visitors to leave with just as many ideas as signed orders. We understand that buying is crucial to the health of a trade event, but so is the chance to network, learn and be inspired.”