The Texas Jewelers Association has announced details of their 118th annual convention, “Focus on the Future”. This year, it will be a 3 day event featuring educational speakers and a limited number of vendors which will be in attendance for the first time. The three day event will be October 7-9 at the Crowne Plaza Galleria in Houston, TX.
The two days of education feature speakers including Brad Huisken of IAS training management, multi-award winning gemstone cutter and jeweler Dalan Hargrave, cyber and store security expert Greg “Dutch” Holland, HMH Consulting and more.
The TJA jewelry design competition will also take place at the convention with 4 professional categories and two student jewelry categories with cash prizes. The students finished pieces are sponsored by J. Patrick Diamonds and the new CAD category is sponsored by B9Creations. Awards will be presented at the dinner gala with live music on Saturday night.
On the final day, members will visit the Museum of Natural Science where Patrick Dreher has items on display, along with Fabergé and the Lester and Sue Smith spectacular finished jewelry Vault. The specimen collection at the museum has been compared to the quality of the Smithsonian’s collection.
“These are exciting times as the jewelry industry has made great strides in the past few years with technology and social media,” says Amber Gustafson, President of the Texas Jewelers Association. “We are growing as an association and want to continue encouraging new business to grow with us. We look forward to this great event.”
For a limited time, any new member joining the Texas Jewelers Association will receive a free one year membership to Jewelers of America – a $225 value.
Registration for the convention and additional information including hotel booking and how to become a member can be found at texasjewelers.org or by calling Connie at 281 482-4755.
