Musings at 30,000 feet - what could be in Las Vegas

This article was written somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean as I make my way to Las Vegas, together with tens of thousands of industry colleagues, to attend the gem and jewelry shows in Las Vegas.

A lot of us see the Las Vegas trade shows as a benchmark, as a thermometer to take the industry temperature, as a gauge to check its blood pressure and as a yard stick to measure its growth.

Are these shows going to be different? We all sure hope so, as we all can use some good news when it comes to sales and moving the goods!

I do hope, however, that people will come away from Las Vegas with a new and different mindset, and better understand that change cannot be diverted...

Here is what I - again, ideally, - hope will happen: 

• The newly announced Lab-Grown Diamond Council will publicly announce that they seek to cooperate with the diamond industry and trade, and to get the LDG manufacturers "mapped" and identified, and under the new, clean umbrella.
  
• The diamond industry will withdraw from its continuous but rather useless sabre rattling and engage in meaningful conversation. 
• Ah, yes, let's have a conversation with those manufacturing and marketing LGDs! Please disregard the kicking and screaming of the dinosaurs of our industry who cannot understand that it is a brave new world out here in which they have no place, unless they adapt and come around.
• Discussions about origin, tracebility, transparency, sustainability, etc. will draw the attention of show visitors and exhibitors alike. After all, the industry now understands that the US State Department is dead serious with its demand that all components of fine jewelry need to be disclosed and become traceable. We have arrived at a point of no return.

Maybe I am suffering from "flight fever" while I am writing this. But one thing I know for sure: we need to take this industry forward and make its products acceptable and saleable to the new generations of consumers. 

Have a good show!