The Midwest is Getting a New Jewelry Trade Show

Columbus, Ohio--This August will mark the debut of a new show for the Midwest market.

The New Horizons Jewelry Show in Columbus, Ohio, will host more than 250 exhibitors, mainly manufacturers and service providers, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center at 400 N. High Street.

Saturday, Aug. 19 will be a conference day with education, with the show taking place on the Aug. 20 and 21.

Confirmed exhibitors so far include United Precious Metal Refining Inc. and Dilamani, among dozens of others.

Jim Reed is the president and director of New Horizons and has developed trade shows for over three decades, including time spent working with JCK Las Vegas and the Smart Show in Chicago.

National Jeweler chatted with Reed to learn more about what to expect from the new Midwest event.

National Jeweler: What was your impetus for creating the show?

Jim Reed: I had several exhibitors from a previous show I worked on (the Smart Show) ask me to start a show in the Midwest because the Midwest needs a show. The only thing they wanted was for the show to be later in the year, not in the spring.

I called around to other manufacturers and some retailers I knew, and the majority of the companies I contacted said they would support such a show, so we created the New Horizons Jewelry Show.

In September 2018 the show will move to Schaumburg, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The show will rotate between these two cities to serve as much of the Midwest as possible.

NJ: What do you have planned for the education on the show’s conference day?

JR: One of the things we learned over the past nine years was that retailers really value education, but they want time to be able to really get into the meat of the content of the seminar. You can’t do that in a 45-minute session. We are excited to have David Peters with us to develop the conference program for the show.

The New Horizons Jewelry Show will be presenting two different, full-day intensive workshops where the retailer will be immersed in the subject matter and given an opportunity to apply what they learn in interactive segments throughout the day.

Learning does not happen without authentic application, and the New Horizons Jewelry Show education workshops are designed to provide a true application-focused learning experience.

NJ: Why should retailers attend the New Horizons