20th annual Polygon-Hess Hurriclave

We are still buzzing from the good vibes of our 20th annual Polygon-Hess Hurriclave that took place Sept 6-8 in St-Pete! A huge thank you to our co-hosts, Jeffrey & Katrina Hess of Hess Fine Art (Poly ID 330), who – hand in hand with our team – put so much thought and effort into this event.

TRADING WAS ACTIVE!

LOTS of trading took place at Sunday’s trading session. Some (Curt Sutherland @ DJX, Inc) even said it was their BEST TRADING SESSION EVER, selling everything out! Vendors featured everything from newly manufactured jewelry (Brilliant Nuevo), to men’s wedding bands (Lashbrook Designs) to watches (3W, Inc), to lab grown diamonds (Nova Diamonds) and natural diamonds (Bluestone Trading). And as always, lots of secondary market goods of interest were being bought and sold from movers and shakers including Hess Fine Art, Verma Group, Fox Estate Buyers, The Jewelry Box Estate Buyers, Dr Gold Jewelry & Diamonds, Decatur Pawn & Jewelry, D. Poynter & Co and others.

We also got to see demos of the Elvatech XRF Spectrometers, represented by US Metals and SHR Precious Metals, and the NEW GemOro XRF Gold Analyzer, made in the USA and introduced at the show by Sy-Kessler and GemOro. Gold testing and high gold prices were themes in our educational talks, and these tools are more important than ever for jewelers who are buying from the public. Sy-Kessler also had their world-renowned Yehuda Sherlock Holmes Lab Grown Diamond Detector on-hand (starting at only $2,795).

Anish Desai from Star Gems demonstrated his latest AI custom design tech. Dutchy Merten of HMH Consultants met with attendees to talk about cyber and physical security.

A seminar on Cyber Security from Dutchy Merten at HMH Consultants covered some of the major threats and best practices for small jewelry businesses. Cyber attacks not only affect a business financially, but also reputationally – 41% of customers say they won’t shop again with a hacked company.

Eric Laker from Lashbrook Designs led a seminar on Maximizing Profits in Men’s Wedding Bands. Among other things, Eric talked about closed door vs. open door pieces – with open door pieces you start with an idea and build on it, making the experience positive for the customer, and the likelihood of a higher ticket sale better for you!

A very well-attended and vibrant panel discussion on OTC/Estate Buying was led by Jeffrey Hess. Panelists were Amit Verma & William Burkhalter (Verma Group), Perry Lewin (Decatur Pawn & Jewelry), and Jack Levenson & Christine Anzell (The Jewelry Box Estate Buyers). The panel touched on many important points including different ways to buy OTC goods, how to evaluate them, what types of pieces to buy (don’t avoid silver!), client processes, advertising and more.

A brainstorm session Saturday afternoon covered variety of topics of interest for jewelry businesses. Experts contributed info and experience:

• Katrina Hess (Hess Fine Art & Jewels) shared her practices for avoiding online fraud
• Richard Wasserman (Wasserman Jewel Galleries) showed some data and led a discussion on the diamond market
• Katya Tsviardova (US Metals) and Liz Ferons (Sy-Kessler and GemOro Products) shared insights on gold and diamond testing and refining
• Dutchy Merten (HMH Consultants) was on-hand to talk about Cyber and Physical Security

GREAT PEOPLE, GREAT TIME!

We welcomed returning and new attendees this year. In addition to loads of business and seminars, the weekend included a Welcome Reception at a Marina hotspot, and Dinner event at the Yacht Club. In their 20th year reigning the Hurriclave, Jeff and Katrina Hess were appropriately coronated!

Thank you to all who came to make it a great event!

View the Hurriclave Album on Facebook

And a big thank you to our sponsors!