A Letter From the Chairman

​To The Jewelry Symposium Community:
 
Let me first thank the rest of the board who are working hard on our inaugural event.  Secondly, thank all of you for the overwhelming support, both in sponsorships and in the moral support it takes to organize an event like this.  I think we all know that there will never be a replacement for the Santa Fe Symposium and trying to reproduce that event is not our goal. We are however, committed to maintaining and building on the family spirit, networking, and information exchange that the SFS brought to our industry.
 
Re-launching The Jewelry Symposium has been more than challenging, not that I thought it would be easy. I asked many of you about how to improve on our event while knowing we had to work within the budget we could generate. Some suggested wanting to see it stop entirely, but I persevered.
 
Moving the symposium to a hub city was the most requested change, especially from our international attendees. Traveling to New Mexico added several hours to an extra day of travel. We considered Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Denver, and Chicago. The board looked at all the pros and cons and determined Minneapolis as the best location.
 
Keeping the symposium scheduled the third week of May was second of the suggestion list. This became a major difficulty. Most locations big enough for us were booked already. The compromise was to hold the symposium a week earlier. Our industry is family-based, and the event date is not perfect since Sunday is Mother’s Day. We know this will impact some and they won’t be able to attend. I and the board understand this is the wrong weekend and expect to host the event on the third Sunday in May 2024.
 
Some have suggested to wait given all the issues hosting the symposium so quickly.  We decided it was better to continue with the momentum we had with a less-than-desirable date and location than lose the SFS energy. As of today, we have received considerable support for our re-launch, 17 abstracts have been accepted filling our presentation slots. Eddie Bell will be the keynote speaker Sunday Morning. Jessa Bell has agreed to become our event coordinator. Hoover & Strong, United Precious Metals, and Au Enterprises are confirmed sponsors with several others verbally committed.
 
I hope to see all of you in Minneapolis in May.
 
Thank you for your continuing support and good will!
Sincerely,

---

Linus Drogs
​chairman of The Jewelry Symposium