So as we all settle back in after Las Vegas, it is time to take a moment and reflect back on the craziness of Jewelry Week.It was so nice to see so many friends and colleagues. Every year our industry descends on sin city and eats too much, drinks too much, and has an overall great time! From all the events, like the Diamond Empowerment Fund's "Diamonds Do Good" to the Indian Diamond Council Awards to the Jewelers for Children Gala, we take a week out of our busy lives to enjoy each other's company, while working hard.

While we often hear that the way we do business needs to change in order for us to remain competitive, few have offered viable solutions. One of the ways the industry can strengthen is through a closer collaboration between retailers and vendors.Through true partnerships, we believe we will be able to work together.

By Abe Sherman Around the first week of September, I wrote a rather long article about synthetic diamonds. It had very limited distribution; I only sent it to our Plexus members because I wanted to discuss the subject during our fall Plexus meetings to get a sense of how jewelers were feeling about the subject, [...]