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Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Bennett Freeman To Discuss Responsible Sourcing At Portland Jewelry Symposium

Bennett Freeman

One of the nation’s prominent experts on Responsible Sourcing, Bennett Freeman, will be the keynote speaker at the Portland Jewelry Symposium.

The Symposium will be held October 2 – 3, at the Sentinel Hotel in Portland, Ore. The event provides education and networking opportunities specifically designed to address the needs of manufacturing retailers and custom designers.

“We are excited to be exploring the topic of Responsible Sourcing this year in addition to our full program” said Teresa Frye, founder of the Symposium. “Increasing interest from the consumers on the origins of precious metals and stones is something that the industry will strongly benefit from learning more about.” 

Freeman has extensive experience in the field, having worked at the intersection of multinational companies, responsible investors, NGOs, governments and international institutions to promote corporate responsibility, sustainability and human rights around the world. “We are very fortunate to have the chance to hear first-hand of his global experiences on the subject,” Frye said.

Rounding out the Responsible Sourcing program will be talks by Toby Pomeroy, designer and one of the industry’s true pioneers in fairmined gold, and Stewart Grice, VP of Mill Products at Hoover & Strong, who will be sharing his recent experiences with fair mining gold practices in Peru.

The keynote compliments the Symposium’s customary topics of Technology, Design, Business, and Bench. 

Other presentations include Andrea Hill of the Hill Management Group on Lean Manufacturing Principles, James Binnion of James Binnion Metal Arts on Successful Casting of 3D Printed Acrylics, Lake Giles of Thinkspace on SEO and Maximizing Web Presence, Chris Ploof of Chris Ploof Designs on Techniques for Creating Mokume Gane, and Teresa Frye of TechForm will present on critical bench aspects of Precious Metals Metallurgy. 

In addition to the talks, Phil Scott of Rio Grande will be hosting bench demonstrations with a focus on Innovations in Finishing. Jim Tuttle of Greenlake Jewelry, Travis Issacson of Lashbrook, and Jennifer Dawes of Dawes Designs will speak on the panel Strategies for Selling Custom Jewelry moderated by Gillian Frances of TechForm.

Sponsors for the event include TechForm, MJSA, Rio Grande, Santa Fe Symposium, Stuller, Gemological Institute of America, Platinum Guild International, Johnson Matthey, Solidscape, Instore Magazine, Metalsmith Magazine, Hoover & Strong, The Richline Group, Otto Frei, Jewelers of America, A3DM, United Precious Metals, Red Sky Plating, Superfit. Lashbrook, and Laminated Metals Technology. 

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