Welcome to the Jewelry District, a podcast by J.C.K. Magazine and JCP online. On today's bonus episode, JCP's Rob Bates and Victoria Gamelski will dive into some pre-show excitement

for JCPA Las Vegas with Yancey Weinrich, Senior Vice President at Reed.

Hi, everyone. This is JCPK news director, Rob Bates, and I'm here with JCPA editor-in-chief,

Victoria Gimelsky. Hey, Rob, I'm so happy to be here. Glad to have you here. And we are also glad to have the legendary Nancy Weinrich, Senior Vice President of Reed Jewelry Group, which has the JCPA Las Vegas show, luxury. JCPT Tucson. JT-San, J-I-S, our publication. Certainly our magazine. Yeah, and much, much more. How long have you been with the show? I've been at Reed and with J-C-K for about 15 years, actually, this July. What was your first job? I started at Reed selling for luxury, actually. And I think luxury was in its fifth year at that time,

because we're celebrating 20, right? Started selling for luxury and then working for Sarah and Bachman, who's now the IVP on JCP. She went and took maternity leave and didn't really come back. So I took her role. And then I hired her back as soon as I could. It goes full circle. It does full circle. I love that.

And you were at AGS before, right?

I was that your first jewelry job, AGS? It was. I started the American Gem Society as membership director in 1996. And from there, went to MJSA and worked also for the Harmon Group. What interested you in working for AGS? It just kind of, you were in Vegas and basically, I had relocated to Vegas. It wasn't my first career. I graduated from college and was in finance, actually, and knew I want to do something different. So moved to Vegas and answered an ad in the newspaper for the American Gem Society. And the rest 22 years later is kind of history. That's wild. I didn't know that. You had no idea what it did, I assume. I had no idea what the American Gem Society was, and I didn't even know really what an association was. So I learned all about the association business and the jewelry business and did a little bit of an internship at Benbridge Jewelers because I wanted to understand what was going on at the retail counter.

And that was a lot of fun. I did that about one night a week for about a year. In Vegas? In Vegas. I called her bridge and said, I just want to understand what goes on at the retail counter. I said, can I intern for you? And he said, well, we really can't hire you as an intern, Yancey. I have to pay you $9 an hour. So I worked at, yeah, exactly.

So I did that for a year.

And did you like it? It was cool. Yeah, absolutely. You definitely got to see what the consumer was looking at and different stories about different consumers coming in and looking at jewelry. It was good experience. Have you been going to JCPK since the beginning? Yeah, but this will be my 22nd, 23rd show, I guess. So you've been to every show? Every show. Can you remember back to, like, the first JCPK show that you went to? Because then it was Jewelry 92 and it was just getting off the ground. But I think even from the beginning, it was huge. I guess my first show would have been 1996. So they'd been there for about four years. Right. So I remember it being the old sands. I mean, they didn't have the Venetian or the palazzo or the, or the shopping or the restaurants. I mean, it was just a convention center. So it was just a completely different. I mean, I guess it was two levels. I mean, it was just really exhibits. And we had a bit American Jump Study. We had a small booths and we worked the show and people were really thrilled with it and grew from there.

What about the trade show business?

Is there anything that really you find interesting or exciting?

When I went to read and started working for luxury on the luxury show, I thought, you know, I kind of know the jewelry business, but let me kind of learn the trade show business. And what I have loved about learning the trade show business and what I do love about it is watching an event come to life every year. So there's always kind of like you guys with your magazine. Every month you're putting out a magazine, you see it come to life. So, I mean, I think that's really cool. I think the other thing that's really great. I mean, I think, you know, I've also taken on a couple of other portfolios, so I'm in golf now and the vision, I wear shows. And what I love is I'm talking to people in those industries as well, and they're all entrepreneurs. And really the people that benefit most are the small to medium-sized companies that are building their business and building their brand through trade shows. And there's that group of people in every industry. And it's fun to watch them be successful. When I used to do shows like performing, you know, right before you go on stage, you get that kind of like weird feeling. And you think to yourself like, why am I doing this? Like maybe I could just do something less stressful. Do you get that every year? Every year. Yeah. It's about that time now because I think we're about four weeks out where it starts to build. And then about three days before you leave for the show, you're like, I just want to be out there because I think I need to be there solving problems, but there's not

really anything to do. It's definitely the calm before the storm. And then there's this what's

going to happen and how's it going to all shake out because you can plan all year long, but some things you can't plan for. It's all in the doing. I mean, this year is momentous because we are returning to the sands. And I remember my first JCPay was the year 2000 and I was a complete newbie and I was staying

across the street at Treasure. The Sands. And I remember my first JCPay was the year 2000, and I was a complete newbie.

And I was staying across the street at Treasure Island. A good friend of mine had sort of,

unbeknownst to me, I knew she'd taken a new job, but it ended up being a competitor to the

company I had just been hired at. And they were both gem trading websites.

Mine was gemkey.com and she was gem connect.com. Oh, I remember gem key.

Yeah.

Well, Gemkey sort of went on to spawn a few other things, including in-store magazine.

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