 Our hosts Susan and Richard Drucker. Photo: J. Diegel. | |
 Richard Wise and Dr. Lore Kiefert AGTA GTC Corundum Treatments Seminar Lore was co-coordinator of the conference. Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 Bear and Cara Williams Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 Anick Lapage and GIA's Distinguished Research Fellow, Dr. James Shigley Anick is a Canadian geological engineer and soon to be FGA. Photo: J. Diegel. | |
 Back at the book table. Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 Oscar, Antoinette, Richard and Ron Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 John and Bear Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 Kristi and John Koivula: Photoatlas Volume 3 Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 Richard, Bear and Kristi at the microWorld of Gems book table. Pre-orders rolled in for the highly anticipated upcoming November release of the final installment in the Photoatlas of Inclusions in Gemstones series (Vol 3) which contains large dedicated chapters of Diamond, Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire. To order contact microWorld of Gems. Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 Hpone and Ron Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 With the master of color himself. Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 The sandbags held and the conference went on (flood pictures). Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 Dr. Lore Kiefert: Laboratory Update. Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
 Speakers, L-R: John Koivula, Dr. James Shigley, Hpone-Phyo K. Nyunt, Paul Shannon, Dr. Lore Kiefert, Robert Kane, Richard Drucker, Gina Latendresse, Eric Braunwart, Christopher Smith, Ron Ringsrud, Gary Roskin and Stuart Robertson Photo: E. Skalwold. | |
| An incredible weekend which far exceeded my already high expectations for the event given the line-up of speakers and topics. The conference itself, accommodations, lovely food and social time were all a great pleasure to be part of. It was a wonderful venue not only to discuss current issues, but also to reconnect with friends from far and wide. | There were non-stop activities from Friday's user meetings on through Monday's AGTA GTC corundum treatments seminar which I was honored to assist with. We can hope that Richard and his crew will recover swiftly from all their hard work so they can soon start thinking about hosting the next World of Gems Conference not too far into the future! I think that the great publicity from this one will double attendance for the next. They and Dr. Lore Kiefert of the AGTA GTC are all to be highly commended for this very successful and highly informative event and for the great effort which went into it. As I have written elsewhere, in terms of the highly publicized controversies concerning various gem treatments, the world has to patiently wait for people qualified to do so to come up with the answers; and yes, they will always be one step behind the treaters, but why speculate or rely on people with instruments they don't completely understand? The real story lies in the remarkable accomplishment of the Druckers and AGTA GTC in successfully pulling off an amazing, intensive, highly informative conference -- at no profit to themselves -- where the whole point was to educate and share knowledge coming directly from the labs about current issues. More conferences like this should happen, more people should attend and report accurate information to the public which they learn from people who work very, very hard to provide it. The amazing effort expended to put on the World of Gems Conference gave many people a rare chance to be in touch with those who do the actual lab work; a very positive step in this whole treatment story which should be applauded. |