Gem X: the Social Club for Jewelry Lovers

 Who Lin Jamison, above, and Heidi Garnett, below, Co-founders
 Where Los Angeles
 Why Seeking the jewelry "x factor" – the magic of jewelry that comes from experiencing, storytelling and sharing
 Web gemx.club

«Gem X started from a desire to experience and understand the stories behind the jewels. While working on our gemology degrees at GIA, we found few events geared towards young connoisseurs, so we began planning our jewelry adventures. Gem X is a jewelry social club, which plans experiences to open up the world of gems and jewelry to a new generation. We comprise thousands of jewelry enthusiasts from 20+ countries around the world. The majority of our members are clustered in our chapter cities, where we also host in-person events in addition to our virtual ones. With a wide network ranging from designers to gemologists, curators, art historians and collectors, our members share in expert jewelry knowledge and behind-the-scenes experiences. Gemflix started when the pandemic made it unsafe to hold in-person events. Instead of canceling our line up, we decided to take our jewelry insider experiences online, and it was important to us that these experiences be open to anyone who wishes to learn. As such, live Gemflix chats are open to everyone who registers. In lieu of event fees, we encourage donations and have raised more than $20,000 for charity. Today, we have planned more than 60 episodes of Gemflix, and recordings of each talk are archived in the member section of our website, as an ongoing source of inspiration and learning. To make our content as accessible as possible, we offer a subscription to the archive for only $10/month. We hope to keep growing this collection, which The NY Times wrote, "reads like a curriculum for a master’s program in jewelry".»