At the 2009 CIBJO Congress recently held in Istanbul, Turkey, a new CIBJO Commission was created under the name CIBJO Association Executive Networking Commission (CAENCOM). The objective of creating this Commission was to develop strategies and continually connect the executives working in national jewellery associations within the CIBJO community. %% The concept was presented during a well-attended breakfast meeting on May 3, by Ken Mulhall, who is the president & chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewellers Association. He said, "While we can already get a lot of work done through peer-to-peer networking online in the coming year, at the next CIBJO Congress we hope to run an Association Executive Panel, consisting of three or four association executives who will present and share one of their own association's successful programmes with the audience." He further explained that, "During such a session, the moderator will open the floor to identify current challenges for association executives, and through the spirit of sharing, solutions will be identified." %% Mulhall mentioned that online networking tools will be put in place to keep the associations community connected throughout the year. Among others, the new commission intends to distribute association group e-mail alerts and set up a discussion forum and a blog area on the CIBJO website. If need be, other tools and methods for sharing information and social networking sites will be considered by the commission. %% Commenting on this initiative, CIBJO president Gaetano Cavalieri said, "Ken's initiative is not only very welcome but also comes timely, As a rule of thumb, jewellery associations often face similar dilemmas and challenges. Especially during these difficult economic times, our members will be well served by sharing ideas and possibly by pooling resources, thus enabling them to run similar programmes while reducing the cost of their implementation."