If you’re in the natural products space, then you’ve definitely heard of Expo West. This multi-day conference and trade show is the world’s largest healthy products event. It’s produced by New Hope Network and is held annually in Anaheim, California.
This year’s installment drew a crowd of over 80,000 people with 3,100 exhibitors, 500 of which were first-timers. In addition to product showcases, Expo West features multiple seminars, info-sessions, and networking opportunities for attendees.
Repsly had the pleasure of attending the show for the third year in a row! Here’s some of the highlights we took away from it.
Who We Saw
We met with over 60 of our customers throughout the course of the show. All of them are doing some pretty cool work! These guys really blew us away:
- Congrats to Simply Gum on the launch of their new line of Mints announced at the show
- We Loved Health-Ade's new Chocolate Kombucha!
- We Indulged in Biena's new Chocolate Covered Chickpeas!
- GoodPop's new Orange N' Cream was delicious
- Loved Forager Project's Drinkable Cashewgurts
- Melted over ProYo's new high-protein, low-fat pint sized Mocha
- Mamma Chia's Ginger Lime fired up the start of our day
- Guru Energy kept us moving through the all the madness
- Wild about Hippeas and their awesome new Jeep!
What Was Hot
- The weather! We reveled in the sunshine and 80-degree temps. Now it’s back to Boston for a good ol’ NorEaster (that’s Boston talk for blizzard).
- The Hot Products Pavilion. This part of the show seems to be growing every year. It was great to touch base with H O T Repsly customers: Celsius, Hawaiian Ola, Protes Protein Snacks and Pressery!
- The Barnana #BarnanaCar. They also had awesome Barnana Bites.
- Evenings on the Plaza. Because relaxation was much needed after the daytime mayhem.
- Zevia’s rockin’ DJ & happy hour. See above.
- Having 3,000 of the most forward thinking Natural Foods companies in one place at one time!
What We Learned
The conference boasted dozens of diverse educational programs for attendees to take part in. A special kickoff event titled Climate Day centered around climate change issues and was hosted in part by the Climate Collaborative.
Notable speakers included Denise Morrison, President and CEO of Campbell Soup Company and Doug Rauch, Founder and President of Daily Table and former President of Trader Joe's.
These were some of the programs we found most interesting:
- What’s NEXT? The Trends, Products, and Early Adopters Driving Industry Innovation
- Consumers First: How Shifting Values are Driving a New Supplement Marketplace
- 3 Disruptive Models that Deliver Healthy Food to Everyone, Everywhere
- From Traditional to Social Media: Mastering the Yin and Yang of Communicating & Working with Consumers
- Eating Animals: A panel discussion exploring the realities of contemporary animal agriculture.
- Women in Naturals Networking Event
The natural products industry is a $134 billion business. Events like Expo West are driving thought-leadership and innovation in the industry, as well as awareness outside of it. We can’t wait to see what next year’s conference has in store!
