Last year, I attended the Council for Responsible Nutrition’s annual conference in Arizona. It’s a great event that brings business leaders together to learn about the scientific and regulatory issues that Steve Mister, Judy Blatman and the whole team at CRN do a great job overseeing every day from their home in Washington, D.C.
And like the NBJ Summit, the hotel hosting CRN’s “The Conference” is selling out quickly this year. So, if you plan on attending The Conference this October 2-5 at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa outside of Albuqurque, New Mexico, make sure you book your hotel room ASAP. There aren’t any other hotels nearby this (somewhat) isolated resort…let’s call it an oasis…so book your hotel NOW make sure you can enjoy this deluxe location.
Nutrition Business Journal will soon launch a PDA-based mobile news and analysis service for CEOs for a small montly fee. If you are interested in being alerted of this service when it launches, please indicate your interest via the NBJ Mobile form.
On July 23rd, 300 CEOs, company founders, Presidents, EVPs and other industry thought leaders and executives gathered at the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Bay, California for the 2008 NBJ Summit. The largest NBJ Summit ever, this year’s event enjoyed dinners under the stars, a challenging golf tournament, a competitive (and windy) regatta and some of the most intriguing presentations and panelists ever seen in the nutrition industry.
But don’t take my word for it, listen to our attendees. Below are a few video testimonials about the 2008 NBJ Summit.
Tom Aarts, Co-Chair of the NBJ Summit and Founder of the Nutrition Capital Network, talks about some of the speakers and attendees at the NBJ Summit.
Tim Avila, President & CEO of Zsweet, Inc. talks about why he comes to the NBJ Summit every year (I think he’s been to them all!)
Len Monheit, President & Editor of NPICenter.com talks about the community feel of the NBJ Summit and details why he and so many top executives attend the NBJ Summit every year.
Chris Hillseth, President of Chris Hillseth Enterprises talks about the NBJ Summit Regatta, one of the NBJ Summit’s signature events.
And finally, Barry Charnay of Bioneutra talks about what he finds most useful about the NBJ Summit for his business and professional development.
Stay tuned, more videos, pics and commentary from the NBJ Summit to come!
At the NBJ Summit this week, we’ll be hosting a panel on “greening” the nutrition industry. Below are a few articles I found on Brandweek.com that caught my attention. They represent a solid balance of perspectives on this challenging, and very new issue for executives. The jury is still out on the longevity of “greening”, but I hope to have some solid suggestions on what to do and what not to do following the NBJ Summit.
“The good news is consumers are “going green.” But the bad news is they are still pretty green when it comes to understanding what the term really means.
“Here’s the big ah-ha!,” said Suzanne Shelton, CEO of Shelton Group, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based ad agency that specializes in energy efficiency and sustainability. “If you were an alien and you landed on the planet in April of this year, you would think that the ‘green’ market was pretty mature because you’d be hearing about it everywhere—every newspaper, every TV show you turn on somebody is talking about being green. But this is not a mature market.”
Shelton Group recently conducted a national study, called Eco Pulse, which asked consumers open-ended and multiple-choice questions about green issues. What it found was a whole lot of confusion.”
“It’s getting harder to find a brand that doesn’t claim to be green. But, do they have a solar power factory? Is the rest of their energy use offset by energy credits? And, are they rebuilding a town that was virtually wiped out by a tornado? Not likely.
Sun Chips is different. The Frito-Lay product has rooted its brand in environmental causes as well as health-forward thinking. This strategy has paid off handsomely as Sun Chip sales are up 17.6%, totaling $201.8 million for the 52 weeks ending June 15, per IRI.
Frito-Lay vp-marketing Gannon Jones talked to Brandweek news editor Kenneth Hein about why really being green is healthy for sales.”
Last week, I attended The 2nd Annual Organic Summit at the St. Julien Hotel in Boulder, Colorado. It was quite and event and garnered a fair amount of media attention from public radio and Grist.org. But the event wasn’t about hype, it was about the issues facing the organic industry today.
Interestingly, this year’s organic summit seemed to be more about the groundbreaking newcomers in today’s organic industry as opposed to yesterdays enormously successful leaders. Daria Myers of Orgins Organics spoke about her company’s organic personal care line and a number of “organic groundbreakers” including Brahm Ahmadi of People’s Grocery and Patrice Gros of Foundation Farm & Farming School also spoke.
The highlight for me, however, was the closing keynote: Maintaining the Integrity of an Organic Brand when Coa-Cola Calls. Seth Goldman, President and Co-Founder of Honest Tea and Michael Ohmstede, SVP of Business Development for Venturing & Emerging Brands of Coca-Cola together told the story of Honest Tea and the acquisition of 40% of its equity by Coca-Cola.
Though in my opinion, Seth and Michael are still on their “honeymoon”, the principles of the deal seem to make sense. Fortunately, Seth is mentored by Gary Hirshberg, the founder of Stonyfield Farm, who’s deal to sell part of Stonyfield Farm to Dannon - 40% ownership with control of the board staying in the hands of the founders for a period of time and a buyout tentatively planned for the future was the model for Honest Tea. Coke made a smart move and with their prior experience deep-sixing Mad River Traders beverages fresh in their minds, Ohmstede sounded like he’s approaching this deal with more respect of the Goldman’s wishes. Buying in when Honest Tea’s sales were only $27 million was a smart move too. Honest Tea is in dire need of distribution and Coke certainly gives them that. Honest Tea’s sales are projected to be $40 million by the end of 2008, so something is working already.
This is Jylle Lardaro, co-chair of The Organic Summit and New Hope Natural Media’s Director of Organic Industry Alliances. She reflects on what was presented and talked about at The Organic Summit.
This is Erica Stone, the conference director of The Organic Summit (and Natural Products Expo East). She talks about the attendees and the locations…as well as where The Organic Summit will be held in 2009.
For more information from NBJ on the Organic Markets, make sure you check out NBJ’s “Natural & Organic Foods” channel where all our natural & organic foods and beverages research is aggregated.
