What to expect from Friday's Vision 2030 state of natural session

Change isn’t always easy. But sometimes it is important.

To take a more forward-looking approach, Vision 2030: Insights from Today's State of Natural You Can Use to Grow for Good, replaces the annual State of Natural and Organic at 2023 Natural Products Expo East in Philadelphia.  

As recently announced, this will be the last year for this trade show, but Natural Products Expo West will continue to take place in Anaheim, California. A new event, Newtopia Now, will offer curated matchmaking for a diverse community of buyers, brands and partners, with a special focus on new and emerging brands.    

Along with addressing these changes, the Vision 2030 keynote will include more interactivity, leading industry voices and data to help explain how today's growth trends and challenges could shape a more prosperous, inclusive and regenerative future for the natural and organic food and retail industry, says Carlotta Mast, senior vice president and market leader of Informa Market’s New Hope Network.

“We as individuals, companies and an industry can co-create the future we want to see,” Mast says. “We don’t have to passively follow trends but rather can focus our innovation, decisions, prioritization and energy toward the things that will build a more prosperous, sustainable and multicultural world.”

As in the past, Mast, Kathryn Peters of SPINS and Nick McCoy from Whipstitch Capital will share an overview of sales, growth, opportunities and challenges for the U.S. natural products industry by product category and sales channel. The presentation will also include McCoy’s insights into the funding environment, including the current state of capital and what is expected through 2023 and into 2024.

Looking to the future, industry experts will share important insights and data. This outlook will be centered around four important pillars that will drive this vision:

Each pillar will include foresight by industry leaders: Tina Owens of Nutrient Density Alliance; Jennifer Stojkovic, general partner at Joyful Ventures and the keynote speaker at Nutrition Capital Network’s Investor Kickoff (1 p.m. today at the Innovation Experience Stage, Level 200, Hall A); Vanessa Pham, CEO and co-founder at Omsom; and Michiel Bakker, vice president, Global Workplace Programs at Google.

Vision 2030: Insights from Today's State of Natural You Can Use to Grow for Good begins at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 22, at the Innovation Experience Stage, Level 200, Hall A. Come to learn and share your ideas for what our industry could look like by 2030. It will also be available via livestream at LinkedIn, on ExpoEast.com and YouTube.