Newtopia Now Unveils Programming Lineup for August
Featuring Dan Buettner, Carla Hall and Top Execs from Ulta, Sprouts, The Vitamin Shoppe & More
DENVER (May 21, 2024) – Newtopia Now, presented by New Hope Network, is proud to announce a sneak peek of its programming for the highly anticipated launch event, Aug. 25-28, 2024, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Newtopia Now will revolutionize the landscape of conscious consumer packaged goods (CPG), offering attendees a curated experience focused on product discovery, insightful programming and intentional connections.
On-site programming will offer a wide range of sessions covering topics such as sustainability, diversity, retail practices and holistic wellness. Newtopia Now's content aims to educate and empower CPG professionals to navigate the evolving marketplace, drive positive change, and source the connections and resources needed to accelerate business needs.
This unique event introduces a "neighborhood" concept and distinctive marketplace, redefining the traditional trade show format and providing brands with innovative formats in which to showcase the latest initiatives and product offerings. Education will be organized across dedicated stages in each respective neighborhood.
Thrive, the ultimate destination for conscious health and vitality, will welcome keynote speaker Dan Buettner, American National Geographic Fellow and New York Times-bestselling author, to discuss Blue Zones insights and what it means for the CPG industry. Additional panels include nutrition and retail predictions with The Vitamin Shoppe CEO Lee Wright, a Buyerside Chat featuring leaders from across Whole Foods Market divisions and CPG Unwrapped with 10 innovative brands.
Represent, celebrating diversity and multiculturalism in CPG, will host Insights for Retailers Why Supporting Diverse-Owned brands Is Critical to Retail Success. Plus, during Your Roadmap to Success with Target, emerging and diverse-owned brands will learn what it takes to make it in the retail giant, which is increasingly focused on bringing direct-to-consumer brands into retail. From Legacy to Leadership: Black Culinary History and the Future of CPG will engage Adrian Miller, the James Beard winning cookbook author known as the "Soul Food Scholar," about how the CPG industry can preserve and advance the plant-based traditions rooted in Black food culture.
Regenerate, which will champion sustainability and environmental impact, hosts Cultivating Change: Retail Practices for Supporting Sustainable Brands and Agriculture, engaging the industry to learn best practices for partnering with environmentally friendly brands all the way down to the agriculture component, and How to Get Noticed by the Sprouts Forager Team, a conversation with one of the most innovation-forward accelerator groups in retail. Plus, the neighborhood will celebrate the culinary visionaries leveraging regenerative agriculture as a source of flavor and nutrition.
Glow, embracing the future of conscious beauty and holistic wellness, will invite chef and television personality Carla Hall to the stage to discuss the intersection of healthy aging, wellness and culinary excellence. One of the neighborhood's Buyerside Chats, Achieving Retail Success as a Conscious Beauty Brand: A Conversation With Ulta Beauty, brings Rick Burian, senior manager of supplier diversity from Ulta Beauty, to retailers. Additional sessions include Conscious Beauty's Glow Up: Merchandising for Values & Results-Driven Shoppers and the Glow Conscious Beauty Pitch Event, highlighting the top beauty and wellness innovators who will pitch their products and initiatives to a panel of CPG experts for a chance to win a brand-building prize package.
Additional leading retail establishments that will be featured in Newtopia Now programming include Fresh Thyme, Bristol Farms, PCC Community Markets, Thrive Market, Pop Up Grocer and more.
Registration for Newtopia Now, Aug. 25-28, is now open, but space is limited. To secure your spot and to learn more about the event, please visit www.newtopianow.com.
About New Hope Network
New Hope Network is a leading authority in the healthy lifestyle products industry, offering solutions for the complete supply chain from manufacturers, retailers/distributors, service providers and ingredient suppliers. Through its comprehensive portfolio of content, events, data, research and consultative services, New Hope Network is dedicated to fostering a prosperous, high-integrity CPG and retail ecosystem that promotes health, joy and justice for all people while regenerating the planet. For more information, visit www.newhope.com.
About Informa Markets
Informa Markets, a subsidiary of Informa plc (LON:INF), creates platforms for industries and specialist markets to trade, innovate and grow. With a global reach and a diverse portfolio of verticals, including Pharmaceuticals, Food, Medical Technology and Infrastructure, Informa Markets connects buyers and sellers worldwide through face-to-face exhibitions, targeted digital services and actionable data solutions. For more information, visit www.informamarkets.com.
Media Contact
pr@newhope.com
Newtopia Now, August Launch Event from New Hope Network, Unveils First Reveal of Neighborhood Concept
Focus on curated brand-to-buyer experience and enhanced matchmaking offers opportunities for deep relationship building, connecting brands to key retailers, press and investors.
DENVER (April 25, 2024) – Newtopia Now, an entirely reimagined event from New Hope Network, centered around conscious consumer packaged goods (CPG), is launching August 25-28, 2024, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Colorado is widely recognized as the burgeoning hub for health and wellness and sets the stage for the latest leading influence in conscious CPG discovery and connection. Newtopia Now focuses on curated product discovery, insightful content and deepened connections that evolve the buying experience from transactional to relational. Its "neighborhood" concept creates a new format for exploration of products, brand activations and content, offering greater access to the emerging brands and ideas defining the future of CPG.
The dynamic event will highlight influential industry trends key to retail buying decisions, including innovations in food, nutrition, agriculture, sustainability, multicultural products, and conscious beauty. The programming will feature sessions such as Buyerside Chats — which provide an opportunity for exhibiting brands and leading retailers to discuss product innovations and trends for the year — Retail Insights Workshops, inspiring Newtopia Now Ambassador Talks and a keynote from The Blue Zones' Dan Buettner Plus. In addition, offsite events at top restaurants, Red Rocks, Meow Wolf and more, provide truly one-of-a-kind networking opportunities.
The Market at Newtopia Now is a next-generation trade show product showcase and will be merchandised as a consumer-style marketplace featuring future bestsellers and vital consumer insights where attendees can browse as if shopping in a retail store. Newtopia Now will also offer the most advanced matchmaking platform ever available at any New Hope Network event. Conscious Connections, the matchmaking experience at Newtopia Now, will ensure productive, fruitful and authentic connections through a data-driven process fueled by detailed metrics and product attributes from Beacon Discovery™, the only discovery and engagement platform for natural products brands and retailers.
“In launching Newtopia Now, we are building the exclusive platform where relationships will flourish, time is honored and the experience is designed with purpose,” shares Carlotta Mast, Senior Vice President of New Hope Network. “By leveraging rich technology in discovery platforms that is not accessible anywhere else, partnered with award-winning proprietary consumer insights driving the content, this brand-new event will offer unparalleled perspective and connection to the leaders and key voices in the industry that everyone is trying to reach to expand, grow, and create business. Newtopia Now champions conscious health and the future of CPG in a way that has never been done before, forging pathways that unite passion, purpose and progress.”
“Newtopia Now offers a unique experience for our team of buyers to become even more connected and interactive with leading brands. We are excited to go to an event that helps us maximize our productivity with our customers and allows us to get new and exciting first-to-market products for our stores,” says Darren Viscount, Senior Category Manager at Bristol Farms.
The brand-new "Neighborhood" format will host natural, organic and purpose-driven products in four unique mission-driven locations: Thrive, Represent, Regenerate and Glow.
Thrive serves as the ultimate destination for the latest in conscious CPG health and vitality in food, beverage and nutrition. From the next generation of supplements to a wide assortment of plant-based, organic and better-for-you foods, Thrive embodies the future of human health and nutrition.
Represent spotlights diversity through a vibrant array of multicultural products, founders and ideas worthy of celebration. Represent will feature vibrant multicultural offerings and CPG brands across all categories from underrepresented communities, supporting development of meaningful relationships with mission-driven brand leaders from women-, LGBTQ- and minority-owned companies.
Regenerate presents a plethora of sustainable and regenerative products and business models making a positive environmental impact, enabling exploration of the best new thinking in environmentally friendly CPG. Brands committed to regenerative agriculture, sustainability and social impact will be featured in Newtopia Now's Regenerate Neighborhood.
Glow captures the future of conscious beauty, women's health and holistic wellness, highlighting a range of companies that support the evolving generation of conscious shoppers. Brands in Glow will feature the latest cosmetics, skin care, hair care, nutricosmetics and wellness products.
Brands confirmed to participate include Trace Minerals Research, Food For Life Baking Company, Liquid I.V., Harmless Harvest, Dr. Bronner's, Lily of the Desert, Ancient Nutrition and Flax4Life among many others. Visit www.newtopianow.com to view additional exhibitors.
Registration is open for Newtopia Now, August 25-28 at the Denver Convention Center. Space is limited. For more information and to register, visit www.newtopianow.com.
About New Hope Network
New Hope Network is at the forefront of the healthy lifestyle products industry. With solutions for the complete supply chain from manufacturers, retailers/distributors, service providers and ingredient suppliers, the network offers a robust portfolio of content, events, data, research and consultative services. Through all its actions, New Hope Network aims to cultivate a prosperous high-integrity CPG and retail ecosystem that creates health, joy and justice for all people while regenerating the planet. For more information visit www.newhope.com.
About Informa Markets
Informa Markets creates platforms for industries and specialist markets to trade, innovate and grow. We provide marketplace participants around the globe with opportunities to engage, experience and do business through face-to-face exhibitions, targeted digital services and actionable data solutions. We connect buyers and sellers across more than a dozen global verticals, including Pharmaceuticals, Food, Medical Technology and Infrastructure. As the world's leading market-making company, we bring a diverse range of specialist markets to life, unlocking opportunities and helping them to thrive 365 days of the year. For more information, please visit www.informamarkets.com.
Media Contact
pr@newhope.com
How Erewhon Has Become the Stamp of Approval for CPG Startups
Photo: Pexels
This article originally appeared in Presence Marketing’s February 2022 Industry Newsletter
By Steve Hoffman
Founded in 1966 in Boston, MA by Michio and Aveline Kushi, Japanese immigrants and pioneers of the macrobiotic movement, Erewhon Market eventually made its way out west and has been expanding in the Los Angeles area under its current owners, husband and wife team Tony and Josephine Antoci, who took over the business in 2011.
Since then, the retailer has expanded to seven stores. It received investment capital in 2019 from New York-based Stripes Group, and the stores have become known as the trendy place to shop for natural and organic products, and to hang out. A fanbase of young consumers, health and wellness influencers and Hollywood celebrities from Gwyneth Paltrow to members of the Kardashian-Jenner family have been seen shopping at Erewhon.
As a result of its growing popularity and accessibility, young food and beverage brands are flocking to Erewhon in hopes of being discovered. “It’s a good-sized grocery chain to supply without being overwhelmed, Mayssa Chehata, founder and CEO of Behave candy told Modern Retail.
Jennifer Ross, co-founder of beverage brand Swoon told Modern Retailer that Erewhon was the company’s “retail north star.” As a smaller CPG brand, Ross said it can be hard to work with big retailers like Whole Foods and Sprouts from the very beginning because of capacity constraints. “With Erewhon, you can literally FedEx them small batches of inventory,” she said.
DTC and CPG brand consultant Kendall Dickieson told Modern Retailer that for emerging companies, it can take years to get on Erewhon’s shelves. But it can be worth it, she noted. “And if it’s your first location, it usually paves the way for the rest of your wholesale trajectory,” she said. “As someone who’s always looking for new trends, Erewhon is the holy land,” Dickieson added. “If you’re on the shelf, it means you’ve been vetted by the top of the top when it comes to health grocers.”
Erewhon’s status as a health food discovery hub has been a source of free promo for brands among not only consumers and influencers, but other retail buyers. “It’s got a trickle-down effect among other buyers and brand influencers,” said Chehata of Behave. She said the brand saw a big uptick in organic customer and influencer posts during its first week on Erewhon’s shelves. In addition, Chehata credited the brand’s presence in Erewhon in securing other partnerships. “I can’t say we got further interest solely because of Erewhon,” she told Modern Retailer. “But every buyer conversation since has had a sense of the ‘Erewhon stamp of approval.’”