Earlier this month the Vitamin Angels Development team packed our bags and headed south to Anaheim for Natural Products Expo West. This year the event drew nearly 56,000 people from across the natural products industry – an industry that has been fostering the growth of Vitamin Angels since its start.

This year was my second year attending the show. While last year’s show was nothing short of a success for Vitamin Angels, this year’s went above and beyond our expectations. Thanks to Adam Anderson and New Hope Natural Media, Vitamin Angels secured an incredible spot at booth 2047, right in between halls B and C where the traffic was flowing. People from companies of all kinds of things natural and organic were stopping by to learn more about Vitamin Angels. Some were not familiar with VA, others were our long time friends, and many had heard bits and pieces of our work through industry buzz but wanted more information on how they or their companies could become a bigger part of our work. One of the wonderful things about the people in this industry is that all you have to say is “essential nutrients to children and women throughout the world” and they instantly get it. They spend their time creating and distributing products which make the world a healthier place, but in the countries where Vitamin Angels works, nutrition isn’t a part of the daily diet.

When I wasn’t busy manning the booth, I was running errands or meeting with a company who had already made Vitamin Angels a part of their company and brand. Stacey Tabor from DivaCup was a wonderful woman. I told her about my friend who took her DivaCup with her to teach abroad, and she gave me some great tips on sending out Tweets. Our Development Coordinator, Jessamyn Wead, and I met with Mark from Eco Lips. They’re selling Vitamin Angels lip balm on their Cause Balm site where $1 of each balm purchased goes to VA! And the entire team of VivaPrime was such an encouragement to our staff. They’re about to launch their products with a page about Vitamin Angels in every box and a portion of all sales going to our work.

As I was meeting with these groups, the rest of our team was sprinkled throughout the show floor, meeting with other groups who are supporting VA or looking to begin a new partnership with us.

Back at the booth, when things would slow down I would take a minute to switch to some more comfortable shoes or sample some of the delicious New Zealand ice cream from our booth neighbors. While there, we also got visits from some of the people I had only known before through pictures and names. Steven Spitz, who competed in the Iron Man Triathlon Competition on behalf of Vitamin Angels, Sharon Dressen from Rainbow Light who accompanied VA on a trip to Haiti last year, and Dr. Alan Greene who had just returned days before from a trip to India with VA president Howard Schiffer.

When the show was nearing end, we finally got the opportunity to wander around and check out some of the products on display. While there was so many samples to choose from, Kim (our Exec Assistant and Communications Manager) and I mapped out the places where we could find the best samples.

Friday at 4pm rolled around and we loaded up our stuff and packed in our rental minivan to drive home. Although tired and worn down from the past three days (four if you count our detour to Disneyland before Expo began), we reflected on what was, without a doubt, our best Expo experience yet. Now just to finish making it through that stack of business cards we all collected…