Mitigating This Major Disturbance In The Natural Products Industry "Force"

The disturbance in the natural products industry "force" from the New Hope Network #expowest2020 situation is massive and especially devastating for earliest stage brands looking to build and be discovered. We need to come together as a community to overcome this together. Many good ideas are circulating out there, I wanted to add a few and my perspective to the mix. New Hope, Retailers, and Industry Veterans can help right now in the following ways:

1) New Hope - The decision to continue with the show has been made. Given that, it is obvious that the returns on investment for brands, whether still attending or not, will be terrible relative to original expectations, and especially devastating to earliest stage brands looking to be discovered. Some form of refunds or significant booth credit into #ExpoEast2020 to encourage the re-grouping and continued growth of this ecosystem is absolutely called for. I support scaling these to make them most favorable to earliest stage brands. I think many would jump on this, and move on to growth. New Hope has done a lot to help fertilize the ecosystem of this industry over many years and deserves credit for that. This is an opportunity for you to continue that legacy and play the long game for the benefit of all. I hope we will see something tangible here in the next few weeks.

2) Retailers - The cancellations are brutal, but understandable, as no doubt all your buyers wanted to come see and connect with early stage innovators, the lifeblood of this industry. If every retail buyer or category manager from every retailer who cancelled due to corporate policy or personal decision were to make a public commitment to reach out and schedule a 15 minute exploratory call with at least 32 early stage brands in their respective buying scope, and to complete those calls before the end of March this could really help mitigate the pain for some new brands and bridge exposure and opportunity for all. An 8-hour time commitment, less than would be expended in a full day at the actual show. Every retailer doing this publicly would generate goodwill, uncover opportunity, and support the ecosystem through this difficult time.

3) Industry Veterans - This is the time to really lean in. Many of us do this already to some degree to pay it forward, as we benefited from the same as we were growing up in the industry, but now is the time for all of us to really lean in. There are many thousands of us out there, very experienced, knowledgeable, and connected in the natural products space. Early stage companies can benefit from our insights and advice, not only on how to navigate the impact of this Expo situation, but more generally too. If each of us committed to an 8 hour investment over the next month, just 16-30 minute calls with early stage entrepreneurs, that would help and make a difference. I am making that commitment today and encourage thousands of others to do the same. This is how our community was built, let's pay it forward at this time of critical need for all.

Please share and if you have any additional ideas let's hear them.

Best of luck to all this week. JF