March 12-16, 2024

Anaheim, CA USA

NEXTY Awards

The NEXTY Awards recognize the most progressive, innovative, inspiring and trustworthy products in the natural products industry. Entering your product for a NEXTY Award gives you unprecedented exposure to New Hope Network’s editorial team and unique recognition at Expo West 2024.

Categories Open to Food, Beverage, Supplement or Other Products

People-Forward Product: These brands put people first, whether through their transparent, fair or direct-trade sourcing practices, support of local or global communities, vertical integration, justice, equity, diversity and inclusion practices; support of food access, living wages, employee care, etc.

Planet-Forward Product: These brands have demonstrable commitments to sustainable environmental practices (alternative energy, zero waste, regenerative agriculture, circular economies, environmentally responsible packaging, food waste, upcycling…) and exhibit an exemplary level of transparency and understanding of how their practices impact the planet.

Certified Organic Product: This category is for brands that are doing more by engaging in policy to strengthen organic standards, converting or expanding acreage or showcasing a deep understanding of the ecological journey to their organic efforts. Nominating brands must be Certified Organic (USDA NOP standards or equivalent.

Certified Regenerative Product: This category is for brands that are doing more by engaging in policy to strengthen regenerative standards, converting or expanding acreage or showcasing a deep understanding of the ecological journey to their regenerative efforts. Nominating brands must be certified by a third-party accredited program.

Plant Party! These products help promote and educate about the benefits of putting plants at the forefront and answer a growing consumer demand for plant-focused products that support climate, health and/or animal welfare issues. Products do not need to be strictly 100% plant-based or vegan (i.e. honey may be used as a sweetener) but rather celebrate the plants at center stage.

Natural Living Product: Includes natural products for the home, such as cleaning supplies, apparel, pet products, clothing, gear, etc.

Natural Kid’s Product: Gear, supplements, foods or beverages designed with the youngest consumers in mind.

Packaging: These products have packaging that stands out for its sustainability, messaging, branding, design or innovation.

Supplement Categories

Sustainable Supplement: These products put sustainability front and center, whether through the use of regenerative or organic ingredients, good sourcing practices, renewable energy, innovative packaging or other exemplary practices.

Supplement Trailblazer: These products are industry trailblazers, answering the question “what’s next?” in supplements. They might exhibit strong scientific rigor, the use of cutting-edge technology, inventive delivery formats or address conditions not yet widely known or understood.

Supplement for the Mind: These products are formulated for and positioned to address conditions of the mind including stress, mood, sleep, relaxation, mood, focus, concentration, etc.

Supplement for the Body: These products are formulated for and positioned to address conditions of the body including skin, bones, performance, weight management, joint and heart health, digestion, microbiome, etc.

Personal Care and Beauty Categories

Personal Care Product: This includes products such as oral care, personal hygiene, soaps and shampoos, deodorant, etc.

Beauty and/or Skincare Product: This includes cosmetics, serums, oils, lotions, skincare, hair styling products, makeup, etc.

Food and Beverage Categories

Functional Food or Beverage: These products seek to support wellness by harnessing functional ingredients such as botanicals, adaptogens, nootropics, etc. Brands are strongly encouraged to include amounts per serving information for the functional ingredients in their nomination application, particularly in support of any wellness claims made about the product on the packaging.

Meat, Dairy or Animal-Based Product

Meat Alternative

Dairy Alternative

Special Diet Food: Keto, vegetarian, Paleo, FODMAP, Whole 30.

Gluten-Free Product

Vegan Product

Pantry Canned Goods, Jars and Pouches: Pasta sauces, tinned fish, vegetable or fruit preserves, soups, heat-and-eat grains, beans and other meals, etc.

Pantry Pastas, Grains, Beans and Rice (uncooked): Center-aisle foods such as breakfast items, dry goods, baking mixes, whole grains, meal helpers, pastas, etc.

Spices and Condiments (herbs, salts, traditional condiments, slaws, relishes, pickles…)

Dips and Spreads

Breads and Bakery (refrigerated, frozen or shelf-stable)

Packaged Produce (dehydrated, fresh and frozen): Salad kits, sprouts, prepared beets, frozen smoothie fruit and acai bowls, packaged mushrooms, etc.

Savory or Salty Snack

Sweet Snack and Desserts: Chocolate, cookies, gummies, fruit snacks and other sweet treats.

Frozen Desserts: Ice cream, popsicles and novelties.

Prepared Frozen Products: Pizza, frozen dinners and other savory frozen products. NOT sweet.

Beverage: This includes all RTD beverages, drink mixes, juices and mixers that are labeled with the appropriate supplement or nutrition facts panel where required.

Coffee or Tea: RTD, cold brew, loose leaf, bagged, whole grain or ground.

Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverages: Alcohol-free beer, wine, cocktails and other drinks.

Alcoholic Beverages: Beer, wine, spirits and other alcoholic drinks.Like categories may be combined as needed if minimum nomination numbers are not met.

Additional Categories:

Editors' Choice Award: Will be decided on site at Expo West

People's Choice Award: Will be decided on site at Expo West

Preliminary Judging: The first round of judging takes place in the New Hope Network office in Boulder, Colorado. Conducted by members of the New Hope Network content team, standards team, marketing team and Nutrition Business Journal team, our-in-house expert judges review hundreds of nominated products using these criteria to select 3-7 finalists in each category.

Final Judging: The final round of judging is conducted by a panel of invited industry experts, spanning specialties such as investment, retail, brokerage, social media influence, sustainability and more. These judges join the New Hope Network content team, standards team, and marketing team to select the single winners within each category!


Evonne Chan
Senior Market Insights Analyst, SPINS

Evonne Chan is a Senior Market Insights Analyst for SPINS, a leading wellness-focused data company and advocate for the Natural Products Industry. With a Food Science background and a longstanding interest in data, she loves diving deep into omnichannel data to identify trends and to uncover the reasons behind consumer behavior. Evonne has created trend reports that have been presented at top industry conferences such as New Hope Natural Products Expo, Plant Based World, Supply Side, Active Nutrition and many more.  

Mary Rochelle
Marketing, Communications & Engagement Manager for the
Guckenheimer at Google Food program

Mary Rochelle’s mission is to harness the power of food to co-create a more sustainable, equitable, and joyful world. As a connector and communicator, her curiosity has led to roles in the private sector, nonprofit world, and governmental institutions; work areas have included CPG communications strategy, food and nutrition insecurity, farm-to-institution procurement, nutrition and food system education programs, and food waste prevention. In her current role, she supports the mission to positively impact healthy and sustainable food systems through innovation and forward-thinking strategies. 

Brody Burk
Forager Manager, Sprouts Farmers Market

Brody is the Forager Manager at Sprouts Farmer’s Market, an Arizona-based natural specialty store that spans across 23 states and has over 400 locations. Brody is responsible for bringing innovative and differentiated products into Sprouts to help the company lead the market in innovation and to assist with the incubation of smaller brands. He prepares these emerging brands for national launch on the Innovation Center, delighting customers with unique and fun experiences they can only find while shopping at Sprouts. Brody brings 13 years of retail experience—12 of which are in the natural specialty industry with Sprouts—with roles ranging from Receiver, store-level Grocery Manager, Assistant Category Manager, and Forager Manager at the Support Office. Brody nurtures his strong passion for natural and innovative products by helping small brands grow into formidable competitors in an ever-expanding market.  

Dave Janowicz
Chief Retail Officer, Alive and Well 

Dave is the Chief Retail Officer at Alive and Well overseeing all Retail and Pharmacy. Focused on guiding and fostering an environment and culture that provides team members the opportunity to provide a best-in-class experience and service to customers in assisting with their health and wellness needs.

  • Former Chief Retail Officer at Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy (30 locations)
  • Former Corporate Director of Health and Wellness at Supervalu Inc
  • Former National Category Manager at Albertsons Currently serving as an Advisory Board Member to the University of Colorado – Leeds Business School
  • Graduate of Illinois State University 

John Grubb
Managing Partner, Summit Venture Management

John is managing partner of Summit Venture Management, where he consults with and invests alongside entrepreneurs and private equity firms in the growth of purpose-driven brands and businesses. Early in his career, he worked extensively in innovation and strategy with many of the world’s largest CPG brands. In the last 15 years, John has focused more on smaller disruptive brands in the natural and organic world, including work on novel bioactive ingredients and emerging food technology platforms. He was also founding board chair of the non-profit organization Naturally Network – now with entrepreneurial ecosystems in nine cities around the country. 

Scott Dicker
Market Insights Director, SPINS 

Scott Dicker is the market insights director for SPINS, a leading wellness-focused data company and advocate for the natural products industry. With a background in nutrition, he believes in the importance of making wellness options more accessible to everyone and that demystifying data can make that happen. By delving into omnichannel, comprehensive, market-wide data, he identifies emerging trends and explores shifting consumer behavior, helping retailers and brands better understand the market and their audience. Scott has spoken at many leading industry events, including the Natural Products Expo, SupplySide and Plant Based World shows, plus many more. In addition, he has a longstanding involvement in nutrition and wellness, working as a sports nutritionist and starting multiple entrepreneurial businesses in the field. 

Alyssa Vescio
Senior Vice President of Merchandising, Center Store  

As the Senior Vice President of Merchandising, Center Store, Alyssa has responsibility for Grocery, Wellness, Beauty, Local Merchandising, Merchandise Presentation, and Merchandise Execution. Alyssa celebrates what makes Whole Foods Market so special — unique products, industry leading quality standards, incredible supplier partners, and talented team members — and pushes our growth by continuing to advance our Merchandising capabilities and deliver operationally-sound programs.

Alyssa is known as an all-in, purpose drive leader who values authenticity, connectivity, and collective strength. She aims to create a culture that inspires individuals to be their best in service of the greater good.   Alyssa became SVP in November of 2020, after 3 years leading Wellness and Beauty and almost 20 years in Merchandising. Her experience spans product categories and merchandising disciplines including product selection, supplier partnership, promotional planning, pricing, presentation, and exclusive brands. Her passions for purpose, people, and product drive her forward in this role. 

Anna Mayo
VP, NielsenIQ Beauty Vertical

As a Vice President for NielsenIQ’s Beauty Vertical, Anna Mayo is an innovative thought leader within the beauty and personal care retailing space. NielsenIQ's beauty and personal care insights cover 100 global markets, providing the industry's most total view into omnichannel consumption and, in turn, empowering the next decade of beauty.

Throughout her 10 years at NielsenIQ, Anna has worked with cross functional teams to deliver proactive, industry-shaping insights and guide some of the world’s largest CPG clients through behavioral shifts and consumption trends. In her current role, Anna partners with beauty and personal care clients to develop cutting edge solutions, leverage new technology, drive marketing and sales strategies and identify unmet consumer needs. In addition, Anna is responsible for leading thought leadership for the Beauty Vertical,  serving as an industry expert and appearing in broadcasts and publications such as Women’s Wear Daily and FOX Business, most recently.

Anna has a Master’s in Business from the University of Connecticut and resides in Connecticut with her husband and two children.   

Jonathan Lawrence
VP, Center Store & Founding Member of Fresh Thyme Market

Based in Downers Grove, IL. Fresh Thyme has quickly grown to 71 stores across the Midwest.  Growing up in the industry, Jonathan's grandfather started a chain of natural foods stores in the Phoenix area called Arizona Health Foods.  AHF would eventually grow to 14 stores with over 100 employees before it was sold in 2003.  Inheriting the entrepreneurial bug, he partnered up with his uncle in 2005 to start Arizona Nutritional Sciences.  There they developed the brand PlantFusion, one of the first multi-sourced plant-based protein powders on the market.  In 2011,  Jonathan went back to  retail, first as an operator and then a merchant with Sunflower Farmers Market and Sprouts Farmers Market.  His experience at every level of the business has been instrumental in preparing him for his current role at Fresh Thyme.  Jonathan has a B.A. in Sociology from Arizona State University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. 

Holly Adrien
Natural and Organics Strategy and Innovation Manager, Kroger

Holly Adrien, the Natural and Organic Strategy and Innovation manager for The Kroger Company, is a strategic and passionate leader with over 18 years of analytic, merchandising and retail experience. She began her journey with The Kroger Co. within custom analytics at dunnhumbyUSA. She held various roles working with CPGs and Kroger to utilize customer data to inform strategy at dunnhumbyUSA and 84.51° before transitioning to Kroger Merchandising to oversee the Baby department in 2016. She was promoted to lead the Health/Beauty/Baby/Non-Edible Household Digital Merchandising team for Kroger.com and Vitacost.com before her promotion to manage strategy and innovation for natural and organic in November 2020. Holly’s deep background in customer insights, analytics and merchandising is used to develop The Kroger Co.’s strategic focus to meet customers’ evolving needs in natural and organic across the entire store. She has the privilege of collaborating with all Kroger banners, insight providers and established and emerging brands to continuously innovate in terms of assortment, promotion, best practices and communication to customers in-store and online.  

Naomi Honig
Founder & Principal, Three Hive Strategy

Naomi’s early career began in food and hospitality, both as a chef and in operations, tethered to the pillar of nourishing people. She spent almost a decade helping to operate and scale the Boulder-based mission-focused, high-growth restaurant group, The Kitchen, while simultaneously co-founding her own CPG company, Birch Benders, which was acquired by Sovos Brands in 2020.  

Naomi is a firm believer that a business can only be successful if it supports its people. With that principle in mind, she created a People Ops function during her tenure at The Kitchen, developing all core and strategic People Ops processes while scaling the company from 75 to 800 employees in 6 states. With her passion in startup and growth businesses, she has since scaled sustainable and strategic People Ops functions in Cannabis, Consumer Goods, and venture-backed eCommerce industries. She’s worked with a full spectrum of work environments from fully remote to having an all hourly, in-person team. 
 
Naomi is a truly collaborative leader who has touched all areas of people operations and is knowledgeable in the functional areas of payroll, benefits, and compliance. However, she is most driven in supporting strategic process development, organizational design, retention strategies, hiring, and facilitating strong executive-level communication and collaboration. Naomi holds her SPHR certification, is a Certified Practitioner of the ECHO Listening Profile, and is a facilitator of ECHO Listening’s 6-week Listening, Leadership, and Performance communication training series.  

Kristine Carey
Executive Director, Naturally Boulder

Kristine is the executive director for Naturally Boulder. Her background includes being a food and beverage brand strategist and founder of Brand Guide. Working internally and as a consultant with pre-revenue startups and emerging brands, Kristine has led brand communication strategies and marketing programs for various natural products companies such as Frontier Brands, MyChelle Dermaceuticals, Healthy Skoop, Wedderspoon, Peak State Coffee and more.  She also created Brandamentals Academy, an eLearning branding and marketing communications course, and is a mentor with the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business New Venture Launch. 

Jason Bidart
Vice President of Merchandising, Food | Thrive Market

Jason Bidart is a 20-year veteran in the food/grocery industry with a passion for bringing the highest quality and best-tasting food products to market while positively impacting people, communities, and our planet. He is currently the Vice President of Merchandising of Food at Thrive Market. Jason manages a team of passionate Category Managers and Product Innovators tasked with building and maintaining a highly-curated catalog of food products. His team follows strict standards and ensures that every product aligns with Thrive Market's core values of sustainable and ethical sourcing and mission of making healthy living affordable and accessible. Through his years in the industry, Jason has gained extensive experience in category management, merchandising, e-commerce, product innovation and development, and brand building in various roles at The Fresh Market, Earth Fare, Fairway Market, and Thrive Market. 

Join us for a prom-inspired celebration of the future of CPG with our 2024 NEXTY Award winners and finalists! Buyers, ask your favorite brand to dance or offer up a fanciful corsage or boutonniere, as you sip, taste and network with companies leading the way in integrity, innovation, and inspiration (throwback dresses and suits encouraged!)

Sponsored by SPINS