SupplySide West Recap
2024
from Petra Erlandson
I know you must be asking yourself right now, wow, I wonder what Petra thought of this year’s Supply Side West. What made it even more memorable than my previous 15, you ask?
The first answer is that it is my last… just kidding! It was all of our last SupplySide West since starting in 2025 the event will be known as Supply Side Global under its new branding. A lot is in a name, and I am not sure I could claim to be in marketing if I did not agree the new one fits. SupplySide truly has become an international event, with companies from all over the world converging in the name of supplements. SupplySide Global is fitting even if it might take me a whole year not to use the abbreviation SSW, or even SWW when I am typing fast.
The second difference this year, and the most meaningful and fulfilling for me personally, was the debut of the Women in Nutraceutical Awards! I was so incredibly proud to have led the WIN awards committee for the last 11 months. Thank you to our amazing team of 10 who joined me in pouring our time (along with our hearts) into building and launching the framework of this program as well as carefully discussing the nominees and choosing our inaugural winners. I did not realize when I volunteered for this role how fulfilling it would be, especially the individual phone calls that I made informing our winners that WIN wanted to honor them for their work. Congratulations to our WIN-ners! LINK TO WIN WEBSITE
The third memorable aspect of this year was that SSW was over Halloween. Yeah – I think we will still be talking about that in years to come (and it was a sore point for many, to be sure!). I was anticipating the floor on the second day would be deader than a graveyard. Thankfully my fears were wrong, and we ended up having some delightful meetings with key clients and new connections.
As always, SupplySide did not disappoint. Being with long-time industry friends, meeting so many of my WIN zoom buddies in person for the first time, making new connections, and enjoying the rather bizarre micro-universe of Las Vegas are the memories I took away. In 2025, I know that this rose will smell just as sweet under its new name.
SSW 2023 Recap
Elan’s SSW Reflections
SSW23 was the best SSW ever. I think I have said that every year, as the show keeps getting better as does our traction in the industry. Aside from the joy of being with all my industry friends and clients, and unofficially crushing the men’s costume contest at the What’s Up With Supps party, there are two amazing shares. Shares about validation. No, not that nerdy validation with concern for specificity, linearity, range accuracy, precision, limit of quantification, ruggedness, and robustness. Validation of what some might have said are crazy ideas and non-conforming stances.
Validation #1
Alkemist AssuredTM was EVERYWHERE!!! Well, not really everywhere, but we had a healthy handful of clients proudly sharing the Alkemist Assured logo at their booths differentiating themselves from other brands. There is a lot of better sameness out there but the Alkemist Assured logo on ingredients, manufacturing facility, and finished products makes a statement of the highest quality and transparency. I’ve always said that if you do the testing (which you should because it’s the law) why not share it? It was validating to see an idea I had nearly a decade ago for which I planted many seeds begin to produce fruit. I am beyond confident that we will begin to see more and more brands from throughout the industry proudly differentiating themselves with Alkemist Assured.
Validation #2
The last ~3 years have been tough. Especially for those pesky non-conforming activist types like me. I have had a pretty loud oppositional voice during the pandemic mainly focusing on Health Freedom and have stood mostly alone on my soap box. Turns out that most of the conjecture I was called a ‘conspiracy theorist’ or even ‘grandma killer’ for saying have come true. Still, I have felt sadly alone and even crazy at times. Validation #2 comes from the nearly 30 ~strangers to whom I am connected on LinkedIn who sought me out and approached me during the show to thank me for my voice, for my stance, and for my bravery in speaking out against contemporary scientific consensus on matters dealing with the pandemic. It was overwhelming, to say the least, and brought tears to my eyes several times after long grateful hugs from strangers validating my voice.
Alkemist Labs exists to improve global access to safe and effective natural medicine through accurate and timely lab testing. While we don’t make products, we test them as if they are our own and I will die on the hill protecting access to them.
SSW Reflections from Petra
What a whirlwind! SupplySide West is always our busiest show of the year and 2023 certainly continued that trend, and then some. Elan, Bryan, Nick, and I were double or triple booked for meetings nearly every hour of the intense 2-day expo. Floor traffic was way up, confirmed by Informa’s announcement of 14% growth in attendance. Huge thanks to so many of our clients and partners for making time to meet with us.
It was so gratifying to see the momentum that our Alkemist Assured program is gaining at both the supply chain and finished product level. I had the pleasure of visiting all of our Alkemist Assured partner’s booths to deliver a custom sign announcing their participation in the program. What started as a quick delivery run became one of my favorite things that week, allowing me to meet new contacts with each of our partners. I got to hear how Alkemist Assured is helping to growth their businesses and support conversations their around quality and transparency. So many companies approached us at the show to learn more about the program and how they can start!
Another highlight of the week for me was connecting with new friends and colleagues I have made through Women in Nutraceuticals (WIN). This year, I joined the WIN Science Committee, volunteering as the marketing subcommittee chair. WIN has become an important vehicle for me to connect and work with a diverse group of other women in our industry, not to mention some very impactful men who support WIN’s mission and values. The WIN reception on Tuesday evening had huge attendance and it was wonderful to meet, in person, so many people that I have gotten to know in Zoom meetings. At the UNPA member meeting on Wednesday morning, it was such a pleasure to see WIN President Heather Granato honored the newly-created UNPA Ignition…Liftoff Award for inspiring and igniting people, careers, and causes for over three decades, and be joined by WIN colleagues in that celebration. I am so thankful for Elan’s support for my involvement and the fact that Alkemist is a founding WIN sponsor!
SSW 2022 Recap
Petra’s SupplySide West Reflections
The energy at SSW was great this year! With attendance back up to near-normal levels, the show floor was buzzing and traffic at the Alkemist booth was heavy with friends, clients, and new leads. As far out as a month ago I could tell SSW2022 would be amazing because our team was nearly booked solid for meetings and events even at that point. The schedule was so full that I rarely saw my Alkemist colleagues during the day and only after the floor closed.
Along with client meetings, our two days were packed with technical meetings and presentations. Alkemist was in attendance for several AHPA committee meetings including Elan chairing the Psychedelic committee meeting. We also attended the NPA members meeting, UNPA members meeting, the Burn it Don’t Return it panel, and the Valensa Saw Palmetto presentation. A highlight for me personally was representing Alkemist on stage as a judge for Informa’s Ingredient Idol competition! If you missed that entertaining and informative session you can watch here (SupplySide Network 365 login required): https://app.swapcard.com/event/supplyside-network-365/planning/UGxhbm5pbmdfMTAxOTUyNg
It was very exciting to have our Alkemist Assured program launched by several of our new transparency partners including Arizona Nutritional Supplements (ANS), Cepham, BGG World, Quality of Life Labs, Verdure Sciences, and SuanFarma. Click here for a full list of Alkemist Assured partners https://www.alkemist.com/alkemist-assured/. It was particularly gratifying to have Tom Dubinski, Vice President of Quality at ANS, talk about their involvement in Alkemist Assured from the stage during the Burn it Don’t Return it session. Thank you, Tom!
Last, but certainly not least, the SSW social events and parties were not to be missed. I was excited to attend the Women in Nutraceuticals (WIN) reception and make new connections with other female industry leaders, and glad to see several fantastic male colleagues supporting this new group! We were very happy to celebrate with Verdure Science both their 25th Silver anniversary and partnership with Alkemist Assured the first night. As always, we sponsorsed the AHPA reception, made even more special with their 40th anniversary and 80’s flash back slides, one of which featured Elan in diapers! (AHPA slide show here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAYw8EPzS_Q) The SSW finale was the What’s Up with Supps Dark Circus event, which we also sponsored. It was a great party, with absolutely incredible entertainment – even if I had to cover my eyes for the sword swallower!
SSW 2021 Recap
To say that ‘it was good show’ would be an understatement as SSW 2021 might go down in the history books as one of the best trade shows of the decade. While the NBJ Summit was terrific, really terrific and CRN annual meeting amazing, truly amazing, nothing beats the Las Vegas energy coupled with the Natural Products Industry after being relegated to zoom meetings for nearly 2 years.
To start, it was good to see and embrace my friends in person. Some hugs seemed to last forever in efforts to catch up for lost time. So many hugs… Sadly, some of my favorites were unable to attend, and their lack of presence was palpable. In a few cases we toasted to our missing comrades in hopes to see their faces in person in March.
If that wasn’t enough, and it was, we debuted a partnership solidifying seven years of evangelical work to bring lab testing to the consumer. Thanks to Charlotte Traas of New Chapter for being my Yamal. The thick frozen ice was broken on stage where we unveiled the concept of empowering brands to see and use quality as their super power. It’s simple, you already do all the right tests with the best labs, now proudly share that from the mountain tops.
The show floor was busy but not overly crowed and my excellent sales team got to show off our new booth.
Next my good friend Stephen Daniells of NutraIngredients-USA put on a small reception where I was re-recognized along with the legendary Loren Israelsen of UNPA as a past winner of the Nutra Champion award. Next to Loren, who was deemed a legend before I started Alkemist Labs with my father, I feel unworthy but managed to silence my imposter syndrome and enjoy the roses for a bit.
As if that recognition wasn’t enough, Keynote Speaker, Executive Coach & Author Simon T. Bailey recognized Alkemist Labs and our efforts to make company culture a KPI during his inspiring speech.
Of course the amazing team at What’s Up with Supps, led by the extraordinary Diana Morgan, put on an outrageous Halloween costume party at the House of Blues. It was just what we all needed.
I spent my last day at the show learning at AHPA’s botanical Congress where the focus was on immune health, which is kinda important these days…
Lastly, I didn’t get Covid and am grateful for the precautionary measures taken by Informa’s ‘AllSecure’ program which was the approach taken to enhancing the health and safety standards in response to COVID-19. To further fortify my own safety, I got the shot (intramuscular Vitamin C, Glutathione, and Zinc) before and after the show which may (insert the generic claim we are allowed to make). Our immune health is critical and there is no better time to start taking more supplements than now. Just make sure they are tested by the best labs.