If You’re Heading to Expo West — Here’s How to Make It Count

Natural Products Expo West returns to the Anaheim Convention Center March 3–6, 2026 — a four-day whirlwind of innovation, connection, and product discovery in the natural, organic, and wellness space. It’s the largest gathering of brand builders, retailers, distributors, and investors in the industry, and whether this is your first time or your tenth, there’s an unmistakable energy on the show floor and off.

For founders and early-stage teams in health, wellness, nutrition, or CPG, Expo West isn’t just a showcase — it’s a moment to take stock of where the market is going and what buyers, partners, and consumers will expect next. But fairs of this scale can also be overwhelming: thousands of exhibitors, tens of thousands of attendees, competition for attention, and a million decisions about where to spend limited time and focus.

Below are a few strategies we’ve seen help early innovators get the most out of an event like Expo West without losing sight of the bigger picture — building evidence that actually matters.

🎯 1. Go With Questions, Not Just Products

Expo West is overflowing with new launches and shiny demos, but the conversations that shift momentum are grounded in meaningful outcomes:

• What real problem does this solve?
• What proof do customers and partners need to believe it works?
• How will you measure success beyond the floor?

It’s the same mindset that separates studies that stall from those that generate credible evidence: starting with clear endpoints and hypotheses before execution.

📅 2. Prioritize Time With Purpose

With hundreds of sessions and thousands of brands on display, it’s tempting to try to see everything. But the best booths, talks, and networking events are ones you prepare for, not stumble into. Create a list of key meetings first, then leave space for serendipity — that balance is where opportunity lives.

🤝 3. Treat Early Conversations as Data

Early stage founder to buyer exchanges are real data. How do buyers respond to your positioning? What questions do they ask repeatedly? In research design we talk about participant experience because it directly shapes data quality — in business development, these interactions shape signal too.

📈 4. Collect Signal, Not Noise

Expo West is a reminder of how crowded the market has become: protein is the baseline, not the differentiator, and claims without meaningful evidence resonate less with both consumers and retailers. This year, the brands that stand out are those focusing less on hype and more on specific value, clarity, and trust.

Thinking Beyond the Show Floor

If you’re a first-time attendee — particularly as part of an early-stage team — Expo West is also a timely reminder that momentum begins well before you launch a study or a product.

Just as we’ve seen in our own research work, the structural decisions you make early — choosing clear endpoints, defining rigorous designs, and prioritizing participant experience — change what’s possible later. The same is true in product and clinical strategy: early evidence signal builds credibility that unlocks partnerships, funding, and distribution.

That’s one reason we built the Alethios Early Stage Program — to help early teams generate credible human evidence on catalytic timelines and cost-effective terms. Follow the link above to apply. And if you meet a team at Expo West that should be running a real study — we’d love an introduction. 

If you refer a company that’s accepted into the program, we’ll add 50 additional participants to your study license (applicable to any current or future study).

Submit a referral here:

Final Thought

Expo West is more than a trade show. It’s a chance to sharpen your questions, validate assumptions, and connect with peers and partners who care about real impact.

Approach it with curiosity, clarity of purpose, and an eye toward evidence — and you won’t just make connections, you’ll make progress.

If you’ll be on the floor and want to talk about designing or launching a human study, we’d love to connect.
👉 Schedule a time to meet with us here:

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