Las Vegas, NV—This June 10 to 12, the 73rd annual Natural MarketPlace convention will be the place for natural products retailers and suppliers to learn about a new era in the business. Attendees will be educated on current issues of importance to the industry such as what to know about today’s natural consumers, international standards and social media.

Key speakers will include sixth term Republican Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah and leading integrative gastroenterologist Gerard E. Mullin, M.D., from Johns Hopkins Hospital. Senator Hatch was instrumental in the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in 1994, and he has worked toward the reform of regulatory agencies like the FDA. Mullin is the current director of Integrative Nutrition Services at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. He also is working on the first book for doctors on integrative gastroenterology.

As many as 5,000 attendees are expected at the convention, which will feature about 250 exhibits and will take place at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. This year’s conference is the result of a partnership between New Hope Natural Media and the Natural Products Association, which organizes the event every year. The convention will offer attendees three different tracks, or focuses, with which to educate themselves: the Retail Intensive Track, back for its second year, and the new Business and Interactive Tracks. There will also be two separate Town Hall sessions (one for retailers and one for suppliers) addressing the controversial S.3002 legislation, which proposes stricter regulation of the dietary supplement industry.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, June 2010