I have two really big jobs. First and foremost, I’m the happy, proud, love-them-to-pieces mama of two young boys. Except when they make me want to scream. (I know those of you who are parents can totally relate.)
 
I’m also wild (in a good way!) about my second job. I’m the Director of Membership for the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA)—and it’s a job that’s equally as exhilarating, energizing and also endlessly as exhausting as my other job.
 
Trust me when I say I know I’m very fortunate to have both jobs. And I’m even more fortunate to love both jobs.
 
Yes, we’re facing interesting times right now. If you’re feeling pulled in many different directions and start your day and end your night overwhelmed and impatient, I promise you, you’re not alone. It’s times like these when we truly must appreciate what we have, and when we realize that family and community are our anchors.
 
The initial impetus for this guest blog was to talk about the inaugural AHPA Sports Nutrition Congress, a full-day, virtual event taking place on October 21. I can’t do that without talking about community.
 
This event wasn’t supposed to be a virtual event. We were supposed to be seeing one another in-person, exchanging handshakes and smiles and toasting with cocktails at the end of the day.
 
Going Virtual
Here’s the back story … Last year, we held a first-ever in-person AHPA Hemp/CBD Supplement Congress with over 250 people—and our member companies (and companies we hope will become members) couldn’t have been more excited about the content and the interactivity.
 
So, we made plans for a second in-person Hemp/CBD Supplement Congress and then for good measure added an inaugural Sports Nutrition Congress (this year being the 10-year anniversary of both eponymous AHPA committees). You know how this story goes—AHPA made the right, but difficult, decision in mid-June to shift all our in-person meetings into virtual events, webinars or teleconferences for 2020.
 
Our decision back in June to “go virtual” for the rest of 2020 prioritized the health and safety of our staff and our member companies and industry colleagues. We heard from our members who were appreciative of the leadership role we took that provided certainty they would not be expected to travel, but would also not have to sacrifice the learning venues they’d come to rely on AHPA for, and that there would still be a way for them to engage in meaningful collaboration.
 
AHPA is known for producing first-rate, substantive conferences and we were determined not to let anyone down. My AHPA colleagues, Natasha Weaver and Rachel Haas, secured an interactive virtual platform and the AHPA Sports Nutrition Committee, chaired by Rob Wildman of Dymatize, began planning a top-notch agenda. More on that soon.
 
[Hear from Rob Wildman as he discusses the Congress and sports nutrition trends in this Podcast.]

I’ve been in the natural products industry for 15 years. A week doesn’t go by when I don’t “meet” someone in this industry for the first time. On the other hand, I don’t think there are any days where I’m not reconnecting with someone who left a job, but not our industry, only to resurface at another company. My point is: this is one small industry. The game of “oh, so do you know John Smith” almost always ends with “Not only do I know John Smith but here are the 12 other people who worked with John Smith who I’m also still in touch with.”
 
Winning the West & Building a Better Community
People who work in the sports nutrition segment of our larger work-family, are a community in the deepest sense of the word. That part of the business has come a long way since the days of being called “the wild west.” The story now is more “how the west was won.” 
 
Turning the sports nutrition industry around didn’t happen overnight—nor did building a cohesive community. It took a lot of work and a realization from competitors that everyone does better when better is what everyone does.
 
My colleague and friend, Vince Kreipke, with ONNIT, puts it this way: “With the sports nutrition industry, we are all like-minded individuals. We want to see people become the best they can be. But we also want to make sure the market is fair and safe. So, we are all working together to make sure that everyone understands the rules and we are holding each other accountable.”
 
That’s why some of the industry’s sharpest minds and most experienced executives are speakers. Put simply, the AHPA Sports Nutrition Congress is focused on building a better community.
 
In fact, all the sessions are designed to continue the upward rise of transparency, compliance and trust-building within the sports nutrition industry, with an eye toward helping companies first understand the rules and then learn how to apply those rules for the benefit of customers and consumers. Thus, paving the way for responsible companies to thrive.
 
In the face of the pandemic, the kinds of in-person events that our industry craves are on hold. For now, virtual get-togethers are what keep our industry connected and remind us we’re a community.
 
But it’s a balancing act, not only between our personal lives and our work lives (that’s not new, it just feels trickier some days), but if you feel like you’re in virtual event overload, once again, you’re not alone. With virtual opportunities leaping out daily (hourly?) from your overstuffed in-box, maintaining equilibrium can be hard. No one said this was easy.
 
Focus on the benefits of virtual events. An in-person meeting happens, and you blink and it’s over. AHPA’s virtual events are captured digitally and will be available for registrants on-demand. Let’s say you’re deep in the middle of the session on U.S. and global trends in the market, and your boss calls and wants you to solve a problem immediately (or your three-year old spills juice all over the couch), you have 90 days to get back to that session.
 
Let’s not forget about the fact that you can avoid hours and hours of airplane travel pretending you’re not the one kicking the seat of the person in front of you who is pretending he’s at home in his La-Z-Boy recliner.
 
By the way, did I mention yet that my youngest boy fell off the monkey bars about two weeks ago and broke both of—not just one, but both of—his wrists. Yeah, we’re all doing just fine.
 
“See” you on October 21st.  To register visit www.ahpa.org.