Everything you need to know about the NEXTY Awards

The NEXTY Award trophies will be bestowed on 27 companies at this year’s 2017 Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim. Here’s everything you need to know about the NEXTY Awards.

What are the NEXTY Awards?

The NEXTY Awards are a twice-annual awards program in which New Hope Network recognizes the most innovative, inspirational and integrity-driven products in the natural products industry. The awards are connected to New Hope Network’s largest annual natural product expos: Natural Products Expo West in March and Natural Products Expo East in September. 

The NEXTY Awards launched in 2011 as a joint partnership between New Hope Network and the Sterling-Rice Group to recognize products that aligned with trends and growth opportunities in that year’s NEXT Forecast Report, an annual insider’s guide to where the natural products market is now and where it’s headed. Since then, the NEXTY Awards have grown to become the premiere award bestowed upon companies in the natural products industry. Since 2011, just over 100 products have won a NEXTY Award. See the past winners. 

How do we win a NEXTY Award?

NEXTY Awards are only open to exhibitors at Natural Products Expo West and Natural Products Expo East. The nomination period and judging for NEXTY Awards is completed in the two months prior to Expo West or Expo East.

Companies nominate their product by filling out a form and questionnaire on the expowest.com/nexty website. Additionally, they send samples of their product to the New Hope Network office in Boulder, Colorado, to be evaluated by a series of judging rounds. The judges, who are members of the New Hope content team and Sterling-Rice Group culinary team, whittle the full pool of nominees down to a range of two to six finalists in each category, depending on how many entries are in each category. For the 2017 NEXTY Awards at Expo West, there were a total of 720 product nominations, and 72 of those products made it to the next round as 2017 NEXTY finalists.

From there, the NEXTY finalists move on to the final round of judging. The judges for the final round are members of the New Hope content team, as well as a rotating panel of industry judges. See this year’s final judging panel. 

For the final round of judging, the judges converse, debate and in some cases even argue until they decide on the single winning product in each category.

The winners of the NEXTY Awards are kept secret until they are revealed at the expo. At this year’s Expo West, the 21 selected winning products will be awarded on Saturday, March 11, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the winners’ booths.

In addition, New Hope will be giving out six Editors' Choice NEXTY Awards, one in each of these categories: food, beverage, supplement, beauty product, natural living product and ingredient. The six Editor’s Choice NEXTY Awards will be given on Sunday, March 12, at the winners’ booths.

What’s the difference between a NEXTY Award and an Editors' Choice NEXTY Award?

New Hope Network created the category of Editors' Choice NEXTY Awards in order for the New Hope Content Team to reserve the right to discover those diamonds in the rough—the products that stand out for innovation, inspiration and/or integrity, but haven’t necessarily been seen or evaluated by the team yet.

The New Hope Content Team scours that show floor during the convention and then meets as a team the final morning of the show to decide the six Editors' Choice winners, who are then awarded later that afternoon.

In addition to the NEXTY Award winners that are chosen in a two-tiered judging panel prior to the expo (and then awarded on Saturday, March 11), the Editors' Choice NEXTY Awards are given out on Sunday, March 12, at the winners’ booths.

When will the winners be awarded?

The 21 NEXTY Awards will be given right at the winners’ booths from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 11.

The six Editors' Choice NEXTY Awards will be given right at the winners’ booths from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 12.

When will the winners be announced to the industry? 

All 27 of the NEXTY Award winners will be announced to the industry via newhope.com on the week after Expo West.

What are the criteria products are judged on?

The editors and judges use these criteria to determine whether a product is worthy of a coveted NEXTY award:

Innovation: The product or company shows truly creative thinking and execution (not a "me too" approach); uses a newly discovered or rediscovered ingredient, flavor profile, technique or process; fills a legitimate (though perhaps not yet recognized) natural products market need or niche; and/or is predicted to have longer-term impact in the industry.

Inspiration: The product or company adheres to an unusual or new mission targeting an issue or problem not yet widely addressed; its message/mission is clearly communicated, focused and effective, with real, wide-reaching potential or already proven positive social or environmental impact.

Integrity: The product or company takes a creative, next-gen approach to clean ingredient(s), sustainability, transparency, traceability and safety/security.

Additionally, all products must meet New Hope Network's Ingredient Standards & Guidelines, which are the same standards and guidelines in place for all exhibitors at Natural Products Expos and Engredea.

Who were the judges?

The judges for the 2017 NEXTY Awards for Natural Products Expo West were:

Industry Judges

Gigi Lee Chang, managing director, FoodFutureCo
Ben Fenton, vice president, BFG Partners
Arik Markus, culinary director, FATE Brewing Company
Liz Moskow, culinary director, Sterling-Rice Group
Cheryl Hughes, owner, The Whole Wheatery
Steve Taormina, business development manager, NSF International

New Hope Content Team

Jenna Blumenfeld
Beth Dobos
Katie Dove
Hannah Esper
Lori Faiola
Jenna Fitch
Bill Giebler
Jenny Ivy
Christine Kapperman
Denver Lewis
Carlotta Mast
Claire Morton
Eric Pierce
Rick Polito
Deanna Pogorelc
Jessica Rubino
Todd Runestad
Corrin Salamatian
Jasmine Santillan
Fran Schoenwetter
Jessie Shafer, RD
Jen Taylor
Michelle Zerbib 

SRG Culinary Team

Nicole Alexander
Lauren Cudney
John Grubb
Liz Moskow
Christie Wood

What are the benefits of winning a NEXTY Award?

NEXTY Award finalists and winners receive a lot of industry recognition before and after the natural product expos.

All finalists receive a display tent at their booth and winners receive a trophy. The finalists have exclusive rights to use the New Hope NEXTY logo in promotions and packaging. They also receive a print feature in the March/April 2017 issue of Natural Foods Merchandiser and inclusion in special features on newhope.com and to consumers via New Hope’s consumer brand, deliciousliving.com.

The NEXTY finalists are included in a NEXTY showcase outside of Hall E, as well as in the digital show directory. NEXTY winners also have access to the winner’s toolkit to maximize their award.

Read a few success stories of past NEXTY winners:

Banza
Bitsy’s Brainfood
Farmhouse Culture
One Degree Organic Food
Youtheory

How do I nominate next year?

The call for nominations for the NEXTY Awards at Expo East 2017 will open in June 2017. The call for nominations for the NEXTY Awards at Expo West 2018 will open in November 2017. 

As an exhibitor at either of these shows, look for notifications in your inbox as well as newhope.com newsletters.