2010 Expo Summary

The 2010 NY Vegetarian Expo is complete! It was a great success.

Thanks to all those involved in making this year’s event our best to date. Please enjoy photos of the fantastic exhibitors, attendees and wonderful volunteers. Each year the precursor to the expo is a speaker recognition dinner. The dinner is to honor and give thanks to the speakers who work so hard in spreading the message of compassion for animals, environmental consciousness, and healthy eating/living. We have tried to build this expo on these three legs. Our primary mission is to educate the public. We do this primarily through our vendors and speakers.

New for this year was the Vegan Fashion Show thanks to Kristin Lajeunesse. What a great vibe this brought to the event. Congratulations to the following contestants, who were selected by our panel of judges, to strut their stuff down our very first vegan runway: Jeffrey, Mike, Joey, Andrea, Madeline, Eva, Kylyn, Jeanie, and Carly. Mandi Hoffman is a vegan blogger and activist hailing from sunny Portland, Oregon. She runs Chicvegan.com, a website for ethical ladies who want to do good deeds while looking hot and feeling fabulous. Please see some of the behind the scene pictures and on stage pics of the first-ever vegan “cruelty free” fashion show from the 4th annual expo.

Labels include: Vaute Couture (spelled for “haute couture” with a V for vegan, but said like “vote”), the first apparel line to focus on developing high style high performance fashion with one major challenge – no animal derived materials. Cri de Coeur – Never before has being so eco-friendly been so stylish. Thanks to Cri de Coeur, a line of top-quality vegan shoes, ladies around the globe can create eco-luxe looks in no time flat. Cherry Berry stemmed with the desire to make an Earth positive impact. Its modern vision to merge style with an eco-friendly mindset grew stronger in the past decade. NOHARM synergises High Fashion and Ethical Consumerism. NOHARM recognises these two terms are no longer mutually exclusive and the synergy of fashion and ethics is consumer driven by a growing and powerful demographic.

Chef Kelly Serbonich Wholesome Holiday Desserts to Live For!		Milton R. Mills, MD Are Humans Designed to Eat Meat?		Matt Rice Inspiring Compassion
George Eisman, RD How a Plant-Based Diet Can Lower Cancer Risk and Help the Environment		Steve Meyerowitz Year Round Kitchen Gardening, Lower Your Food Bill, Raise Your Nutrition		Ann Crile Esselstyn, MSEd Guides to Plant Based Eating
Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. Arrest and Reversal: The Preferred Treatment of Coronary Artery Heart Disease		Howard F. Lyman Saving the Earth One Bite at a Time		Kathy Stevens Cows, Pigs and Chickens, Oh My! Lessons in Love and Hope From Rescued Farm Animals

Our vendors sold out of everything. What a great way for the public to get to know a vendor and the quality of their products. Vendors get to spread their customer base in a way other than electronically by speaking to potential new clients face to face. The interaction builds business and helps promote the very mission of the expo. Left Photo: X’s to O’s Vegan Bakery. For a list of 2010 Exhibitors/Vendors please visit this page.

Here’s to an awesome expo 2010 and an exciting expo for 2011. Please contact us to volunteer, join the Albany Vegetarian Network and help with all our outreach work all year long. The personal gratification is enormous!

Cheers,

Dave Lajeunesse, Acting President, Albany Vegetarian Network, Inc. (2010)