Welcome to the Startup CPG podcast. I'm your host, Jesse Freytag.

This episode is coming to you a little bit later in the week, but I wanted to get you an Expo West audio recap as hot off the press as possible.

The New Hope Network just announced that there were 65,000 registered attendees and 3,000 exhibiting companies this year

at Expo West in Anaheim, California. If you were at the show and we got to meet, I just want to say

thank you. It was incredible to meet podcast listeners in real life, and I appreciate each and every

one of you so much truly. I reassembled the Recap dream team that you all let me know you enjoyed for Expo East.

So once again, I asked our resident startup CBG friend and press expert,

Monica Watrous, managing editor of food business news and editor of food entrepreneur,

to join us today, along with Patricia Menagoto, Startup CPG's Head of Community,

who I bet you know from our Slack, and Jenna Mofsovitz, our Startup CPG Spotlight Magazine

editor. Whether you weren't able to attend Expo and are hoping to learn what it was like,

or if you attended but want to hear the trends and takeaways, this episode has something for you.

Listen in as we discuss our favorite bites, trends, best swag and booths, and the backpack brands from

the epic startup CPG, alley rally party, and more. Plus a quick shout out to Sipwell Wine,

who supplied us with wine to create a Startup CPG Expo West Wind Down. We couldn't quite get a live show together, maybe next time, but we all enjoyed their

canned wine, and you can check out a full feature on their brand in the upcoming

Startup CPG Spotlight magazine.

Now let's talk Expo.

Hi, everyone.

Welcome to the show today. I am so excited to have you all here for a Expo West 2023 recap.

Hope everyone is doing well. And we all had such a good time at the show. I would love if each of you could maybe just start off with a quick introduction of yourself.

And, you know, let's start with Patty.

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