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Vegan Business Tribe is set to host what it claims is the first vegan business conference in the UK.
The event will showcase 20 speakers from vegan-founded businesses over a two-day event. Proceedings are to be held at the London Olympia exhibition center.
The event has been organized by David Pannell and Lisa Fox, founders of the online business community Vegan Business Tribe. They claim that the conference, running as part of the wider Vegfest UK expo, is different from other plant-based summits. This is due to the fact that expert talks are given exclusively by people involved in fully vegan companies.
Held on November 12 and 13, confirmed speakers include Mike Hill, founder of Norfolk-based One Planet Pizza, and Louisianna Waring, senior commercial insight officer for the Vegan Society.
Visitors can also take part in a number of workshops. Topics include how to maximize exposure for a vegan business, writing and publishing a book, and launching a vegan podcast.
“It’s great that there are now so many events in the plant-based sector, but there are few places where vegan business owners can come together to learn from others who share the same ethics,” Pannell explained in a statement.
“For the majority of our members, their vegan business is their form of activism, their way to align their ethics with how they earn a living. That gives you totally different motivations to someone selling a vegan product because they are following the market trend.”
Vegan businesses take over the London Olympia
Vegfest UK is returning to the Olympia after a forced two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aiming to come back bigger than before, it has made space in its schedule to accommodate the Vegan Business Tribe Live conference.
It is hoped that potential founders of future plant-based companies will find the support and advice needed to move forward meaningfully. This will then create a stronger network of vegan businesses within the UK.
“Vegan businesses have needed a lot of support over the pandemic. David and Lisa have offered that in spades with their unique brand of enthusiasm and advice,” Tim Barford, founder of Vegfest UK said in a statement.
“They have brought together a stellar line-up of vegan business rockstars for the Vegan Business Tribe stage at VegfestUK. Anyone who has a vegan business, or is thinking about starting one, should be camped out in their area for the whole weekend to learn everything that they can.”
Knowledge sharing through vegan conferences
Vegan Business Tribe Live is not the only plant-based event to be sharing resources and knowledge.
Later this month, Washington DC will host the Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit to open the dialogue surrounding unsustainable food systems and animal cruelty. More than 80 guest speakers are expected to discuss their veganism, across a three-day indoor event.
Last month, the first-ever European Vegan Summit was held online. Hosted by ethical investment and vegan networking advocates Beyond Animal, a range of topics were discussed. These included politics and scientific breakthroughs pertinent to animal welfare.
Though not a vegan summit, the upcoming COP27 UN climate change conference, being held in Egypt, has vegan activists hoping for a drastic improvement on last year’s event. The Glasgow-based COP26 came under fire for failing to address the role of animal agriculture in the growing climate crisis. This, alongside serving a menu including meat and allowing delegates to fly in on private jets.
It is hoped that this year’s event, following criticism after the last installment, will put veganism on the agenda, helped by the inclusion of a plant-based pavilion.
The Vegan Business Tribe Live event is accessed for free as part of the Vegfest UK expo. Day access costs £10, with a weekend-long pass priced at £15. Vegfest UK is also offering buy-one-get-one-free on tickets, meaning attendees can bring a friend or partner for no extra cost.
For more information or to buy tickets, visit the website here.
