Dani Nordin, Designer & Zen Warrior Princess, The Zen Kitchen joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for some insights, tips, and inspiration about her eco-friendly design business. Dani’s passion for design began with her background in theater. Leveraging what she learned about understanding and developing a backstory to get into character actually helped her develop her process and approach to communicating her design ideas with her clients. Figuring out what her clients would like to accomplish through design, Dani uses theater inspired techniques to get her clients to define the character of their target market to help her hone in her creative pitch. She attributes her success to her consultative approach with her clients.

Check out the full interview at Inside Digital Design.

Today, alas, wasn’t great for networking - I got there around 1pm (had to rest a bit, and make my way there in a leisurely fashion), and *everyone* was giving stuff away.

Yesterday, I managed to snag a free yoga mat from Jade Yoga quite randomly, by virtue of being in a conversation with the company’s founder around the time that he was giving a free mat to The First Ten People In Line (unbeknownst to me, I was first).

Nick, my boyfriend, is extremely pleased that I managed to snag a bunch of new and interesting (eco-friendly!) cleaning cloths and sponges from Twist (who has terrific packaging, by the way), along with a few different types of all-purpose cleaner and - and - free stuff from Method. This pleased him muchly, especially the Good for Wood disposable cloths. His lust for cleaning products has often amused me; plus, it makes him very convenient for when I go on my various cooking sprees.

I also found, from Plum Island Soap Company (I can not vouch for their website, but the stuff is lovely), a Man Can, which contained:

1 Bar Manly Soap

1 Very Masculine Bay Rum Oil
1 Extremely Spicy Shave Gel

1 Really Scratchy Bath Mitt

1 Jar Fisherman’s Hand Butter (There’s nothing tougher than a fisherman)…(Except maybe a woman)!

Nick very much geeked out about it, as I thought he would. They were the sweetest folks too - they make the stuff right in Newburyport, so it’s a local-ish company. Very pleased.

My other favorite find was Good Clean Love, a variety of eco-friendly, all natural *ahem* intimacy enhancers. The Love Oil was pretty interesting, and I ended up picking up a bottle; it smelled quite lovely on me. I also got a bit of lube to try out; *ahem* more on that another time. Perhaps.

So pleased. I’ve got something like a month’s worth of blog entries just from this show. I’ve got a ton of contacts, a ton of good stuff (including a bunch of stuff I didn’t know about before), and a rash on my shoulder from carrying very heavy bags all day. It’s time for a cup of tea, my pajamas, and a movie.

You know, there are some networking events where I go in, have a moderately not sucky time, and leave with maybe a couple of good contacts. There are others where I go in, meet maybe a couple of people, but leave wondering why the heck I signed up for it.

Then there’s Expo East. Where I walk onto a tradeshow floor, throw my hands to the sky in gratitude, and know that I have landed among My People. I had about the same reaction to this summer’s Fancy Food Show, but Expo East has the added benefit of including organic specialty care items, so I got a double whammy of “oh, shiny!”

Some education highlights:

• I’ve learned that while organic clothing and bath products (still thought of as “luxury” items) are feeling a strong hit with the economy, people who choose to buy organic produce are still buying it, despite the push to save money on food. The reason for this is that the impulse to buy organic comes from the “avoidance” factor; the consumer is looking to avoid pesticides, hormones and such in their food, and aren’t going to go back to the pesticide-laden stuff just because it’s more expensive. The bamboo towels, they can live without. The apples, notsomuch.
• Organics in general, while they are seeing a hit from the economy, are still seeing significant growth - it’s just moderating itself from the 20% yearly threshold it had been hitting since the 90’s.
• While more folks are eating in now and preferring to cook at home, they still want the great, gourmet food they would normally get at restaurants; as such, sales of specialty/gourmet foods are actually seeing pretty strong sales right now.
• In order to inspire more stay-at-home chefs and strapped consumers, while still giving them a way to eat natural, organic food, grocers are starting to create programs that help consumers work with organics in a lower-cost way. For example, a couple of chains (including Whole Foods) are instituting meal programs, where you can pay a certain amount of money and get a great organic meal. One chain had a $5 lunch program that they implemented near high schools and colleges that went over like gangbusters; another (think it was Whole Foods) did a $20 dinner package for 4.
• Other grocers are starting to do merchandising gimmicks with recipes - you have a pamphlet with a week’s worth of meal recipes with a shopping list, all using ingredients you can get for about $20. Position that alongside a display of the ingredients, and even portion some of them out so the consumer can pick up just what they need. How cool is that, I ask you?

And now (because I know you want it), the foodie highlights:

• More food - and YUMMY food - than I can possibly imagine. *cue choir of angels*
• Free bars in abundance from Larabar, Kind and Boomi Bar (by the way, Larabar has now come out with a Coconut Cream bar that is To Die, and Kind has a mango nutty thing that is, well, yeah. YUMMMMM.)
• Additional samples from Twinings, Yogi Tea, and Mighty Leaf, as well as a free bottle of iced white green from Teas Tea (my absolute favorite iced tea). Yogi Tea has a new Sweet Mexican Chili tea that is completely amazing, in the most incredibly odd way.
• The best frozen Indian food I have ever tasted in my life from Tandoor Chef. Their frozen chutneys are amazing, and the newest product in their line - it hasn’t even been released yet - is Masala “pizza” and Palak Paneer in a pastry crust. Yes, folks, it’s an Indian Hot Pocket. *Why* has nobody thought of this before? I went back for thirds.

Other highlights:

• Getting into a LONG conversation with someone from Avalon Organics about the Dr. Bronner’s, ahem, situation. According to the rep, the offending ingredient has already been formulated out of the product (it was only in one of the products). I also talked to a rep from Dr. Bronner’s, but forgot to ask him about his take. Interestingly, though, I did find out that their Sal Suds (my all time favorite dish soap) was removed from Whole Foods because it contains Sodium Laurel Sulfate as its primary ingredient.

Overall, I had some great conversations with folks about their products; what I’m loving about these tradeshows in general (aside from the full contact networking aspect of it, which I always enjoy - rather masochistically, I might add) is that it’s a concentrated group of people, and it’s *exactly* the people I want to meet - the people responsible for selling and marketing Tasty Things, and Fancy Things to Put on My Body.

I’m sure there’s more than this, but honestly, I’m wiped. That said, I will say something that I often say: my job *rocks.* Another day of fabulous starts tomorrow.