Vegan Women Summit to Return to Los Angeles in 2024

The Vegan Women Summit is gearing up for its next iteration, scheduled for May 9 and 10, 2024, at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The West Hollywood venue is known for its architectural brilliance and has been the site for various high-profile events, offering an appropriate stage for the summit’s influential guests and groundbreaking discussions.

Vegan Women Summit

The Vegan Women Summit plans to feature prominent CEOs, celebrities, and innovators in the vegan and sustainability sectors. While the full list of speakers is yet to be disclosed, the event will focus on advancements in vegan products and broader sustainability issues, including investment opportunities and ethical considerations.

The summit will offer attendees a sneak peek at new vegan products across various sectors such as food, fashion, and beauty, providing a unique opportunity to preview items not yet on the market.

Empowering women in the plant-based sector

The Vegan Women Summit was created to address the significant issue of the underrepresentation of women within the plant-based industry and beyond. The summit aims to replicate the multi-faceted approach of successful conferences such as SXSW, focusing on diverse activities including panel discussions, product debuts, and networking opportunities.

Vegan Women Summit

Founder Jennifer Stojkovic—author of The Future of Food Is Female—aims to build on the mission of empowering women to contribute to a more sustainable world.  

“All of our work is underpinned by how we can inspire the 51 percent of women on the planet to work toward building a kinder, more sustainable world,” Stojkovic previously told VegNews. “One of the things that’s really important when it comes to the conversation of food is that we need to look at the fact that women are the ones who lead food purchases in the world.”

“When we talk about the transformation of our dinner plates, we really should be looking to women because they are controlling the grocery carts of the world,” Stojkovic says. 

The West Hollywood event will follow the summit’s successful third annual event in New York City this summer, which attracted more than 1,000 attendees and a diverse array of thought leaders.

Guests were treated to exclusive tastings of innovative foods developed by women-led startups such as cultivated beef from Ohayo Valley; vegan oysters from North Carolina-based Pearlita Foods; and mycelium-made vegan chicken breasts by Bosque Foods.

Pearlita Foods

All of these entrepreneurs were part of the Vegan Women Summit’s global Pathfinder platform that supports female innovators in the food industry. 

With a global community exceeding 60,000 people, the platform is evolving to include recurring chef challenges aimed at elevating women in the culinary world. 

Lessons from the NYC Vegan Women’s Summit

The New York City event laid a solid foundation that the West Hollywood summit will build upon. It featured a range of activities from panel discussions that predominantly featured women of color, fashion shows, and musical performances. 

Thought leaders such as Miyoko Schinner, Alicia Silverstone, and Pinky Cole have graced previous summits, setting a high bar for the upcoming event.

With the forthcoming summit in West Hollywood, the event continues to foster its mission by connecting brands with influential women and providing a platform for women in the sustainability and plant-based sectors.

Vegan Women Summit

In addition to Vegan Women Summit, Stojkovic is also working to further support the growth of the plant-based food industry through recently launched Joyful Ventures, a $23 million venture fund she co-founded with Milo Runkle (founder of animal-rights organization Mercy For Animals, co-founder of nonprofit The Good Food Institute, and co-founder of investment firm New Crop Capital); and Blaine Vess (founder of education company Student Brands). 

“Joyful is looking for game-changing opportunities that solve crucial bottlenecks in the transition to a sustainable food system,” Stojkovic previously told VegNews. “We believe that the single most transformative climate opportunities are coming in the next decade, and focus on backing mission-driven founders and innovative, early-stage startups around the world.”