Natural Products Expo West is expected to draw more than 55,000 attendees Thursday through Saturday to the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. Co-located with the product focused show is Supply Expo, an ingredient-centric exhibition. In addition, NutraCon, which has an ingredient and technology research focused schedule of education sessions, will take place March 9 to 10.

This year’s Natural Products Expo West event will host more than 2,000 exhibiting companies, which includes nearly 500 first-time exhibitors, that will showcase beverages, organic products, supplements, health and beauty products.

Beverage companies, including Activate Drinks, Bolthouse Farms, Celsius, Honest Tea, Lifeway Foods, Naked Juice, NextFoods, New Leaf Brands, O.N.E. Natural Experience, Sweet Leaf Tea, Yakult and Zola Brazilian Superfruits are among the exhibitors featuring their products at the show.

This year’s event will have a greater emphasis on technology, such as a Natural Products Expo West iPhone app. Digital solutions also are the focus of education sessions, including speakers from Google discussing how to reach consumers at the digital shelf and a presentation from Entrepreneur magazine on advanced social media tactics.

Education sessions at Natural Products Expo West also will focus on “Marketing to Moms” and a keynote from Bridget Brennan, author of “Why She Buys: the New Strategy for Reaching the World’s Most Powerful Consumers.”

Beverage Industry will be on-site at Natural Products Expo West and will be Tweeting (@BeverageInd) regularly from the show floor about beverage launches, ingredient innovations and news from the show floor.