Before beginning this process, the information provided below needs to be read and filled out by the inquiring speaker and not a representative.

Thank you for your interest in presenting a nutritional seminar for Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, (NGVC). It is our mission to provide the communities in which we do business a public service that is educational and empowering to each individual in their search for the best nutrition and health information. We invite you to apply for a speaking engagement if you have a particular expertise in nutrition and experience in public speaking.

Please read these on-line documents so you can gain a better understanding of who we are.

• History of Vitamin Cottage
• Your Real Natural Food Store
• "What We Won't Sell You and Why"
  Note: if your topic advocates the use of any of the items we do not carry listed in this document, it may create a customer service problem for us. You will later be asked to let us know how you intend to discuss any of these items in your presentation.
• Our affiliate program offers 15% commissions.
• If you are interested in understanding the quality of products we carry, please also read Vendor Info - Product Submissions

Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage does not welcome seminars for the sole purpose of promoting a business or company, method of treatment, or any multi-level marketing organization. We do not charge for events and we do not usually pay our speakers. (On occasion, this issue would be open for discussion). You are welcome, however, to place your business cards on our entry or reception table. If your seminar proposal is a good fit for us, we will support you by:

1. Making flyers featuring your photo and your seminar title and description along with those of the other speakers for the current month, (click here for examples of a take-home flyer and poster). Flyers are given out to customers at the stores and can be downloaded from this website.
2. Space permitting, some of our speakers are given a write-up in our Health Hotline -- a newspaper printed 8 times per year featuring healthy recipes, articles offering the latest in nutrition research and products on sale. One and a half million copies of the Health Hotline reach various markets in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah.
3. If you are a published author, we may be able to sell your book at the seminar.
4. We audio record the seminars held in our Lakewood, Colorado location, making the CDs available to customers and our nutritional health coaches and employees. If your seminar is recorded, we will send you a complimentary CD of your presentation.
5. This website, Natural Speakers.com, offers on-line advertising of all seminars as well as automatic emails to customers who have requested notification of seminar events, speaker bios and links to speakers' websites.

We are interested in nutritional topics that are specific, current, and of vital interest to the average person's health and well being. In our experience, general healing modality topics that encompass too broad a subject such as herbs, Chinese medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic, etc., do not draw an audience. The more detailed and specific your topic is, the more likely it will be a benefit for all involved. Seminars should be 60 to 75 minutes with an additional 15 minutes for Q & A.

Appropriate presentations will discuss how to support the body to achieve and maintain wellness. Please avoid talking about treatments of disease and, instead, educate on how nutrients and supplements affect the structure and function of the body. We request that you refrain from diagnosing and prescribing, in accord with FDA regulations. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) established new consumer protection guidelines effective December 1st, 2009. During your presentation at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, we ask that you disclose your relationship with the products you endorse and substantiate all health claims with reputable scientific documentation. It is your responsibility to know and understand the full extent of the FTC guidelines as it applies to your public speaking engagements so we have provided these links for you:

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf

http://www2.ftc.gov/multimedia/video/business/endorsement-guides.shtm

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

Please note that at NGVC, we promote natural and whole foods nutrition. Further, we understand the critical importance of quality fats within a whole foods diet and therefore do not advocate low fat diets.