Sports and Active Nutrition Summit ‘25
Stepping back into the industry
Sharing a story from more than 30 years ago at an event that represents the current landscape of the sport and active nutrition industry was a unique experience. My biggest takeaway from stepping back into this market space? It reaffirmed something I had always known: this industry attracts a certain kind of person.
Whether they’re working with ingredient suppliers, contract manufacturers, brands, or retailers, there’s a deep enthusiasm that runs through the people in this field. They aren’t just selling products, they’re solving problems, innovating, and pushing boundaries. It reminded me why I enjoyed building Maxim as a company. It’s the kind of environment where people not only understand science but also have a genuine passion for what they do.
The industry, in many ways, reminds me of tech. Just as developers write code to build something groundbreaking, people in sports nutrition experiment with ingredients, creating new solutions that have never existed before. It’s about breaking constraints, challenging norms, and figuring out new ways to improve human performance, healthspan, and lifelong well-being. Being around people with that “anything is possible” attitude felt like coming home.
What made the summit an energising experience
Attending a three-day event like the Sports and Active Nutrition Summit can be exhausting, with jet lag, constant networking, and back-to-back sessions, but this summit was different. It had an energy that made it an engaging and fulfilling experience from start to finish.
A major part of that was the organisation. The team at William Reed Group, including Charlotte Jefford, Fiona Forbes, Tim Evans, Lauren Wickens, Asia Sherman, Natalie Meehan, Anna Benavides, Amy Martin, Danielle Masterson, and Stephen Daniels, ensured everything was seamless, from pre-event communication to speaker preparation. Having given many talks over the years, I can confidently say that I’ve never experienced such a well-structured lead-up to an event. Everything was clear: deadlines, expectations, and logistics. That level of organisation allowed me to focus on my content without unnecessary stress.
Another key factor was the intimacy of the event. With a cap of 300 attendees, it felt personal. Unlike larger conferences, where you might see someone once and never again, here, you interacted with the same people multiple times. By the end of the first day, you felt like you knew everyone, making it easy to have meaningful conversations.
And then, there were the unexpected, the spontaneous moments that made the event truly special. On the final day, I had a profound 90-minute conversation with Asia Sherman, a deputy editor at NutraIngredients. I hadn’t planned for it, but the energy of the event created the perfect setting to share my story in a way that went beyond the stage. It was a reminder of the power of in-person meetings, something that no Zoom call could ever replicate.
Conversations That Stood Out
One of the standout moments for me was meeting Dr Darren Candow, Dr Scott Forbes, and Dr. Ralf Jäger, three of the leading scientists in the creatine, sport and active nutrition space. You never know how the academic world will intersect with the commercial world, sometimes there’s friction. But in this case, it was nothing but excitement, optimism, and a shared vision.
All three of them see the same potential in creatine that I do. The question isn’t whether creatine can impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people; it’s how we make that impact a reality. How do we get this compound into more people’s daily nutrition strategies? How do we communicate its wider benefits beyond sport effectively? These are the questions that drive me, and seeing scientists who are equally passionate about unlocking creatine’s potential was incredibly refreshing.
That’s part of the reason I made the decision to return to this space after years away. I want to be part of the solution, to help bridge the gap between science and real-world application, and to ensure more people can benefit from what we know about creatine today.
The summit also featured other notable speakers, panels, and discussions who excelled at communicating intricate scientific concepts and pioneering research in an understandable way.
The ‘New Year, Same Old Issues: The US Regulatory Landscape In 2025’ panel addressed the challenge of filtering the signal from the noise, the truth from the fiction, and even the potential lies spread by snake oil influencers. They explored how to better police this environment, including the use of class action lawsuits in the US, to ensure consumers can trust the products they buy from brick-and-mortar retail, Amazon, Shopify-powered websites, and social media shopping. This is a significant problem, and it was reassuring to hear people recognizing these issues and working towards proactive solutions that will benefit companies with a long-term vision and provide consumers with more trust and recourse.
Other sessions that I found to be insightful and engaging were Innovative Ingredients – Our Experts Weigh In…, Active Women: Exploring Research, Trends and Innovation, and The State of The Sports Nutrition Market: Keeping Up With Everybody.
Why I was there
I took the stage together with Stephen Daniels, Editor-In-Chief at NutraIngredients-USA, who helped make this possible, to share the inception story of creatine and how it became the supplement we know today, publicly for the first time. It was not just about telling a story, it was about revealing an experience so personal and extraordinary that even I sometimes find it hard to believe.
Going in, I felt a mix of excitement and nerves. When you share something deeply connected to your journey, there is always that question: Will people believe it? What we accomplished in just 123 days defies conventional product development and traditional marketing wisdom.
From the first phone call with Dr. Roger Harris (1944 - 2024) to having a fully realised product ready to go at a pace that should not be possible, 47 days to get a product into a box. It did not follow the typical timelines of innovation, yet it worked. The speed, intensity, and sheer momentum behind it made it feel inevitable.
But would people understand creatine? More importantly, would they take away what I hoped they would, that sometimes, the most powerful moments unfold not through meticulous planning but through raw momentum?
I realised something crucial: When a story is real, with depth, emotion, and energy, it takes on a life of its own. It does not need to be over-engineered or optimised to fit a formula. It just needs to be told.
Doug Gillan’s original exclusive news story about creatine was exactly that, a raw, powerful narrative that resonated with people. We did not push it or build a PR campaign around it. It moved on its own, capturing the right audience. That is something brands should consider: are we over-polishing our narratives at the cost of authenticity? Because when a story is truly compelling, it finds its own way.
On that stage, I chose not to overthink. I did not meticulously rehearse or structure my delivery. I let it flow. Because at the end of the day, the story is me, raw, unfiltered, and real.
To my surprise, the room stayed full. I was not sure if people would linger after a long day of sessions, but they did. And the response confirmed what I had only started to grasp: when you are honest, people feel it. They connect. And in that connection, something powerful happens.
Final Thoughts
The Sports and Active Nutrition Summit wasn’t just about revisiting the past, it was about looking ahead. Seeing where the industry is now, engaging with the brilliant minds shaping its future, and recognising the endless possibilities that lie ahead have only solidified my excitement for what’s next.
Thanks for having me! You can now follow more of the creatine 2.0 journey on my LinkedIn, Instagram and, of course, by getting on the Yeu waitlist!!
Seize the years,
Steve Jennings | Co-Founder + CEO, Yeu
