The first annual National Conference on Nutrition set to be held next month in San Antonio, Texas sold out in a matter of hours this week. The conference organizers booked a small venue with a capacity of just over 200.
“We really didn’t expect this kind of response,” said Janet Templeman, the co-organizer of the event and a practicing homeopath and nutritionist. “It was a little overwhelming. The tickets were snatched up online in only a few hours.”
The organizers believe the reason the conference sold out so quickly is because – even though you have to be a nutritionist to attend – there are no laws or governing bodies which regulate who calls themselves a nutritionist. Literally anyone can claim to be a nutritionist and advertise themselves as such.
“We may have overlooked that particular aspect of the conference. We forgot that limiting the conference to nutritionists wouldn’t really make a difference at all; it wouldn’t make it any more exclusive,” laments Templeman.
People have signed up for the conference so they can put on their resume that they attended a national conference.
“They are giving out a certificate that looks really official,” explains Dan Ullman, a nutritionist in Chicago. “I am going to put it in my office so people think that being a nutritionist is a real thing.”
