I volunteered at the AHS and I am also volunteering at PFX. What I have seen from the PFX staff so far has blown me away in terms of organizing, delegating and creating a chain of command. These people know what they are doing and this event is going to be amazing. If anyone stays away because they don't like a particular speaker (review the AHS lineup before you judge, cough cough, Don Matez, cough cough) they will be missing out. PFX was designed to be a sister/companion to the AHS. For those of you not there, the AHS was all lectures. I learned one hell of a lot, but a lot of it wasn't applicable to me. When I wasn't interviewing the speakers, I was sitting down, watching presentations. At PFX, people will be shown various ways to actually LIVE a Paleo lifestyle by people who do it every day, plus they'll have cooking demos and actual meals served. I wish that more people could attend, if only to see vibrant examples of our community. We are too new and too small to be dividing ranks already.

Three quick points about "AHS vs PFX":

(1) The Ancestral Health Society is a sponsor--and unofficial sister organization in a sense--of PaleoFX. AHS focuses on rigorous discussion at an often academic level; PFX focuses on marrying theory to practice. These organizations can co-exist and both make a contribution. Why wouldn't you want both to exist?

(2) The ancestral health community has more than enough people to pack both conferences and then some. The number of people that browse Mark's Daily Apple in a given hour would pack both conferences. There's a huge demand for these conferences, and unless you want to see an AHS conference in a stadium, the growth of additional conferences is only natural--it reflects a healthy and positive growth in the paleo movement.

(3) There's nothing wrong with for-profit! Mark Sisson, Rob Wolf, Sarah Fragoso, etc. make profit by selling their books or supplements or coaching services. So long as the end-product adds value to their customer's lives, why not yay for them?

Of course, I'm a PFX volunteer who makes no money, so I should perhaps be dismissed as a crass and biased opportunist who's only in it for the money.

It's sad to see a few community members bickering over whether PFX is a good idea or not, and whether it is too costly or not worth the price. I am excited to have such a great opportunity to work with, meet, and have fun with others in this movement. It's a great opportunity to learn from each other and help those interested really get a feel for the great things this lifestyle can bring to each individual. I volunteered because I believe it makes a difference. While it may seem a high price, I still had to be a part of it! There is certainly nothing wrong with having more than one annual Paleo event. We should have many. It brings more opportunity for learning, living well, and meeting others! I hope some of you here will reconsider. I think community is so important. It grows the message and everyone's health. I'll be there. Austin is a fantastic place, and I'm ready to learn and have some fun with like-minded people!

I'm personally very excited about this conference. There are so many great speakers in attendance, and not to mention many people that I greatly respect who are participating in panel discussions. Not everyone is the typical 'Paleo' headliner either. Here are two examples of people who will be in attendance who are not as well known but have contributed a lot of great things to the real food movement:

Paul Jaminet - Has taken a ton of flack for his safe starches recommendation, but has contributed a huge deal of information to the 'ideal diet' recommendation. I'm glad that there are scientists like him to argue in favor of carbohydrates, because sometimes I think people are so quick to eliminate them that they don't realize the repercussions that can cause. (I personally had this experience so I'm thankful for Paul's work!)

Judith McGeary - I actually didn't know until just recently that Judith would be attending this event. She's a lawyer that works with groups like the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, and is fighting to protect our access to real food, and to protect the farmers who provide this food for us. She's a brilliant speaker (I've seen her at the WAPF conferences), extremely passionate about her work, and very motivational. I'm so happy she'll be there, since I think she's amazing!

These two attendees are not stereotypical Paleo figureheads, but I think they contribute a lot to the conversation about where Paleo is going. Paul is focusing on providing information about what constitutes an ideal diet, and Judith is drawing our attention to the bigger problems of food access and farmer's rights.

So yes, seeing Robb Wolf and Mark Sisson and a bunch of other guys as headliners might give you an immediate sense of the general theme of this conference, but I think it's a bit short sighted to not really take an in-depth look at all the different creative minds that are being brought together for this event.

I had so much fun at the Weston Price conference and got to meet a bunch of awesome, brilliant, real-food scientists, practitioners, and philosophers, and I can only imagine that PaleoFX is going to be just as great an experience.

Yes, like it or not we do live in a Capitalist society, and there is a HUGE difference between an organization's operating as a not-for-profit vs a for-profit. Being a for-profit sounds sexy, of course -- until one considers the substantial downside. Venues the size we needed for such an event are not cheap by any means, nor is feeding every attendee, volunteer and speaker. Top-notch A/V production costs are immense for an event this magnitude and ambitious schedule. Let's not even begin to discuss the intangibles -- hotel costs, transportation...the list goes on and on. The fact of the matter is that if the majority of speakers were not paying their own way, this event would never get off the ground in the first place. So yes, there is a lot of money flying around, and anyone doing some elementary, barstool, back-of-the-napkin math can calculate approximately 500 tickets sold at roughly $200/pop, and add to that sold vendor space and conclude that the organizers of PFX12 are pulling-off the scam of the century. Right. What the nay-sayers conveniently fail to address, though, are all of those aforementioned expenses. It comes down to simple accounting; credits AND debits.

But hey, for all those who choose to boycott this awesome event because there's an outside possibility that someone might actually make a dime, I have no hate for you. All I ask is that you make that decision fully informed, and that those back-of-the-napkin calculations also include a debit column as well.

Keith

Yup, I'll be there. Looking forward to it.

Looks like a great lineup to me. Who else would you need to make it worth the trip?

http://www.paleofx.com/speakers/

PaleoFX12 Speaker Lineup

Robb Wolf

Mark Sisson

Chris Kresser L.Ac

Dr. Jack Kruse MD

Sarah Fragoso

James Fitzgerald

John Welbourn

Sean Croxton

Diane Sanfilippo

Lane Sebring MD

Keith Norris

Melissa & Dallas Hartwig

Dr. Amy Myers

Erwan Le Corre

Dave Asprey

Nora Gedgaudas

Dean Dwyer

Amy Kubal RD

David Lee Nall

Diana Rodgers

Dr. Ron Rosedale

Darryl Edwards

Roger Dickerman

Skyler Tanner

Angelo Coppola

Dr. Emily Deans

Neely Quinn

Eva Twardokens

Shannon L. Ford

Paul Jaminet

CJ Hunt

Jimmy Moore

Dr. Daniel Kalish

Marissa Pellegrino

Melissa Joulwan

Bill Staley & Hayley Mason

Michelle Tam

Dr. Ruthie Harper

Dr. Will Mitchell

Dr. Shilpi Bhadra Mehta

Dr. Grayson Wheatley

Joe Johnson

Julie & Charles Mayfield

Steven Sashen

Kevin Cottrell

Michelle Norris

Ken O'Neill

Liz Wolfe

David Pendergrass

Krista Scott-Dixon

Emily Talley

Judith McGeary

Dan Pardi

Beverly Meyer

Benjamin Palmer

Abel James

The timing in my life right now doesn't allow me to attend, but if I could have I surely would have. Many of my friends are not only organizing it, but volunteering and that is an incredible thing. Anything our community can do to come together and share information and help spread the word of healthy living through Paleo/Primal life is amazing.

To those who think the lineup above is not impressive, you obviously don't get it and should stop talking about what you don't know. I wish I could be there, and I know my friends will keep me updated and post plenty of content on their blogs, and facebook and maybe even here with the Hacks.

Promote change, don't oppose it!! It's gonna happen weather you like it or not!

Nope. Tempting, since it's only a 12 hour drive, but when I looked at the banner and saw only men I changed my mind.

So many women have influenced me on this journey: Melissa McEwen, Emily Deans, Sally Fallon, Denise Minger, Peggy Emch... It just feels wrong that none of them are "headliners".

(Yes, I know there are women presenting, but that's not my point.)

Yep. My wife and I are coming together. I'm a bit more into the geeky stuff and would likely enjoy AHS. But Paleo is something my wife and I live together so just super fabulous that for all the great conferences I attend professionally, there's this one that we can do and learn together. I love the strong focus on application that everyone can get into!

...oh, and it's also wonderfully convenient being just 2 hrs from our home. Hope everyone else comes to enjoy some of our Texas hospitality.

I'm thrilled about fx! I'll be there. Both ahs and fx are about spreading good science.

All of us paleo-types are at the forefront of grassroots movement to revolutionize healthcare in our country. More conferences, symposiums, flash mobs, interviews, please, in all cities. Getting this stuff on the ground, out to the public, is strong medicine.

I'm extremely proud of our coordinators for their hard work and dedication in putting this on- it's a huge task given all that Austin has going. I love Austin, and I love our community of sweet, friendly, smart, and (of course) good-looking Paleo-people. Whoop!

No thanks. I'm sticking with AHS. When I first heard of PaleoFx and the line-up I wasn't impressed. Hopefully they've added to it by now? Honestly it seems like a money making venture to me and perhaps not in the best interest of the community (at this point anyway) I'm not sure we are ready to be competing with ourselves just yet.

Personally I think this is kind of ridiculous. There is so much effort in the paleohacks community to massage the paleo brand and image--to protect us and the lay community from the quacks and the Kruse.

Has it crossed anybody's mind that we don't need this protection? I can read. I know how to think. I have faith that others do too.

Why do some people not have that faith? Do you really think we've become adults, raised families and adopted philosophies blindly? Do we need others to screen our exposure to branding and image?

Last I checked we live in free society with exchange of ideas and those who are permitted to have an opinion and voice it. Questioning the validity of a person's rationale and science is fine...but boycotting and criticizing a Paleo function because of one person's name on the roster? Vilifying rants on starch or VLC? Give me a break. Look back through history in any genre...people don't always agree--even in science. The discourse is what exposes the truth--not protectionism.

I like the spirited discussion. I love the colorful personalities. The cultish, demagoguery though and elitist type approach to make this into some kind of fraternity is off-putting.

Just state your opinion and share your experience--not protect the paleo image and try and control the message. Please don't try and facilitate my evolution. I'll get there on my own.

Lex, your assessment of the situation between AHS & PFX is right on. We are sister organizations, we have officially backed each other. We believe they are the academic science-laden theory based side of Ancestral Health while PFX Ancestral Momentum is the Application, Practice, "where the rubber meets the road side" of Ancestral Health. We are Yen & Yang. We believe both sides are needed for our movement to progress & push forward & become more mainstream. To attempt to pit us against each other as competing forces is ridiculous, we are anything but. We are in fact, complimentary.