As natural food sales soar past $100 billion, stakeholders and investors in the booming industry are preparing to gather for the inaugural Food 2.0 conference June 7-9 at downtown L.A.’s Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

The conference, created by Burbank event producer Infocast, will bring together roughly 150 venture capitalists, private equity investors, retailers, and distributors to discuss the specialty food industry in Los Angeles and beyond.

The public’s hunger for healthier meals has created widespread business opportunities, according to Kathleen Breedyk, co-director of Food 2.0.

“A lot of small organic brands are trying to scale their businesses, and big food companies are trying to capitalize on the organic food trend through acquisitions and branching out,” she said. “Los Angeles in particular has a huge market, especially when it comes to millennials. It’s incredibly diverse and willing to experiment.”

Breedyk and Vladka Anderson, Infocast’s director of new topic research, created the event, which will charge from $895 to $1,795 a ticket.

Speakers will include Ethan Brown, founder of El Segundo-based faux chicken and meat business Beyond Meat, who said his products, which were in 400 stores three years ago, are now available in 10,000 locations, including retail giants Whole Foods Market Inc. and Target Corp.

“The natural food landscape has dramatically changed and the conference is important because its’s about articulating our stories with like-minded folks and discussing the process of innovation and distribution.”

Also speaking is Mitchell Koulouris, founder of Burbank’s Imagine Chocolate, which focuses on all natural ingredients and provides chocolates to hotels. It is looking to enter the retail market in the L.A. area.

“At Food 2.0, we’ll be looking to create finances toward our first flagship location, look at franchising and finding other partners in the area,” Koulouris said.

Old-school packaged-food brands are losing ground to new health-oriented alternatives. Analysis by Credit Suisse Group last year found that the top 25 U.S. food and beverage companies have lost $18 billion in market share since 2009.

It is the natural products that are on the rise and specialty food sales in the United States burst through the $100 billion mark in 2014, according to a report by New York’s Specialty Food Association.

The country’s largest supermarket chain, the Kroger Co. of Cincinnati, reported $11 billion in sales of natural and organic products last year – around 10 percent of the company’s business.

Such numbers have created a lot of hype around the natural food industry said Corie Brown, founder of L.A. food blog Zester Daily.

“Americans are rejecting foods with chemical additives,” she said. “Which new brands will succeed them, however, is unclear.”

Food 2.0 could make that picture clearer as companies across this quickly changing sector of the industry look to make the right connections and deals.