<p>Is there a way to do this without iterating through the List and adding the items to the ObservableCollection?</p>

No, there is no way to directly convert the list to an observable collection. You must add each item to the collection. However, below is a shortcut to allow the framework to enumerate the values and add them for you.
```
```
Dim list as new List(of string)
...some stuff to fill the list...
Dim observable as new ObservableCollection(of string)(list)
```
```