When Derek and I first started talking about CMEpalooza Fall, our focus was initially on the format, the content, the potential faculty — you know, all of the things that are fun to bat around. “What would be really cool to get people to talk about? How can we best utilize the Hangout On Air platform? How can we take what happened with the inaugural CMEpalooza and make it, you know, like, better?”
Being that neither of us are natural salesmen, I think we purposely shelved talk of money. At least at first. But then as we thought about things more, we realized that not only would it be nice to have something tangible to show for our time and effort, but that CMEpalooza can truly be a different and valuable sort of way for companies and even individuals to connect with potential partners and customers.
Sessions from the inaugural CMEpalooza have, so far, been viewed more than 3,000 times. This website has been seen by more than 10,000 visitors. That’s a lot of eyes, and we think interest in this event is only going to grow as we move forward. So once Derek and I finished brainstorming about the “fun stuff,” we talked about what value we could offer companies without their presence being overly intrusive/obnoxious for learners (so don’t worry, there will no 5-minute commercials embedded within each CMEpalooza session).
We came up with a tiered system of support that is not unlike what is offered by some industry associations, and we think there is some cool stuff that we are offering. It is all spelled out on the “Sponsors” link, but if you want to get a quick overview, here goes:
- A Bronze level sponsorship gets you a company listing on the CMEpalooza sponsor page (we’ll even embed a video for you if you have one!), recognition on all pre-event communications (we’ll be developing a Palooza newsletter shortly), and recognition on sponsor slides that will appear before and after each CMEpalooza panel
- A Silver level sponsorship gets you all of the above, plus title sponsorship for a session. Maybe you couldn’t afford to knock FedEx aside for the naming rights to the Orange Bowl, but there is no reason you can’t be the title sponsor for “The Future of CME: What Will the Next 5-10 Years Hold.”
- A Gold level sponsorship gets you everything from the first two tiers, plus the ability to work with Derek and I (right there a priceless opportunity) to plan a sponsored lunch panel that can include a representative from your company. Obviously, we’ll work carefully to vet the topic and the full panel to make sure this is a valuable learner experience, but it’s a great way to make sure CMEpalooza includes a discussion of a topic that is relevant to your organization.
And hey, maybe there is something that neither of us thought about that you would be interested in sponsoring. Alas, there are no tote bags to put your name on or thumb drives to distribute to all attendees, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something creative we missed.
CMEPALOOZA 