Back in 2004, there was an iconic episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show where she gifted everyone in the audience a brand new car. Let’s ignore that this was a promotional stunt whose cost was covered in full by the car manufacturer (Pontiac, which was phased out as a car brand 6 years later, so um, maybe not the lifesaving investment they had hoped for). We’ll also disregard that this didn’t personally cost Oprah herself a cent. We’ll even overlook the fact that each “winning” audience member was on the hook for a tax bill of around $7,000. It was still a rather generous and exciting moment in television history.
I bring this up today only because ’tis the season for CMEpalooza giveaways, and we promise that these won’t cost you a dime. Over the last several years, Derek and I have found a number of ways to share our meager wealth with the CMEpalooza audience through a variety of mechanisms. We try to be creative – there is our special sponsor event, some sort of trivia or other session during our actual live broadcast day, and a few other things sprinkled about. This year, however, we are going to be even more generous than usual, and it probably behooves those of you who like to win free money to be on the lookout for these upcoming opportunities:
- Our special sponsor event will kick off next Monday (March 14). I haven’t thought of a theme yet, but I can promise you that it won’t have anything to do with Wordle, or Quordle, or Nerdle, or Poeltl (note from Derek: you forgot Worldle and Heardle.) This is probably also a good reminder for any potential sponsor who is on the fence about their participation this year to get in on the action soon. Many, many thousands of CME professionals participate in our Sponsor event each year, bringing many, many thousands of sets of eyeballs to all of our amazing Sponsors. If you get in your commitment by this Friday, you’ll get included in this Spring’s sponsor event. Total Prize Fund: $500
- The CMEpalooza Feud — I’m not 100% sure how this is going to work (note from Derek: way to sell it, Scott), but for now, I’m thinking that everyone who successfully completes our special sponsor event but does not win one of our Amazon gift card prizes will be thrown into the bucket to be one of our “at home” players during our session at 3 pm ET during CMEpalooza Spring. We’ll give away even more gift cards then. Total Prize Fund: $500
- CMEpalooza Feeds the People — We initially trotted this out in the Fall of 2020, and thanks to the generous folks at Academic CME, it’s back again this Spring (let’s hope that Academic CME doesn’t go the way of Pontiac). We’ll put a call for “applicants” later this month – really, you’ll just need to send Derek an email with a photo of what you ate for dinner last week and you’ll be entered into the drawing for a $15 Grubhub gift card to cover the cost of lunch during CMEpalooza Spring. We’re giving away lots of these (“You Grubhub and you Grubhub and you Grubhub!”). More details to come. Total Prize Fund: $375
CMEPALOOZA 