Last week, we hosted our inaugural CMEpalooza Company Spotlight, gathering four employees from Educational Measures for a moderated discussion highlighting the company’s current work and the services they provide, and offering a glimpse into the future of audience response and engagement technology.

A week later, the Spotlight broadcast has been viewed by close to 100 individuals, including 33 who watched the live iteration.

I hear what you are saying, “100 people! That’s it? I could post a video of my cat sleeping for 5 minutes and I’d get 10,000 views in an hour!” And that’s probably true.

But Company Spotlights aren’t videos designed for quick entertainment. People who watched the live version of our 30-minute Spotlight broadcast watched for an average of nearly 20 minutes (engagement among those who watched the enduring version was somewhat less). That’s tells me that a good number of CME folks watched and learned about Educational Measures. Every one of them is a potential customer.

Can Derek or I guarantee that any of those viewers will lead to business? Guarantee? No. Hope? Of course.

Is this broadcast going to be more effective than spending 3 days in an exhibit hall, flying in a team to stand there and pray for traffic? We’d like to think so, but we’re biased. It’s just a different sort of approach, that’s for sure.

So why are we telling you all this? Why should you care?

It’s simple. We want to do more of these. And we think it’s a real opportunity for companies to expose themselves in an innovative way to potential funders and partners in the CME community.

Think about how much time and effort it takes just to get just one individual with any sort of decision making power to talk to you about your company. We’re talking days of emails and/or phone calls, scheduled and rescheduled appointments… all for 30 minutes of face time. With a CMEpalooza Company Spotlight, you get the undivided attention of dozens of people who have taken time out of their day to learn about you for far less effort and energy.

Alas, this is not a free service we are offering, so there is a value proposition that you need to consider. Organizations in the CME space are notoriously stingy about spending money on marketing. We are a face-to-face community, by and large. Catalogs and mailers and email blast campaigns simply don’t work in our field.

But when Derek and I brainstormed the seeds of Company Spotlights, we hoped we had hit upon a unique niche idea that solved a fundamental problem among CME-focused organizations – getting needed publicity without being obnoxiously and overtly pushy. At the very least, we hope it’s something you think about as you consider where your organization is going this year and into the future. We created a separate tab on the CMEpalooza website to host all of our spotlights, and it’s looking a bit lonely right now.

Maybe you are unveiling something unique that you want to promote. Maybe you just want everyone to know that you have talented people doing something better than anyone else. We’ll work with you on the agenda for your Spotlight so that it’s not obnoxious marketing but instead, an informational session that lets you show off your best side.

We have all the information you’ll need to see the ins and outs of these Spotlights right here. Or email/call us – we’re helpful people. Usually.

Crazy things happen when the CMEpalooza Company Spotlight turns on.

People lose their train of thought, reduced to bumbling idiots (or in Derek’s case, more of a bumbling idiot). They tell you about things they wouldn’t dare tell anyone at a cocktail party (“Um, what’s a CME?”). You just don’t know.

Now that we’ve piqued your interest, come join us at noon today for our inaugural company spotlight when we throw the team from Educational Measures under the microscope to learn about ways they are using their technologies to improve the delivery of CME in a variety of settings.

Just swing on over to the LIVE tab on the website to watch the live broadcast. As with our typical CMEpalooza sessions, you’ll be able to ask questions of our panelists during the broadcast and be dazzled with our fancy wardrobes.

Put down your grog of ale for a moment and listen up lads and lassies!

It’s taken a little bit longer than we had hoped, but Derek and I are thrilled to finally be able to present to everyone our CMEpalooza Fall agenda. We took into account feedback we had received from past Palooza participants and tried hard to come up with an interesting mix of topics and faculty. Needless to say, we are tickled with what we’ve been able to put together.

Here is what you’ll find on Wednesday, October 21:

• Six 1-hour panel sessions, with 1 more open lunchtime slot for a second Gold sponsor to join Genentech (if you are interested in becoming that second Gold sponsor, the details on how to do so are here)
• Lots of fresh faces to CMEpalooza. While there are a couple folks who will be back for a second or third time around, we’ve mostly tried to bring in new people with a new perspective on the world of CME. We’ve even got an international contingent (if you consider Canada to be international)
• Several new formats, including the inaugural CMEpalooza Pecha Kucha (what’s a Pecha Kucha, you ask? An exotic tropical fruit, perhaps?)
• Sessions aimed at folks who work in various settings, including hospitals and hospital systems, member associations, and more.

We’ll be checking in regularly over the next few months with updates on each session, video interviews, learner polls, and other cool things. In the meantime, we’re taking a nap.