360: 10 Years of CMEpalooza with Scott Kober and Derek Warnick

Competition from free and low-cost offerings is a reality for many learning businesses. But it’s also true that most learning businesses do offer—or should offer—free or low-cost options in their own portfolios. CMEpalooza offers an interesting case study to examine both for competitive insight and as a potential model to emulate. Scott Kober and Derek Warnick produce CMEpalooza, a free biannual virtual conference for CME and CE professionals. CMEpalooza is a side gig for these fearless co-producers. By day, Derek Warnick works as a grant officer on the global medical team at Pfizer, and Scott Kober is managing director at Excalibur Medical Education. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele talks with return guests Scott and Derek about how COVID did—and didn’t—impact CMEpalooza and how competition does—or doesn’t—factor into their thinking. They also discuss how producing the conference provides them with invaluable market insight and how their value proposition has evolved organically over the years but has always been guided by three principles: high-quality, easy, and free. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode360.