Are exhibitor/sponsor personnel allowed to attend sessions at my annual meeting?
Exhibitors and sponsors are not prohibited from attending accredited CE sessions. However, it's worth monitoring these spaces for potential non-compliance issues. For example, if a sponsor lugs a bag of marketing materials into an accredited CE session room, they've introduced marketing influence into a designated educational space. This is non-compliant with Standard 5.
Can our annual meeting sponsor fund and stream our event for virtual attendees?
If your sponsor is an ineligible company, they can help cover the cost of streaming your activity online via in-kind or grant support, but they cannot control the stream nor your learners' access to it. Per the ACCME's Standard 5, "ineligible companies may not provide access to, or distribute, accredited education to learners." This helps to ensure the sponsor will not infuse the content with any marketing, and your learners will not be inundated with promotional material.
