Open discussion post

Anything on your mind? Feel free to comment here on anything on your mind.

Business and marketing questions are always my favorite so ask away!

Merging Medicine IV Conference

If you have questions about our upcoming Merging Medicine IV conference in San Francisco or would like to share a hotel room with another attendee, you can ask your question here or post your information here.

February IV Conference

Are you heading to our February IV Conference on February 21-24 in San Francisco? The conference is just outside of Union Square at Golden Gate University at 536 Mission Street. From the airport (either SF or Oakland airport) just take the BART into SF and exit at Powell Street. This puts you right in Union Square and the conference is only about 5 blocks away.

There are a wide variety of hotel options available. If you want some suggestions of budget options, send me an email and I'll send you a list. Pretty much anything at hotels.com in Union Square is within walking distance or a short bus/taxi ride. I'll be staying the Whitcomb hotel just outside of Union Square (www.hotelwhitcomb.com). Rooms are a reasonable $89 a night and there's a Starbucks downstairs to help you prepare for a full day at the conference.

If you are looking to connect with someone to share a room, feel free to leave your information under this post so that other who might be looking to share a room can find you.

See you in San Francisco!

Promoting the profession

Note: Most of my images will be funny to keep this blog more interesting.

Now that we're getting ready to focus on promoting Naturopathic Medicine in California, we need to start thinking about the most efficient way to get the message out. Since we have a limited budget, I expect much of our work with be focused on grass roots marketing and possibly some limited advertising.

Some ideas currently being bantered about include:
-Running a "Naturopathic Doctors Day" at Whole Foods/Trader Joes type stores in California.
-On air advertising on NPR (National Public Radio) in a small region to see if it has an impact.
-Outreach/education programs to other physician groups or lay healthcare providers to help them understand what a Naturopathic Doctor does and when to refer someone to an ND
-Developing a well produced video on Naturopathic Medicine geared towards the public
-Improving our marketing materials and mass mailings

These are just a few ideas that have been proposed. But I want to hear what you think? THINK CREATIVELY. How would YOU get the message out about Naturopathic Medicine?

What is a Naturopathic Doctor?

I'm sure this feels like a funny question, but honestly it's not.

I've seen alot of explanations on what Naturopathic Medicine is, some good, some not so. On the other hand, I've seen fewer explanations of what a Naturopathic Doctor is. What I've seen seem to focus around a very functional description of NDs talking about the length of education, details of the therapies they employ and that NDs take board exams and are often licensed. Or I see a repeat of the principles of Naturopathic Medicine, which don't really help a person understand what a Naturopathic Doctor is.

I'd like to move the discussion forward where we explain what a Naturopathic Doctor is in a way that the average American can both understand and value. When we can communicate what a Naturopathic Doctor is in a way that the general public can understand, we unlock the key to communicating with the public. Right now, when I ask 10 different NDs what a Naturopathic Doctor is, I get 10 different explanations.

Our goal is to develop a common sense explanation that we can use as we start to develop marketing materials and PR campaigns for both the profession and our Doctors here in California.

So tell me. When someone asks you what a Naturopathic Doctor is, what do you tell them?

Updating the CNDA Website

As you are probably aware, our website needs some updating. The website was originally created in 2004 to support our Association just after NDs were licensed in California and has some decent functionality. However, we've clearly outgrown our small website and have plans to launch a new one in the first half of 2008.

We have a number of ideas of additional things we'd like our new website to do. Mostly, I want to improve it so it becomes a better resource for the public to get additional information about Naturopathic Medicine in California and to provide more information on the specific modalities our NDs provide like IVs and areas of specialization. Plus I want to expand the resources we have in our members section.

What do you think? What else would you like to see our website provide?