Austin, Texas · November 2026 · Venue to be announced
The Future of
Botanical Medicine
Education → Research → Data
An exclusive medical briefing and fundraiser bridging clinical care, public policy and federal healthcare integration — for the people who will set the standardization framework for physician-guided botanical medicine.
Purpose & Goals
One night that does three jobs.
Raise meaningful funds, launch the NCCC / Texas Compassionate Care Council with the Texas medical establishment in the room, and convert healthcare leaders into members and allies. This is not a gala — it is a medical briefing with a dinner around it, and the audience is the strategy.
$200,000+ gross: fifteen tables at $10,000, twenty-five to thirty VIP seats at $1,250–$1,500, and an auction and fund-a-need alongside. Beyond the night itself, the pipeline goal is converting attendees into members and allies who support evidence-based policy in Texas and nationally.
The Case for Support
Three pillars
Three pillars that reinforce each other and give donors and investors a concrete answer to the only question that matters: what is my money doing?
Education
CME and grand rounds programming that gets physicians credentialed and confident discussing and prescribing botanical and cannabinoid medicine — the front line for patient access.
Research
A botanical research platform and federal pathways that separate consumer hemp from medical-grade cannabis, advancing formulations aimed at specific clinical and oncology targets.
Data
Real-world evidence generated where education and research meet — Texas-first cost-savings and outcomes data that makes the case to ACOs, payers and regulators, and feeds back into the other two pillars.
Use of funds: roughly $100,000 to CME education and grand rounds — getting physicians deployed and engaged — with the balance supporting core council functions: federal and state policy reform, real-world-evidence infrastructure and healthcare savings analysis. Named and tangible, stated plainly early in the program.
Progress & Impact to Date
Six months in, stated plainly.
The council launched in February 2026. What it has to show, and how progress will be measured going forward, opens the program.
Membership growth
Still early and a work in progress — stated plainly rather than avoided.
Policy engagement
Productive engagement with Congress and federal agencies, including movement on the scheduling conversation, with draft policy documents already circulating.
Media traction
Building visibility deliberately to support the policy push.
Next six months
A policy solution on a cannabinoid framework and a functional CME program at the federal or state level — or real-world evidence generated outside it.
CME Education
The business model & the physician draw.
The core tension
The audience funding this work is not the audience being educated. Investors expect visible return — name recognition and brand placement; physicians need a clear reason to give up the time.
The physician draw
Rather than paying physicians to attend, a structured, specific checklist for incorporating cannabinoid therapy into practice — a practical takeaway, not just a lecture.
Differentiator
An accreditor is already lined up. Accredited cannabis education is harder to find than cannabis education generally — a real market gap worth leading with.
Urgency
Federal rescheduling is moving. Physicians who get educated ahead of it keep patients who would otherwise go to those already ahead of the curve.
Event Concept
A briefing with a dinner around it
Austin, Texas — venue to be confirmed. Arena Hall's remodel runs to March 2027, making it a fallback rather than the primary plan; the search is for warm, architectural, executive-level spaces, not a ballroom.
Plated VIP dinner of eight to ten per table, keynote, clinical fireside chat, silent auction and a live fund-a-need moment. 120–150 guests — full enough to feel important, small enough to feel exclusive.
Highly curated and restrained. Science first, celebrity as draw, no fire hose of information — every guest able to repeat the mission in one sentence.
Willie's for drinks and brand presence; Standard Seed on standards; ECCO pending, extending the invitation list into philanthropy and aligned health leadership.
The Evening
Program
VIP Reception & Auction Preview
Cocktails and acoustic music, with a private meet-and-greet with the celebrity host and speakers reserved for table sponsors.
Dinner & Clinical Program
Welcome and vision from NCCC leadership, then a celebrity keynote on destigmatizing medicine and expanding access, and the urgency of acting now — followed by the clinical core.
- Dr. Sharif (Standard Seed) — standards, the botanical AI platform and the flavonoid–cancer findings; why seed-to-medicine agricultural consistency makes clinical research possible.
- Dr. George Valdez — how botanical therapeutics change end-of-life care, reduce opioid reliance and improve quality of life in Texas health systems, with a short endocannabinoid system primer.
- Dr. Sue Sisley / Field to Healed — FDA Phase 2b trials in veterans and first responders; right-to-try and compassionate access.
- NIH representatives — federal grant leadership, an entrée the investor audience will find credible.
- Data platform preview — a short live demo of the ACO data-aggregation framework, the tangible face of the data pillar.
- Patient story — one patient, via Realm of Caring or Texas Oncology, the emotional centre of the night, placed immediately before the ask.
Call to Action & The Reveal
Impact presentation, a live fund-a-need anchored by a named matching challenge, and a silent auction close around a marquee item — with clear communication on where donations go. Then the reveal: free or reduced-cost CME course credit for a set number of Texas physicians, kept out of pre-event materials so it lands on the night.
Networking, Espresso & Digestif
Board members work assigned prospect lists; pledge cards and membership one-pagers at every table.
The Room
The invitation list is the fundraising strategy.
Healthcare leadership
Current and former TMA leadership, health system and ACO CEOs, Texas Oncology leadership, Menninger Clinic, the Houston VA and Texas veterans groups, senior-care and nursing home executives, and university department chairs at UT, Texas Tech, Baylor and Dell Med.
Philanthropy & industry
Healthcare philanthropists, the Arena Hall community, faith and Jewish community leaders, standardized medical-first hemp and cannabis executives, and consumer wellness brands pooling sponsorship under a shared standardization framing.
Public sector
Current and former state health officials, legislators and policy advisors — invited under the educational briefing framing with a compliant registration path, including a direct channel through the Speaker's office.
Physicians & patients
Practicing physicians and patient voices attending gratis through Realm of Caring and Texas Oncology.
Working Group RFP & Project Pipeline
Specific, vetted projects — not general support.
Before invitations go out, an internal RFP runs across the NCCC working groups — education and grand rounds, ACO outreach, research and data — so the evening can point to funded work with names attached.
Process
NCCC members, starting with the working groups, submit project proposals. Each group defines its own mission and deliverables, and the new Grants Committee reviews submissions and directs funds against an internal rubric.
Scenario planning
A prepared answer for what $100K, $200K and $500K raised would each fund.
Research × ACO tie-in
The research and data group is aligning with ACO outreach on Texas-specific data collection on cost savings and outcomes from integrating cannabinoid therapy — informing CME content and a possible standalone study.
Data platform
An initial data-aggregation framework modelling how ACOs align is expected to demo by October — a concrete, live illustration of the data pillar on event night.
Support
Tables & Seats
Sponsor Table
Eight to ten seats, private meet-and-greet with the host and speakers, recognition throughout the evening.
VIP Seat
Individual seating at the plated dinner with full access to the reception and clinical briefing.
Non-Gift Registration
Fair market value of the meal, for public officials attending within Texas ethics limits.
Host committee
Ten to twelve committee members from the board, the medical advisory board and sponsoring leadership, each committed to selling or buying one table before invitations drop. The event should be 70% sold before it is public.
Compliance & ethics
Invitations lead with the scientific briefing and clinical panel to satisfy state and federal ethics rules for official attendance, with CME accreditation pursued for the clinical segment.
The NCCC is a 501(c)(4); contributions are not tax-deductible. Deductible giving is routed through a 501(c)(3) partner — Field to Healed and/or Realm of Caring — with counsel-reviewed allocation, and receipts clearly split deductible contributions from non-deductible meal fair market value and c4 support. The final entity structure is being settled with counsel before ask language is fixed.
Owners & Timeline
The road to November
August
Lock an alternate November venue now that the Arena Hall remodel runs to March 2027. Resolve the c3/c4 structure with counsel, circulate the proposal and the three-pillar case, stand up the event website, and distribute the working-group RFP.
September
Lock the celebrity keynote, confirm speakers, recruit the host committee, secure the matching challenge, engage a Texas event planner, and begin CME accreditation.
October
Invitations out with 70% of tables pre-sold; auction items secured; production plan set; prospect sheet live with follow-up owners assigned.
November
Event week: final ethics review of the guest list, day-of run of show, a 48-hour follow-up sprint, and membership asks out within one week.