Help with a protocol Question about aos judging.

[DeAnne]

I recently took a cattleya for judging. To my shock it won an AM/AOS. this is the first time I even went to a show where judging was done,and I thought the flower was nice, but really had no idea what to expect. The judge called me and said to come up to the show and pick up my awarded orchid before the show was over.,and provide a clonal name. At the bottom of the award photo it listed sponsors What is the function of the sponsors? I am very new to this sort of stuff even though I've been growing orchids for nearly 40 years.I'm embarrassed to know so little about the process.
thank you in advance for any help.
DeAnne