My inner monologue upon returning from vacation last weekend and reading through the blog posts Scott wrote the week I was gone.

Ahhhhhh, I am feeling fresh and relaxed after a week off. Might as well crank up the ol’ laptop and see what Scott wrote last week. I hope he hit all the key points in his post announcing the 2026 CMEpalooza Fall agenda. Let’s see what we have here…ok, random Back to the Future quote, good, that’s important…reference to us being crochety old men, nice, very on brand…ah ha! Yes! A mention of LeBron James now being on the Sixers! Whew! I was worried he would forget to include that. Great, great, I think he covered all the important stuff. Oh, he did a second post later in the week? Interesting…let’s give this a read…”If you were to ask 10 people to think of an adjective that best describes me, ‘kind’ would not be a word that ended up on anyone’s list”…aww, c’mon, that’s not entirely true. I bet at least a couple people would have it at number 9 or 10 on their lists. Remember that time I met Scott for lunch and I offered to pay but then realized I had left my wallet in the car? He only rolled his eyes a couple times before sighing and paying the bill. That was sort of kind…

Hopefully by now you have all had a chance to check out the new agenda. Though I don’t like to do it too often, I’ll offer a big thank you to Scott for handling the agenda release while I was out on vacation.

Where did Derek go on vacation, you may be asking yourself (you’re probably not, but I’m using it as a literary device so I can tell you where I went and make a point). Good question, and one that I have been asked many times this summer over the course of normal small talk. This year, the responses I have received when I answer the question have been a bit different.

Here’s a typical example:

Them: Are you traveling anywhere for vacation this summer?

Me: Yes, we’re leaving in a couple weeks.

Them: Nice. Where are you going?

Me: Iowa

Them: Oh…why?

After I say “Iowa” there is always a pause, a look of confusion, maybe raised eyebrows, followed by the inevitable “Why?”

The “why” is that we have two very good friends who both teach at Luther College in Decorah, IA, who have been inviting us to come visit them for years. For a number of reasons—including the fact that neither of my kids have much interest in vacationing in Iowa—we had yet to take them up on their offer. Until last week.

Here’s the thing: it was great. Unexpectedly great. If you were born with a coastal bias like me, when you think of Iowa, you think of miles and miles of flat ground populated by cornfields, silos, and maybe a couple of cows. Maybe that’s what the rest of Iowa looks like, I dunno, but unbeknownst to me, the northeastern part of Iowa is part of the Driftless Area of the Midwest. It’s about a 25,000 square foot area of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois that the ice sheets missed during the last Ice Age. Instead of the flatlands typically left behind by the glaciers, this region maintained its craggy bluffs, deep valleys, freshwater streams, etc.

We spent a lovely week kayaking, hiking, and exploring the small but fun town of Decorah. The week ended on a high note with a visit to the Pizza Farm, which is exactly what you think it is. It’s an active farm that also sells pizza. Fantastic. Five stars all around.

As you’re looking through the CMEpalooza Fall agenda and deciding which sessions you want to watch, I encourage you to give consideration to participating in a session or two that you might usually skip. Maybe your role primarily focuses on accreditation, and you don’t have much interest in grants. Or maybe you have been working in IME for half your life and have trouble drumming up much enthusiasm for a session targeting those early in their careers. That’s fine. We recognize that every session isn’t for every learner.

Buuuuuuuuut, it wouldn’t hurt for you to take a couple minutes and check out one of the sessions you shrugged your shoulders at when you read the description. What else are you going to do, work? You say you’re going to work, but we both know you’re not going to work. You’re going to check your phone, look at your socials, send your family a couple funny cat videos, get a cup of coffee, use the bathroom, and generally putz around until the next session starts.

Who knows, maybe the session you thought would be boring will be great. Unexpectedly great.

If you were to ask 10 people to think of an adjective that best describes me, “kind” would not be a word that ended up on anyone’s list. Other 4-letter words, sure, but “kind”? Not so much.

Don’t get me wrong – I have my moments. For instance, when I see someone in and around my neighborhood who looks like they are clearly lost or confused, I will often step in to ask them where they are trying to go and point them in the right direction. It still bothers me that I sent someone the wrong way by mistake 3 summers ago. Totally accidental, Mr. Belgian Tourist, I promise!

No, I am not your classic “nice guy” who is going to go out of my way to help out a stranger or stop in the middle of the block to chat with the new neighbors (but Derek absolutely would!). Which perhaps is why it amazes me that I have fallen into an industry where kindness to relative strangers seems to be an unspoken prerequisite.

Certainly, we have been privy to this in CMEpalooza over the years, not so much when we reach out to people to take part in our sessions since they hopefully feel that this is something they benefit from on a professional level, but moreso when we need some sort of technical or specialized advice on the side. Virtually without exception, people go out of their way to be kind and offer whatever help we need. Often, their help goes far beyond what we expect. We’re paying back some of these “super helpers” (or burdening them excessively, depending on your perspective) by inviting them along for the ride during the upcoming anchor session of CMEpalooza Fall entitled, “Ask Us Anything: Live Rewind.”

(I could use this time to remind everyone to drop a postcard in our virtual “Ask Us Anything” mailbox if you need any personal or professional advice, but that’s not the point of today’s blog post)

In the last month, I was twice reminded of the inordinate kindness of my colleagues. Every now and then, I run into an issue in my non-Palooza duties that has me stumped. Perhaps I’m flummoxed by the non-response of a supporter, or a faculty member has ghosted me for weeks and weeks, or there is a new project I’m working on with some weird innuendos that I have never before encountered. It happens to all of us. Ideally, we have a rolodex (remember those?) of professional colleagues to whom we can reach out to get the answers we need. But there are times when we need specific information that only a select few people in the CME world have access to. These are the times I ran into recently.

I emailed reticently – I’m paraphrasing here – “You don’t know me, but I work in CME too and I’ve got a problem I’m hoping you can help with. Pretty please?” And you know what? Both times, these total strangers not only came to the rescue but they volunteered to talk me through all of the issues I was having and helped to identify some that I hadn’t thought about. Some of them sent me documents and templates that they had created to help keep them on track and encouraged me to use them as well instead of building something new from scratch that likely would have taken hours. Why? What was in it for them? Kindness. That’s apparently what people do around here.

“So tell me neighbor, it looks like you help getting up on that ladder. Anything I can do?”

(Nah, I’ll let Derek handle that one. Just doesn’t feel right yet.)

 

You may be wondering why you haven’t heard anything from Derek or I since we wrapped up CMEpalooza Spring back in April. Here is a brief story to explain…

I was recently out for a secluded hike in the North Carolina woods with a few friends of mine on a drizzly morning when we began to hear a few crackles in the distance.

Gunshots? (There were legal hunting grounds a few miles away)

Thunder? (It was raining, but no threatening dark clouds)

We concluded that the noises were most likely caused by falling trees, even though there wasn’t a wisp of wind. Of course, one of us had to trot out the old adage, “If a tree falls in the forest but no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

During one of our rigorous, full-day planning meetings to discuss CMEpalooza, I relayed this anecdote to Derek. He perked up immediately with one of his “Great Scott!” expressions as if he was Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future.

Me: What? What did I say?

Derek: I have an idea. Bear with me for a minute. It may sound crazy. But what if we plan a Palooza, but don’t tell anyone about it. Did the Palooza still happen?

Having nothing better to do as real work piled up around us, we bandied this question back and forth for a while. I said it definitely did happen. Derek said it didn’t. We bickered like two crotchety old men in line at the grocery store (“Can you believe they are charging $3 for an avocado?”).

But then we decided, hey, let’s take the theoretical and make it practical. We’ll plan sessions, recruit panelists, schedule times, but…and here’s the key… we tell no one. No blog posts. Nothing on LinkedIn. No mentions at CMEpalooza Trivia Night coming up during AIS in September (more soon on this).

Total. Silence.

Riveting, right? You are hooked now, aren’t you? I will admit that it is amazing how creative I can be when I want to cover up for the fact that we simply have been too lazy to write up our usual cadre of new blog posts. Plus, during my hike, a tree actually fell about 10 feet from where I was walking. Fortunately, it fell away from me. Otherwise, this post would be coming to you from a hospital bed, at best (note from Derek: missed again!)

So yes, never fear, my good friends, our lazy streak is over and we are back with a very important CMEpalooza announcement.

LeBron James is a Philadelphia 76er!

Wait, wait, that’s not the one (though still quite important). Ah, here it is.

The 2026 CMEpalooza Fall agenda is officially live.

Now before you get too excited, I should include the caveat that this agenda is a work in progress. Our Gold sponsors — Med Learning Group and Daiichi Sankyo — are still finalizing the details for their sessions, while several of our other panels are filling in some of the final presenter slots. This is par for the Palooza course. But what you will see on our Agenda tab is at least a glimpse of the variety of topics and formats we have in store for you on Wednesday, October 21. We promise to have our usual fun while covering educational topics that resonate across the gamut of providers.

And yes, vacations be damned, we promise not to hibernate for the summer for too much longer.