I went to the movie theater last Sunday afternoon (Project Hail Mary — highly recommend). Online, it said the movie was scheduled to start at 4:30 pm, so like dutiful citizens, we got to our seats at 4:28.

“Perfect timing,” I thought, silently patting myself on the back for timing things so nicely. “Just in time to settle in for a few minutes of previews before getting to the main attraction.”

Well…. not exactly.

Because these “few minutes of previews” turned into 7 actual movie previews, 3 product commercials, 2 movie theater promotions, and 1 reminder to turn off your cell phones and embrace the silence. 4:30 became 4:40 became 4:50 became 5 p.m. Finally, at exactly 5:02 p.m., our 2 hour, 37 minute movie began. So much for our 7:30 p.m. dinner reservations.

I know, I know. We should have known better. The “coming attractions” prelude to the movie itself has become longer and longer as the years have gone by. I predict that by 2030, the length of the previews will excede the length of the movie itself. I suppose these are money makers for the theaters, but it’s painful for the movie goer.

Fortunately, here at Palooza HQ, we are far less greedy than your average theater owner. Our “coming attractions” blog post (that’s this one) is going to clock in well under 500 words, so you will still have most of your morning free after reading this.

Coming attraction #1: Our special sponsor event (theme TBA) will kick off on Monday. This will be your chance to learn a little something interesting about our many fine sponsors while also having a chance to earn some lovely cash prizes (go buy some Junior Mints)

Coming attraction #2: The following week marks the return of CMEpalooza’s STEPtacular Challenge. One of the benefits of pushing back our Spring event for a week is that the weather should be nice and comfy for your stroll around the neighborhood. Again, cash prizes along with some much-needed exercise to burn off those excess wintertime pounds (just me?).

Main event: CMEpalooza Spring is still from 9 am-5 pm ET on Wednesday, April 29. Let’s hope that Derek puts it into his calendar this time. (note from Derek: I deserve that.)

Over the course of the last 12 months, I have read a variety of books and watched several documentaries about the career arcs of successful singers/bands from the 1970s-80s. REM, Billy Joel, Chicago, Carly Simon, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linda Ronstandt, and others. While every one of these has their own story and unique twists, the career arcs are remarkably similar and look something like this.

Basically, the singer or band plays around with their sound for a few years in their teens and/or early 20s, people float in and out of the initial lineup, and some lone wolf talent scout/producer “discovers” them and signs them to a horribly one-sided contract that the singer/band never reads because they just want “to focus on the music.”

The singer/band slowly starts building a local/regional following before — BOOM! — they take off like a rocket. Top 10 hits. Gold records. Sold out arenas. The creative juices are flowing, and the group can do no wrong. The bandmates are all best friends and living it up.

Then comes the inevitable plateau. Things are still good. There are a few more hits and many records are still being sold, but cracks begin forming. Drug/alcohol use and late-night partying becomes more important that the music, in-fighting starts to occur, and everyone finally realizes that, “Hey, why aren’t we being paid very much money despite our success? Where is that initial contract anyway?” Fingers begin being pointed every which way.

This is when the decline begins. The group has been touring nonstop for years just to make some money after lawyers free them from their initial onerous contracts. Creativity and passion plummet. It’s no longer “all about the music.” The next record bombs, the record label threatens to drop them, and the band fractures. Maybe the lead singer decides to go out on his/her own, maybe the drummer who has been consistently late for rehearsals is replaced, maybe someone goes into drug/alcohol rehab (OK, pretty much always someone goes into drug/alcohol rehab).

Once things settle down, the singer/band may have another blip of success, but more likely settle into their role as a “nostalgia” band. They will often still record new material, but it’s rarely inspired or successful. The best of them will still play to packed arenas as they embrace sobriety and give their now-middle aged, moneyed audience a reminder of their younger, carefree days (Good God, Willie Nelson is still touring at 93!).

After watching the most recent of these documentaries, I got to thinking how CMEpalooza aligns to this sort of career arc. There are a few similarities. Certainly, Derek started CMEpalooza and I joined shortly thereafter with hopes for success but just a vague blueprint of what that might look like. As we gained traction, both with sponsors and our audience of CME professionals, we grew in popularity. You might say our “big hit,” ironically enough, happened during COVID, when the whole world was virtual and CMEpalooza was one of the few established events that continued unencumbered. The audience for our events basically doubled overnight.

In those days, we had a lot of creative ideas for sessions, and our blog stayed busy as we regularly emailed each other with “Hey, I’ve got another idea for a blog post this week. Wait, so do you? Great!”  We were rolling along.

Assuming we follow the trajectory of the musical superstars—presumably skipping over the stint in alcohol/drug rehab—this is about the time we should hit our plateau and, quite frankly, that is a scary proposition. No one wants to be on the decline in anything that they do, and dammit, we’re going to fight like hell to stay on top.

We still have spurts of creativity (admit it, you love the CMEslinger), although it can be harder to tap into at times (note from Derek: a lot harder). Our “Hey, I’ve got another idea for a blog post this week!” exchanges don’t come quite as frequently as they used to. Personally, what gets me excited most often these days is exchanging ideas with our community and getting them to challenge me to come up with creative solutions. We have a few sessions this Spring that are pushing the envelope and usual boundaries of education, which is always fun and professionally enriching.

Will we still be doing CMEpalooza on our 93rd birthdays? Probably! (OK, definitely not). But I also hope that we’re not going to be that nostalgia band who people watch simply for the memories of those good old days any time soon. I think we still have a few years of life in us.

Imagine it’s late 1991. You’re sitting in the driver’s seat of your used Mazda RX-7 in the 7-Eleven parking lot, sucking on the straw of your Big Gulp filled with ice cold Orange Crush, which you bought to calm yourself down after you accidentally dropped your Queensrÿche Empire cassette on the ground and clumsily trod over it with your black British Knights high tops. Disaster!

Wiping an orange drop off your Bugle Boy jeans and adjusting the class ring you just picked up from Jostens, you snap on the car radio and rest your mulleted head back against the headrest as the opening strains of Temple of the Dog’s Hunger Strike begins to play.

Oh great, you mumble to yourself, just what we need, another pseudo-grunge Pearl Jam knockoff.

Then the lead singer makes his first appearance.

I don’t mind stealin’ bread..

Hold on a minute, you think. That sounds like Eddie Vedder.

From the mouths of decadents…

You straighten up in your seat a little. That is Eddie Vedder. What’s going on here? Is there a new Pearl Jam song out? And old unreleased song? Whatever it is, it’s pretty good. Your day just got a little bit better.

You keep listening, nodding along, making a note to next time ask Sheila at the Hair Cuttery to trim the top a little shorter so your gelled-up spikes don’t brush the roof of the RX-7. So annoying!

Then the chorus kicks in.

I’m going hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…(going hungryyyyy-AYYYYYY)

Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. No, that can’t be right. That sounds like Chris Cornell doing the echo, but that’s impossible.

You reach out and turn up the volume.

I’m going hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…(going hungryyyyy-AYYYYYY)

I’m going hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…(going hungryyyyy-AYYYYYYAYYAYY)

I’m going hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…(going hungryyyyy-AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY)

That is definitely Chris Cornell. You would recognize his voice anywhere, because if Pearl Jam is your favorite band, then Soundgarden is next on the list.

You keep listening, still a bit stunned, to Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell trading lead vocals for the rest of the song. It’s hard for you to believe that, unexpectedly, some of your favorite people are together in the same place.

Last week, I had the pleasure of joining two of my favorite colleagues, Karen Roy and Greselda Butler, for a presentation on Bridging the Gap: What Medical Affairs Can Learn from CME to Elevate External Education at the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) Annual Americas Meeting. It was my first time attending MAPS and, if I’m doing my math correctly, my first time presenting at a non-CME/CE conference. I’m pretty sure that’s accurate. At the very least, it’s been quite a while since I’ve done a presentation that was not primarily focused on a CME/CE audience.

I’ve been attending the Alliance conference for 25 years, and when I go, I see more familiar faces than unfamiliar faces. It’s basically a reunion of old friends and colleagues. Since this was my first time attending MAPS, I saw far fewer familiar faces…or so I expected.

One of the cool things for me at the conference was that I kept running into pockets of IME friends at different times and places: strolling down the conference hall; presenting at a workshop; grabbing lunch from the table stacked with extremely mediocre sandwiches; at the hotel lobby bar after the last session. Hey, is that Wendy at the podium? I think that’s John holding a glass of white wine. Shoot, Mike just took the last turkey wrap. Familiar faces in unexpected places. It was fun to unexpectedly find some of my favorite people together in the same place.

A unique trait of the CME/CE community is that it is just that—a community. We do the same work. We work in the same places. We go to the same meetings. We know the same people. We have our ups and downs. People come and people go. But we are a community and that’s something I truly appreciate.