CMEpalooza Fall… By the Numbers

In the months leading up to CMEpalooza Fall, we were often asked, “How many people attended the inaugural spring CMEpalooza? And how many do you expect at this one?”

Our answers? “We’re really not sure.” And, “We’re really not sure.”

So much for a data-driven industry.

This time around, however, we have a much better handle on these sorts of things. And 7 hours of education later (with a few days to decompress and let the numbers sink in), we’re happy to report the following:

• The CMEpalooza website attracted 449 unique visitors and 3,042 page views on the day of the event, both daily records for the site.
• There were between 64 and 103 live viewers at any given time for our 7 sessions (note: one viewer can sometimes equal greater than one participant. See first bullet point under the survey data description below). The most viewed live panel was our “Have We Forgotten About the Content in Continuing Medical Education?” session. On average, the live audience for CMEpalooza was about double what we saw for the spring event.
• According to YouTube, there have been 1,343 views of our sessions. Currently, the most viewed session is “The Future of CME: What Will CME/CPD Look Like in 5-10 Years?”
• Since we announced the date and format of CMEpalooza Fall on May 13, we had 10,388 page views to this website. Some days (namely, the weekends), we only had 10-20 folks who came to the site, while most weekdays, especially when new content was made available, we ranged between 50-150 page views.

In addition to this raw data, we also received completed surveys from 116 individuals (thank you to all of them). If you didn’t complete one, there is still time. Go here.

Here is what we learned so far:

• Of the survey cohort, the majority (90%) watched CMEpalooza alone, although there were several large groups, some with as many as 25 individuals who gathered to marvel at the wisdom of our panelists.
• Our audience was diverse, with 38% from medical education companies, 12% from both hospitals and medical schools, 8% from both industry and medical associations/foundations, 7% from medical specialty societies, and 16% from the mysterious “other” category
• People gave us a lot of feedback about CMEpalooza Fall, such as:

I think it would be nice to have some presentations on the nuts and bolts of things, like QI – maybe the project manager who actually worked through the QI project and not the CEO or Dean who just oversaw the process. (Our response: Yes, always good to remember that people in the trenches have lots to teach as well)

I think this is a great initiative — steep climb to make changes in entrenched system (Our response: The more we do it, the easier the climb)

Can’t afford to attend in person meetings for CME education/providers so this is so welcome and appreciated! (Our response: The “free” thing is good for sure)

CMEpalooza Fall is AWESOME (Our response: With a capital ‘A’)

Need more controversy! How about a debate next year? (Our response: Next year? There is going to be a next year? Well, OK, if you insist)

I love eggs (Our response: We love bacon)

Number of times the word “love” was used in feedback for CMEpalooza Fall: 8 (Our response: You’re pretty OK, too!)

As with any robust data set, there are many ways these numbers can be cut up and presented, and we’ll likely do some cutting to get a better handle on our audience as we attempt to build on our success for next year (wait, next year? There’s going to be a next year? OK, fine, fine).