You’re all in for a special treat today (no, it’s not ice cream). I’m going to let you in on the creative process Scott and I go through when we’re planning CMEpalooza. Below is a paraphrased version of how we decided to do a Pecha Kucha during the last CMEpalooza Fall. Feel free to try and replicate our brainstorming process in your own professional life.

Me: We should do a Pecha Kucha during CMEpalooza Fall.

Scott: I have no idea what that is.

Me: 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide, auto-advancing.

Scott: Sounds dumb.

Me: It will be great.

Scott: Whatevs.

End scene. Of course, I was right and it was great and you should all immediately go and watch it now, if you haven’t already done so.

In all seriousness, we did get a lot of feedback that people enjoyed the Pecha Kucha format and would love to see it again. So, your wish is our command — we’re doing a Pecha Kucha at CMEpalooza Spring! Here are some of the details:

• Go here to submit a Pecha Kucha abstract. This is not to be confused with an abstract for a regular CMEpalooza Spring session, which can also be submitted today, tomorrow, or next week.
• Submissions are due by the end of the day on February 1. Same deadline for the regular abstracts.
• What is a Pecha Kucha? Go here for more details on the format.
• We’re leaving the topic open ended. It should relate to CPD/CME, but otherwise, it’s up to you.
• As with everything palooza-related, the process is fluid. We plan to have five presentations during the Pecha Kucha. If we get more than five submissions, we’ll do a similar crowdsourcing process as we are doing with the regular CMEpalooza Spring submissions.

If you have never done a Pecha Kucha presentation before — and I’m guessing most of you reading this have not — I encourage you to challenge yourself and give it a try. It’s not easy, but I think most of the presenters from the CMEpalooza Fall Pecha Kucha would agree that the experience of preparing and presenting a Pecha Kucha was an interesting and rewarding experience. If you have any questions about, please feel free to reach out to me.

The sponsorship prospectus for CMEpalooza 2016 is officially done and ready for public consumption (by which I mean, I made a PDF and put it on the Sponsor tab). There are 3 different primary levels of sponsorship – Gold, Silver, and Bronze – as well as a few other opportunities to consider. We always hope that we provide value to our sponsors, and the feedback we have gotten from past sponsors has always been good.

But don’t just take my word for it.

Here are some 100% REAL (wink wink) comments from past sponsors who benefited from sponsoring a past Palooza:

Director of CME from a really big pharmaceutical company: “We were getting a lot of grief from the public for the pricing of our drugs, but once the world found out we were a sponsor of CMEpalooza, it was like some magic floodgate of positive vibes opened up for us. You guys saved us. Thank you Scott and Derek!”

President of an extremely well respected medical education company: “We were on the verge of insolvency – couldn’t get a grant approved to save our lives. Once we signed on as a sponsor of CMEpalooza, it was like some sort of magic floodgate opened and we had a record year financially. You guys saved us. Thank you Scott and Derek!”

CEO of a really prominent online educational platform developer: “The morale and creativity within the walls of our company were trickling to a crawl. It got so bad that we were talking about doing a fax blast (!) to our partners asking them for ideas that could help us. Once we aligned ourselves with CMEpalooza and saw how innovative and creative you guys are, it was like some magic floodgate opened and we came up with all kinds of cool ideas. You guys saved us. Thank you Scott and Derek!”

Former assistant project manager at a global technology company: “I tried to convince my boss (who I hated) that it would be a smart business decision to sponsor CMEpalooza. She said no. Her boss happened to be standing outside her door at the time she voiced her decision. She got fired for rejecting such an obviously brilliant suggestion. Guess who the boss is now, sister? You guys saved my career. Thank you Derek and Scott!”

So really, with all of the lives we’ve changed and businesses we have saved, doesn’t a 2016 sponsorship make business sense for your organization as well? You can check out the various sponsorship packages on the Sponsor tab and then make your decision. Contacting me is easy (no faxes please).

You like data? We got data. Below is our CMEpalooza Fall 2015 infographic summarizing some of the key takeaways from the meeting. Two highlights for me:

1. This was easily our most successful program in terms of participants/viewers. For the first time, we had a session with more than 200 live viewers (Why Did My Grant Request Get Rejected?) and every session but one had more than 200 combined live and archive viewers. Additionally, approximately 20% of the 84 participants who completed our survey watched CMEpalooza Fall with at least one other person, so the actual number of viewers is likely higher. For perspective, the highest amount of viewers I had for a session during the inaugural CMEpalooza was 50. The low was 10.
2. I continue to be honored and humbled by the kind and flattering comments on our post-activity survey, but two in particular made me happy. The comments were from two small, nonprofit organizations, thanking us for the free education provided by CMEpalooza, since it is often a struggle for them to budget funds for CPD for their staff. This is the reason I started CMEpalooza, and it is why Scott and I continue to do it.

As always, I’d like to give the creative geniuses at infograph-ed a big thank you for putting together the infographic for us. It’s you’re looking for a cool and unique way to display information, I recommend popping over to their website and checking out what they have to offer.

And lastly, a quick reminder that we are now accepting abstracts for CMEpalooza Spring 2016. Click here for more details. Due date is February 1, so don’t wait too long!