It’s CMEpalooza Week! Here’s What You Need to Know

In so many, many ways, it’s been a month like no other. We’ve had to change pretty much every routine in our lives in a manner that would have seemed unfathomable even weeks ago. I find myself zigzagging around the neighborhood like I’m coming off a 2-week bender as I try to avoid getting too close to anyone. I voluntarily took on an art project this weekend to make a mask out of an old t-shirt. Yes, me, the guy who jokes he was the first person to get a “G” in high school art class because I am about as crafty as, err, someone who is not at all crafty. My DIY mask looks like crap, but it works (sort of).

Yet with all the chaos in our lives, CMEpalooza is perhaps the lone “normal” thing left for some of us. It’s nothing more than dumb luck that we were already a virtual meeting and we already had faculty who could participate from just about anywhere before our world came crashing down. Our faculty had all committed to our Spring agenda before the worst of the Covid-19 crisis hit, and they’ve fortunately all stayed with us (thanks to all of them). It’s almost been business as usual across the board.

I know it’s been a bit of a personal salvation to be able to turn to the blog and lean on our panelists, sponsors, and other friends when things get a bit too heavy, to be able to turn to CMEpalooza to help breathe and calm myself down a bit. We hope that we’ve brought a smile and sense of calm to your lives, at least a little, in this past month and that our Spring broadcast from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET this Wednesday, April 15, will help you feel a little bit normal again too.

We’ll have some more specifics coming up in the next 2 days to help you navigate through things, but here are a few tips to help you settle in to join us on Wednesday:

1. If you haven’t done so already check out the full Spring agenda. Yes, you’ll be hearing a good deal throughout the day about how Covid-19 is impacting our industry and will continue to do so in the near future, but we also have some sessions planned where you may not hear much about it at all. I think we can all agree that sometimes we just need a break from all the talk about the current health pandemic to focus on other things that are going on in the world.
2. There is no pre-registration or forms to fill out to watch any of our sessions. Just go to LIVE tab to tune in. It’s all free, as it always has been. Maybe you’ve got a fancy office setting like Derek with a TV and a Roku Stick so you can beam our sessions on the big screen while you “work.” That’d be pretty cool.
3. If you miss any of our sessions, fear not. They land in the Archives pretty quick (like, within an hour).
4. We’ll be using Poll Everywhere for several of our sessions to bring some interactivity to our panels. You’ll be able to participate either on your laptop/desktop through their website (www.polleverywhere.com) or on your tablet/phone through their app (you can download it here). The meeting code this Spring is cmepalooza000 (we’ll remind you on Wednesday).
5. We’ve got a few new features we’ll be introducing this year. I am personally giddy with anticipation for the debut of CMEpalooza Stretch. I won’t tell you when it’s happening. Just know that Derek is really, really excited about it too (Note from Derek: I am…less excited about it than Scott.)
6. If you have a few minutes and want to check out the “best of the best” in CME, poke through the work our Sponsors have been doing. Crises often beget innovation, and I’m proud to see some of the education our community has been able to share in recent weeks to the knowledge-starved medical community and general public.
7. Make sure you have plenty of toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, construction paper, papier mache, and paper airplanes lying around. Because, you know, the paper product line is going to be the first thing to go in time of national emergency. I really don’t get this one.