What’s on the CMEpalooza Fall Agenda?

In the last few weeks before each of our live CMEpalooza broadcasts, our blogs typically become spaces where we’re launching events (or reminding you to enter them, or telling you who won prizes) or finding silly ways to entertain you (“cough cough, haiku!”). We probably don’t do enough to actually, you know, whet your appetite for the education you are going to be seeing during CMEpalooza itself.

Well, my friends, today begins a new chapter that more than likely won’t be replicated in future years because I’ll be too lazy busy, so you should take advantage of these insights now into what to expect next week when CMEpalooza Fall takes place.

1. It might help if you refresh your memory by taking a look at our Fall agenda. This will give you a sense of what sort of topics you’ll be hearing about and who you’ll be hearing from. It’s a fairly diverse menu.
2. What might strike you first is what is not on the agenda (at least not in any big way) — AI in CME. This seems to be the year of education about the current/future impact of AI in CME, and we’ll have a sprinkling of it here and there, but no more than that. Frankly, it’ll be good to take a break from thinking about this topic too much – it seems like AI in CME is front and center at every other industry educational event these days. I am sure it will come back around to CMEpalooza in 2025, but our Fall agenda is a good reminder that there are still plenty of other important issues we need to talk about.
3. So then let’s turn to what is on this agenda that you don’t hear nearly as much about these days. Things like millennial perspectives of CME, outcomes claims data, and (my personal favorite) the wild world of podcasts. Why podcasts? Isn’t that, I dunno, kind of a 2010 thing? Well, it might surprise you — I know it surprised me — but one supporter recently told me that the No. 1 proposed delivery mechanism they see in current grant requests is podcasts. Not live activities, not enduring broadcasts, but podcasts. Part of me understands it — podcasts are inexpensive to develop and produce — but I still was not aware of how ubiquitous they have become in medical education. I know how pervasive they are in the broader world (thank you, Kelce brothers), but I’ll be interested to hear from this panel about best practices in planning, recording, and marketing quality podcasts. I used to host a variety of podcasts for clients using just my cell phone to record the interviews. I’m assuming there are better ways to do things (note from Derek: there are [rolls eyes]).
4. We’re going to be trying out some new technology during one or more of the sessions. We love to be experimental during CMEpalooza. Things like our audience response system (sponsored this fall by Horizon CME) are more or less second nature by now, and we’ve done other quirky technology things over the years. I won’t give away what we’re testing out next week, but hopefully it’ll be cool and, well, actually work.
5. Secrets and surprises. One of our favorite things about CMEpalooza being in its 10th year is that we don’t have to personally get involved in the planning of content of each session anymore. Frankly, we don’t have any better idea than you do about how our panels are going to pull off most of these sessions. Will there be costumes? A murder mystery? A special appearance by Taylor Swift? You never know…