We Wish You a CMEpalooza Abstract Idea

In the Kober household, one of our favorite holiday games is unofficially called, “What day is it today?” Since we are all off from work and/or school for at least the majority of this stretch, it’s a fun game to challenge your memory.

Here is how you play:

1. You wake up (some of us earlier than others. Teenagers with no school? Why bother being awake when the sun is still up?)
2. You remember that you aren’t planning on doing any work today. Yippee!
3. But then you can’t remember what you are supposed to do today. You know you are getting together with your friends from high school on Thursday and then your aunt and uncle are coming over for dinner on Saturday, but you have no idea what day of the week it is. Christmas was on, uh, Tuesday? So (counting on fingers) that would make today, um, maybe Friday? Crap, did you miss your night out with your friends?
4. You roll over and ask the wife, “Today is Friday, right?”
5. She wakes up grumpily and says, “Wrong. Check your phone.” And goes back to sleep.
6. You hop out of bed, look at your phone, and gleefully see that it is Wednesday. But which Wednesday? The Wednesday before you are getting together with your friends, or the Saturday after? You consider waking the wife again to ask but value your life too much.
7. You realize you can figure it out by turning on the TV and seeing if there is a football game on. And yes, indeed, it’s everyone favorite – the Pop-Tart Bowl on CBS. That would mean it’s, um, well, that really doesn’t mean anything right now because there is a football game on (college and/or pro) pretty much every day. Crap.
8. You go back to bed.

Especially during years like this one where Christmas and New Year’s both fell in the middle of the week, playing “What day is it today?” became particularly fun.

However, now we are all sadly back to reality. Today is most definitely Tuesday, which means it’s time to rev up the old CMEpalooza engine again. We’ll got some fun stuff on tap in the near future (including the return of everyone’s favorite CME superhero), but we’re starting things off by tapping into the creative energy of our little community to help us with our CMEpalooza Spring agenda.

Yes indeed, the planning has begun for CMEpalooza Spring (it’s on Wednesday, April 22. Save the date in your calendar if you haven’t already.) As in the past few years, we want to include a broad range of folks in the planning and development process of the CMEpalooza Spring agenda. Anyone is welcome to submit an idea for a CMEpalooza Spring session, though it would probably help if it’s a good idea (we tend to like those).

The process is fairly simple. If you have an idea for a session that you would like to lead at CMEpalooza Spring, just complete the CMEpalooza Spring 2026 Abstract Submission form by the end of the day on Monday, February 23. After that, Derek and I will review all the proposals we receive and select the best of them for inclusion in the official Spring agenda. If there are more that we like, we may hold onto some ideas for the Fall event. Maybe.

Here are a few guidelines:

1. This is a virtual conference and all sessions are done via StreamYard. No muss, no fuss.
2. Proposals will only be considered if they are submitted either via the abstract submission form or hand delivered by the Wells Fargo wagon. Choose whichever method is easier for you, but remember that Philadelphia potholes are notoriously treacherous this time of year and the Wells Fargo wagon is notoriously unreliable in the wintertime.
3. The deadline for proposals to be submitted is 6 p.m. ET on Monday, February 23.
4. We are open to pretty much any idea as long as it relates in some way to CME/CE. The more creative, the better. One of these years, Derek will realize his dream and a CMEpalooza Musical will be among the submissions. Over the holidays, Derek saw the Neil Diamond movie (which, I’m told is not about Neil Diamond but rather a Neil Diamond tribute band) and has been humming “Sweet Caroline (But I Rejected Her Grant Proposal Anyway)” round the clock.
5. Interactive formats with multiple presenters, such as panel sessions and interviews, are encouraged. If you want to figure out a unique way to incorporate our audience response platform (Poll Everywhere) into your session, that’s totally fine too.
6. Please verify the availability of all presenters for the date of CMEpalooza (Wednesday, April 22) before submitting their name in your proposal. Or at least have some sort of contingency plan if they cannot participate.
7. We don’t want to limit creativity, so there isn’t a limit on the number of proposals you can submit, but please use common sense and be reasonable. We will likely only choose one proposal for which you are listed as the lead contact, so don’t submit 10 proposals or something crazy like that.
8. We’d prefer that you not simply submit a proposal that mirrors a presentation you gave at another conference within the last 12 months. We keep a pretty close eye on our “competition,” so don’t think you’ll sneak something past us. At the very least, give your idea a unique spin.
9. We will notify you within a week of the abstract submission deadline if your proposal has been accepted or not. That will give us 8 weeks to coordinate and plan, which we hope is enough time.
10. If you have any questions, feel free to email Derek (thecmeguy@gmail.com) or Scott (scott@excaliburmeded.com), or find us at the Alliance conference in February.

I think that about covers it. We especially want to encourage people who have never presented at CMEpalooza to submit a proposal. We are always happy to have new faces at CMEpalooza. Maybe you are intimidated by getting up in a front of a room full of your colleagues and presenting material — not a problem with CMEpalooza. Maybe you are worried that your idea would be too “out there” for a traditional conference — not a problem with CMEpalooza. Maybe you are just too lazy to want to put together a slide deck for a presentation — so are we, which is why we often encourage our panelists to use few (if any) slides.

It’s not the trying that’s hard.

Click here for the CMEpalooza Spring 2026 Abstract Submission form