Before any big sporting event these days, numerous organizations, companies, and individuals put out what are called “Hype Videos.” These are typically slick productions that feature voice overs (often from celebrity fans of the team), video highlights from previous games, movie clips, and various other segments to get fans excited for the upcoming big game.

I am fairly certain that the only reason our beloved Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl this year is because there were so many amazing hype videos playing in their locker room before the game that the team exploded on the field ready to run through anything in their way (Go Birds!).

I really wanted to put together a hype video to get you all excited for CMEpalooza Spring but, well, Bradley Cooper said he was too busy to record the voiceover, I really don’t have a lot of video editing ability, and Derek said he too tired from bingeing season 3 of The White Lotus to chip in.

So, another regular old blog post will have to suffice…

It’s been nice to see some organic chatter on LinkedIn in recent weeks asking people which sessions they are most looking forward to during CMEpalooza Spring (yes, we read it all to see what is and isn’t resonating). While I’m not going to sit here and pick my favorites (they are all going to be great!), I did want to highlight a few unique things we have going on this Spring:

1. For the first time, we have a “pre-session” from 8:40-8:55 am ET to get our audience warmed up and in the right frame of mind to learn. This 15-minute mindfulness session, sponsored by QDcme, will be led by a professional yoga instructor, though it’s more to settle your mind than stretch your body.

2. We’ll also be returning one of our big successes from years past with the CMEpalooza Scavenger Hunt, this year sponsored by Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning (ACHL). On the day of CMEpalooza Spring, you’ll have to hunt for our logo on the ACHL homepage and click on it. Something amazing just might happen when you do so, and that something amazing could win you some easy money. I’ll quickly answer a question from our Ask Me Anything mailbag related to this here (don’t forget to send us your professional or personal quagmires to address in future months!)

If I’m busy doing the CMEpalooza Scavenger Hunt (I’m a sucker for scavenger hunts), how can I watch CMEpalooza all day too? Should I be checking email for the instructions at 3 am to get my scavenger hunt in the fastest? Any good ideas on what to tell my boss when I put in for a day off? It’s hard enough to tear myself away from CMEpalooza to work, but add in a scavenger hunt – that’s going to be nearly impossible.

Time-strapped in Texas

So, there is a quite a bit to unpack here, but I’ll answer the easy part first – the CMEpalooza Scavenger Hunt really shouldn’t take you more than a minute or two of searching on the ACHL website. You should be able to go there any time after the start of CMEpalooza Spring on Wednesday, April 16, and spelunk away until we wrap things up for the day. We usually have 4-5 minutes between sessions, so that would be the perfect time to scavenge. There is no prize for the fastest submission – all successful entries will be processed in our prize drawing at the end of the day.

Now to the trickier part of your question – what to tell your boss so he/she approves your request for a day off. Derek said he is happy to fill out a Professional Permission Slip for you if that helps. Please contact him offline for more information.

3. One of the things we have become reasonably well skilled at is incorporating audience engagement into our sessions. We’ll once again be using Poll Everywhere throughout the day, so if you don’t have their app installed on your phone, you can save time by doing so now. Some of our sessions will be using our audience response system in a pretty unique way — hopefully, everything will work as we think it will, but if not, we are offering money-back refunds on everyone’s Spring registration fee. Again, contact Derek offline for that.

4. For the first time ever, we will have a beatboxer participating on one of our panels (see our 1 pm ET session)! I have not been personally involved in the planning of this specific session, so I only have a very vague idea of what this is all about, but I am admittedly terribly curious. I thought beatboxing went away back when Run DMC broke up, but apparently I was wrong.

And that’s all just the start. We have quite a few “non-CME” faces on our panels, which I always find interesting to see what perspective they have to share. There are debates, video snippets, animations, and much, much more.

Is that enough “hype” for you?

I know it seems like just about every day, we’re announcing a new opportunity to win something from CMEpalooza for doing very little. But today’s opportunity might require the little-ist doing of all.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Academic CME, we’re bringing back our CMEpalooza Feeds the People feature, where you can earn a $20 Grubhub gift card, ideally to be used on the day of CMEpalooza Spring (Wednesday, April 16), though we don’t have that level of control over your actions. I can tell you that you won’t get the actual gift card until the morning of our Spring event, so you won’t have to exert any sort of unusual patience to let it lie until then.

If nothing else, you’ll join this illustrious list of winners of $100 Amazon gift cards from last week’s Signs of Spring sponsor event:

• Caitlyn Keenan, Associate Director of Accreditation, American Society of Addiction Medicine
• Sujita Adhikari, MPH, CPH, Senior Program Manager, University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth
• Carolyn O’Donnell, PharmD, Associate Director, Education Content Management, American Society for Health-System Pharmacists
• Nathalie Harden, Grants Administrator, Informa Connect
• Cindy Davidson, Editorial Manager, Scientific Affairs, Global Learning Collaborative

To earn one of the Grubhub gift cards we are doling out, all you need to do is be one of the first 25 people to click on this link and complete a very simple form. If you are No. 26, well, you’ll have to buy your own lunch (sorry). Based on previous years, this fills up fast (might have something to do with the lack of effort required), so don’t dilly or dally too much.

CMEpalooza Feeds the People sponsored by:

 

Before I forget, Derek has asked me to remind everyone that the 2025 Spring edition of the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge begins on Monday. So if you have been doing the couch potato thing while watching four episodes of The Rookie each evening, perhaps this weekend would be a good time to get off your duff so that you are ready to get your steps in for when it really matters next week.

Now on to our blog entry for today…

Yes, you read correctly in the headline. I know that you have been procrastinating all week and telling yourself, “I know that I should make the CMEpalooza Signs of Spring a priority, but I can’t break myself away from these cute cat videos!” Well there friend, I’m here to tell you that Fluffy is going to need to wait, because the deadline to submit your entry (or entries if you are feeling particularly bold) is today at 5 pm ET.

If you need a reminder about how our special Sponsor event works, you can click here for all of the details, including links to the forms you need to download and instructions on how to find the answers. I would estimate that it will take you 10 minutes of research per entry if you work diligently. Maybe less. And I even have a special Friday bonus offer for you — because the answers to the April Fools Day category clues have gone “poof!” from the specific Sponsors’ websites, you can put down anything you want on your answer form in that section and I’ll give you credit. Who says I’m not a nice guy?

One question we often get from people is, “But if I win the CMEpalooza Sponsor contest and collect my $100 Amazon gift card, doesn’t that mean I will be disqualified from the many, many other giveaway opportunities being offered this spring?” And the answer to that is unequivocally, “No.” I am not sure that anyone has actually won multiple prizes in the same season (though we have had many repeat winners in certain giveaways over the years), but there is nothing in the official CMEpalooza rulebook prohibiting this.

So then what’s stopping you? Get to work, pilgrim.