Quite obviously, Derek and I are big proponents of Google Hangout On Air (GHOA). GHOA was used as the platform that for the inaugural CMEpalooza in the spring and will be used in for CMEpalooza Fall on October 15. And yet I don’t get the sense that many people have a very good sense of all that is offered that may be of both personal and professional interest on GHOA. That will hopefully soon be changing, as I am giving a talk about GHOA in October at the annual meeting of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), with additional talks from Derek and I hopefully coming up soon as well.

At any given moment, there are dozens of different live broadcasts open to the world. Even without searching, I am quite sure you would be able to get amateur World Cup analysis from nearly every country in the world every day this week. But if that’s not your cup of tea…

• On Tuesday, June 24, at 1 p.m. ET, bestselling authors Malcolm Gladwell and Bishop T.D. Jakes get together to talk about obstacles in life and how they are best overcome.

• On Friday, June 27, at noon, you can learn what search engine optimization is and how to do it with the gang from GoDaddy.

• Here is a Hangout from April 10 on the use of social media in medicine that was moderated by Neil Mehta, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic.

And that is just scratching the surface. President Obama has been a Hangout guest several times, and there are often entertainment icons who regularly show up. I haven’t figured out an easy way to get a schedule of more than the 5-6 upcoming Hangouts that Google promotes, but I am sure there is a filter out there somewhere. As with everything new on the Internet, it just takes some figuring out.

Over the years, I have probably written hundreds of emails to faculty inviting them to be part of CME programs. You know the ones — “Pretty please Dr. So and So, I know you are busy because you are so important, but will you please take the thousands of dollars we have set aside for you to help us with this CME program?”

And then you wait. And wait. And wait. The reminder email goes out a week later – “Dr. So and So. I know you are super duper busy, but we really want you to be part of this program and take the thousands of dollars we have set aside for you. Can you please read this email and respond in 5 words or less?”

When the day comes (if it comes) that Dr. So and So finally responds, it’s a sigh of relief. Well, as long as Dr. So and So says yes. If he/she says no, there is a lot of cursing for holding things up as you write up the next invitation.

Because Derek and I decided to utilize a “planning committee” to determine potential moderators and panelists for CMEpalooza Fall (here’s a little secret: the planning committee was Derek and I), that meant we had to craft those fun invitation emails. Except this time, we were inviting our colleagues – often, people we knew but sometimes those we didn’t – and we didn’t have any giant war chest of money to offer them. There wasn’t even a coveted free registration pass, being that almost everything about CMEpalooza is free anyway. I think we were both curious not only on how many people would say yes, but also how long it would take for people to respond.

I’m pleased to report that it took us a little more than 2 weeks to fill out all 23 slots in our programs (6 panels with 3-4 participants each). With only a few exceptions, people responded to us the same day as we sent out our invites, and almost everyone was excited to sign up. There was little harassing or cajoling necessary. Even those individuals who couldn’t participate were very gracious in declining our invitation and didn’t make us wait around for weeks before letting us know they couldn’t take part in CMEpalooza Fall.

Today, Derek and I are both extremely pleased to be able to present the full agenda for CMEpalooza Fall. We have diverse mix of panelists and topics that should offer something for everyone who is part of the CME enterprise. Our day (Wednesday, October 15, so mark your calendar!) will start off with an international panel of experts looking into their crystal ball to tell us where CME/CPD may be going in the next 5-10 years and wind up 7 hours later with the latest tips and tricks on publishing and presenting outcomes data from educational initiatives. The schedule in between is packed with lots of other intriguing content.

You’ll be hearing a lot more about our panels in the coming months. We’re always interested in your feedback regarding which sessions you are most looking forward to and the types of questions you’ll want them to address, so feel free to share your thoughts with Derek and I, as well as any of the panelists themselves. Palooza on everyone.

When Derek and I first started talking about CMEpalooza Fall, our focus was initially on the format, the content, the potential faculty — you know, all of the things that are fun to bat around. “What would be really cool to get people to talk about? How can we best utilize the Hangout On Air platform? How can we take what happened with the inaugural CMEpalooza and make it, you know, like, better?”

Being that neither of us are natural salesmen, I think we purposely shelved talk of money. At least at first. But then as we thought about things more, we realized that not only would it be nice to have something tangible to show for our time and effort, but that CMEpalooza can truly be a different and valuable sort of way for companies and even individuals to connect with potential partners and customers.

Sessions from the inaugural CMEpalooza have, so far, been viewed more than 3,000 times. This website has been seen by more than 10,000 visitors. That’s a lot of eyes, and we think interest in this event is only going to grow as we move forward. So once Derek and I finished brainstorming about the “fun stuff,” we talked about what value we could offer companies without their presence being overly intrusive/obnoxious for learners (so don’t worry, there will no 5-minute commercials embedded within each CMEpalooza session).

We came up with a tiered system of support that is not unlike what is offered by some industry associations, and we think there is some cool stuff that we are offering. It is all spelled out on the “Sponsors” link, but if you want to get a quick overview, here goes:

• A Bronze level sponsorship gets you a company listing on the CMEpalooza sponsor page (we’ll even embed a video for you if you have one!), recognition on all pre-event communications (we’ll be developing a Palooza newsletter shortly), and recognition on sponsor slides that will appear before and after each CMEpalooza panel
• A Silver level sponsorship gets you all of the above, plus title sponsorship for a session. Maybe you couldn’t afford to knock FedEx aside for the naming rights to the Orange Bowl, but there is no reason you can’t be the title sponsor for “The Future of CME: What Will the Next 5-10 Years Hold.”
• A Gold level sponsorship gets you everything from the first two tiers, plus the ability to work with Derek and I (right there a priceless opportunity) to plan a sponsored lunch panel that can include a representative from your company. Obviously, we’ll work carefully to vet the topic and the full panel to make sure this is a valuable learner experience, but it’s a great way to make sure CMEpalooza includes a discussion of a topic that is relevant to your organization.

And hey, maybe there is something that neither of us thought about that you would be interested in sponsoring. Alas, there are no tote bags to put your name on or thumb drives to distribute to all attendees, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something creative we missed.