(Blows into microphone)

Testing…testing. Is this on? Can you hear me? Sibilance, sibilance…

OK, good. We’re back.

Yes indeed, after taking our usual post-Spring Palooza break (if only to prove to our families that their argument of “You love CMEpalooza more than you love us!!” isn’t true. Well, not entirely true), we figured it was time to rev up the old blog once again to let everyone in on what has been going on in the last few months.

First, Derek and I had our usual multi-day planning retreat at a secret island known only to locals and their second cousins where we poured over spreadsheets, survey data, demographic information, and prime numbers greater than 11 to come up with ideas for our Fall meeting. The only photo we were allowed to take is below — it comes from one of our working lunches. I’m not sure what happened to Derek’s salad – it looks like something Picasso would draw. I am fairly sure he kept eating after snapping this surreptitious photo (the island we were on prizes their secrecy and wants no one to know its existence outside of very special guests like us).

Fortunately, we were able to put down our forks long enough to come up with our usual cadre of ideas that, we promise you, will never ever be found on the agendas of other industry events. Sometime in the next few weeks, we’ll announce the availability of the first draft of our Fall agenda. There will be clowns, balloons, and maybe even a dunk tank at the site of the announcement. We’re working on it.

Second, did I mention that CMEpalooza Fall is taking place on Wednesday, Oct. 22? I don’t think I did. Well, it is. So mark your calendars please for a Professional Development day from 9 am-5 pm ET on Wednesday, Oct. 22. We promise it’ll be worth it.

Third, there is plenty to write about that has been happening in the CME circles in recent weeks, which we’ll get to eventually, but we’re also hoping to get a few nudges from our audience. That means that our Ask Us Anything hotline is officially back up and running again. This is where you get the chance to anonymously share your professional and/or personal issues (Derek is dying to offer his summer wardrobe tips) and we’ll provide our authoritative advice. But we can’t offer input if you don’t ask for any, so please, click here to Ask Us Anything.

 

Yes, yes, I know that I am interrupting the rapt attention you are paying to today’s CMEpalooza broadcasts. Just humor me for one minute with a brief announcement.

Thanks to the generous support of our event sponsor, the Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning (ACHL), we’re rolling out a special CMEpalooza Scavenger Hunt during the day of our live broadcasts (that’s today).

Here is how it works:

1. Go the ACHL website
2. “Scavenge” for the CMEpalooza logo located somewhere on their homepage
3. Click on it
4. Something special will happen (OK, it’s not really that “special,” but something will happen)
5. Follow the prompts to complete your entry into our contest

We’ll be giving away ten (10) $50 Amazon gift cards as prizes. That’s a pretty good reward for 2-3 minutes of your time, don’t cha’ think?

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?