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…

Take a moment to check your work calendar. You see that 30-minute gap between 2 and 230 pm tomorrow? Go ahead and schedule a new appointment. Call it, I dunno, maybe something like “CMEpalooza Sponsor Research: $$$$$” and make sure that your co-workers all know not to bother you. If you haven’t found the time to fill out your entry for our special CMEpalooza Electoral College sponsor event, now you have something on your calendar. And, as we know, you are a slave to your calendar. Plus, you like winning money.

That’s right — only a few more hours until the polls close and the CMEpalooza Electoral College is finished. You have until 11:59 pm on Friday evening to submit your entry. All of the information you need to play can be found here.

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Contrary to a lot of Americans, the Electoral College is one of my favorite things about the U.S. political system. It’s mostly illogical, usually confusing, and always controversial. Just like CMEpalooza!

To fully embrace the Electoral College, and, well, because everything these days is about politics, our special CMEpalooza sponsor event puts our own little spin on state delegates. Being the creative bunch that we are, we even gave our event a catchy title — “CMEpalooza Electoral College.” Our marketing team is clearly underpaid.

But unlike the political Electoral College, the CMEpalooza Electoral College isn’t illogical, shouldn’t be very confusing, and is controversy free. Best of all, there is a pot of gold at the end that will actually go to a handful of “voters” instead of being stuffed into the gilded pockets of the political candidates.

Here is how the CMEpalooza Electoral College works:

1. Click here to download our game packet (you can get a Word version by clicking here). This will give you all of the clues and an entry form to download.
2. We have a lot of sponsors this Fall (37!!), which means there are a lot of politically-themed clues — don’t worry, there is nothing that will get you into an emotional lather. Our sponsors have been sorted geographically by their headquarters (we did the best we could with what we could find online). Some companies have been grouped by state, some by region, and some by the “no one else is close to them or they are international so it’s just a miscellaneous category.” You’ll need to answer 1-2 clues in each category to create a successful entry.
3. You can find all of the information to answer each question by going to our Sponsor tab, where there are links and descriptions about all of our sponsors. You can find the answer to every question on each sponsor’s website. Generally, the answers are no more than one click off each sponsor’s homepage (and often on the homepage itself).
4. You can use the answer sheet located in the downloaded forms to complete your responses. You may submit up to three entries, but for each entry you must answer clues about different sponsors (so if you answer questions about the first two “Mid-Atlantic” companies in entry 1, you’ll need to choose different companies for entry 2, etc.).
5. Within each entry, you must get every answer correct to qualify for our prize drawing. If I’m in a less curmudgeonly mood than usual, maybe I’ll let you get one wrong. We’ll see.
6. In the spirit of trying something new, for anyone who is really bored at work this week or simply loves CMEpalooza’s sponsors, you can go for the whole electoral map and submit a form with answers to all 37 sponsor questions (this is on top of the usual three entries). Get them all right, and you earn five additional entries into our prize drawing. Get one or more wrong, and, well, probably not. I doubt anyone will actually try for this, but I thought I’d throw it out there.
7. Completed answer forms can be sent to me at scott@excaliburmeded.com. Make sure to include your name and political affiliation in your email so that when we announce that you’ve won, everyone knows where you stand on the issues. I’m only kidding, it’s your name and professional affiliation (ie, where you work) that we want. Please don’t tell me your political leanings – that would only get us both in trouble.

We’ll have five prize winners who will each receive a $100 Amazon gift card. As a special CMEpalooza 10th anniversary bonus, we’ll also have a $250 prize for the organization that has the most successful entries. This is a fairly low bar (I think the winning organization in the Spring had 4 people who entered) so it won’t take a lot of rallying your co-workers to earn yourself funds to throw a staff pizza party on the day of CMEpalooza Fall (Wednesday, October 16).

Entries will be accepted until the polls close at midnight ET on Friday, October 4, so get cracking!