There has recently been a lot of chatter in the news about two old men past their prime who continue to hang on and chase yet another run at glory. I understand that you might not have caught this important information with all of the wall-to-wall coverage of the political upheaval we’re currently going through, so I have transcribed the audio feed from Public Access Channel 78 in Oshkosh, WI, for you:

NEWS ANCHOR #1: In other national news, the agenda for CMEpalooza Fall was released last week. It’s pretty amazing, dontcha know..

NEWS ANCHOR #2: Is that still those Derek and Scott guys? Haven’t they retired yet? I mean, I don’t want to offend anyone, but I believe they both were around when you mailed out CME certificates to learners. Like, in the mail.

OK, fine, Derek and I are now “old man joke” punching bags since we both passed the half-century mark, but that’s OK. Our doctors tell us we are mentally “capable” (it is weird that our doctors both used hand quotes when they told us? I didn’t think so), so we are soldiering on with another iteration of CMEpalooza Fall this October.

I don’t mean to brag (which means that I absolutely do mean to brag), but CMEpalooza is kind of killing it these days. Our blog topped 1,000 subscribers earlier this year and we smashed our previous record with 1,668 individuals tuning into our Spring event. That means a large swath of the CME community is paying attention to what we’re doing and saying every single day. Yes, we’re just as surprised as you are.

Of course, along with our live broadcast date on Wednesday, October 16, comes our usual slew of sponsorship opportunities. This is the best chance to show the CME world how your company is rolling with the times, how supportive you are of your professional community, and how much you love old people like Derek (I am much, much younger than he is).

And as our events evolve, so do our sponsorship opportunities. While we have a lot of the “old standbys,” we’ve thrown in some new wrinkles once again this year, many of which we successfully piloted at our recent events. Don’t be shy about taking a leap of faith and committing to something new.

Feel free to take a look at the updated Sponsorship prospectus (just click the link). We make the sponsorship process simple – you just send me an email saying something like, “CMEpalooza is like a fine wine – it gets better with age. Please count «Company» in as a (Silver/Bronze/other) sponsor,” we collect some basic information from you, and VOILA! up you go on the CMEpalooza website. You get in on all of our promotions and special events, and you receive as much exposure as we can possibly offer.

Of course, if you have any questions or would like any additional information, please don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll be sitting on our rocking chairs out on the porch with our lemonades and will be happy to take a few moments to answer whatever questions you have. Just make sure it’s no later than 9 p.m. – we have early bedtimes these days.

I am a bit sunburned and my ears are clogged with ocean water after 2 days at the beach, so I’m a little crankier than usual this morning (and I’m usually quite cranky anyway). Plus, it’s still 95+ degrees here in Philadelphia, which makes us all a bit more on edge. I mean, I love the long days and nights of summertime as much as anyone, but it’s hard to enjoy being outside when you come back drenched in sweat after a quick walk around the block.

Derek was just whining to me about it’s been soo soo hard to readjust to the heat after spending the first part of July traipsing through the countryside of Ireland where the thermometer never cracked 65 degrees. Poor baby. Drown your sorrows in another pint of Guinness why don’t you, laddie? (note from Derek: excellent idea!)

Anyway, before my cranky-o-meter accelerates even more, let’s run down a few things that have been going on with CMEpalooza. But before we do, how’s about a quick top 5 list of the best ’80s songs with the word “summer” in their title, if only because I know how much I know it bothers Derek when I steal his “top 5” gimmick, especially with my questionable musical tastes:

5. Summertime (DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince) – Technically, this wasn’t an ’80s song since it came out in 1991, but I couldn’t find anything else for this list that I had heard of that wasn’t by Richard Marx, and I absolutely refuse to include Richard Marx.

4. Boys of Summer (Don Henley) – Even as a kid, this song depressed me. The book of the same title is quite good.

3. Suddenly Last Summer (The Motels) – I knew the song but have never heard of The Motels before. Let’s assume this was their biggest hit (note from Derek: it’s not. Their biggest hit was/is Only the Lonely.)

2. Cruel Summer (Bananarama) – The girl bands of the ’80s were the best. Love the outfits, ladies.

1. Summer of ’69 (Bryan Adams) – Bryan Adams was my favorite singer growing up (like I said, questionable music tastes), and this is probably his most beloved song. Even if it isn’t about the summer of 1969.

With that thought-provoking list behind us, let’s move onto a few announcements that are actually related to CMEpalooza.

First off, we’ve been working hard on the agenda for CMEpalooza Fall (Wednesday, October 16). We’re almost there. Hopefully, we’ll have something preliminary out in the next week or two. There are some typically quirky session concepts out there, and topics you won’t hear about in other venues. We march to our own beat (in other words, We Got the Beat).

Secondly, we wanted to announce a very special event that we are hosting this fall in conjunction with the Alliance Industry Summit (AIS) right here in Philadelphia. Thanks to an anonymous donation in memory of longtime CME professional Jason O’Grady, we will be hosting our very first CMEpalooza Trivia Night from 6-7:30 pm on Tuesday, September 17, in the Skyline Room at the Philadelphia Free Library’s Central Branch. It’s a short 5-minute walk from the conference venue and one of the coolest spots in the city, even if you are not as big a fan of libraries as I am. There will be Philly-themed snacks and drinks, as well as cash prizes for the winners.

Because this is the not-to-be-missed event of the year, we’ve invited some of Philly’s favorite sons and daughters to hang out with us on the outdoor terrace during breaks in the action, so this is what the general atmosphere may look like.

Derek is an introvert until the end. (note from Derek: Bryce Harper is allowed to come sit with me.)

Please note that you need not be attending AIS to come to our free event. We will have more details, as well as a link to registration, as the date approaches.

Once we wrap up CMEpalooza Spring each April, Derek and I usually take a mental break for a month or so before we realize that, “Oops, guess it’s time to plan for the next one.” Consequently, we have our luxurious preparatory retreat on a remote island accessible only by water buffalo scheduled for next week, but we do have a few announcements to pass along in the meantime.

As many of you know, the CME community lost two of its most treasured individuals — Ron Murray and Jason O’Grady — earlier this year, so our first two announcements are associated with their memories, while the third announcement is more of a self-promotion kind of thing.

1. Two of Ron Murray’s former colleagues from his time in the Office of Continuing Medical Education of University of Virginia School of Medicine are working on a project to pull together memories and photos of Ron’s professional life and friendships that will be compiled and shared with his family. Anyone who would like to contribute can send information to ronmurraymemories@gmail.com, a special mailbox that has been created for this project. The goal of this project is to give Ron’s family a picture of his legacy and life as a CME/CE professional. They have asked that submissions be sent by early September.
2. Thanks to an anonymous donation in memory of Jason O’Grady, we will be holding our inaugural CMEpalooza Trivia Night in conjunction with the Alliance Industry Summit (AIS) later this year in Philadelphia. We’re still firming up some of the details, but this FREE event will be held from 6-7:30 pm on Tuesday, September 17. There will almost certainly be food and drink served at this event, and not just the bags of stale soft pretzels that Derek picks up outside of the Phillies game this weekend. We will share more details as the date gets closer. We are going to require advance registration as there will be an attendance limit, but we should be able to accommodate lots of folks.
3. Speaking of AIS, last year I led a special walking tour of historic Philadelphia for conference attendees. I have had a few people ask if I would do it again this year. While we’re going to be busy with another event (see #2 above), I am volunteering leading FREE walking tours throughout the summer as part of the Independence National Historic Trust’s Twilight Tour program. While I am only out there about once a week, there are tours every night throughout the summer. But if you really only want to find me and only me, here are the dates and times I’ll be out there for the start of these 1-hour tours (you do not need to pre-register for these):
   • Friday, June 7 at 5:15 pm
   • Friday, June 21 at 6 pm
   • Thursday, June 27 at 6 pm
   • Friday, July 5 at 5:15 pm
   • Friday, July 12 at 6 pm
   • Thursday, July 25 at 6 pm
   • Friday, August 16 at 5:15 pm
   • Friday, August 23 at 6 pm
   • Friday, August 30 at 5:15 pm
   • Friday, September 6 at 5:15 pm

Happy summer everyone!

(note from Derek: I truly was not going to say anything about #3 above because it is a nice thing that Scott does/is doing, but it is driving me slightly nuts that he left out the colons for every “515 pm.” What’s that all about? Does he want me to edit them for him? Is this a Gen Z thing and he’s trying to keep up with the kids? Is he just screwing with me? He’s probably just screwing with me. I’m going back on my CMEpalooza break.)