The summer between my junior and senior years of college, I took a forgettable internship at a newspaper called The Home News in East Brunswick, NJ. I honestly don’t even remember how I got the internship. It wasn’t like it was super close to where I was living at the time (at home, an hour away) and I didn’t know anyone there. I’m thinking maybe one of my aunts or uncles knew one of the editors and that was my in? Anyway, not important.

The newspaper staff didn’t really know what to do with me. This was a middling-sized paper (daily circulation of approximately 50-75K) without any sort of formal intern program in place. I was the only intern they had had in several years. So I got passed around to whoever had time and needed help. I covered some political events, did some copy editing, and even wrote some obituaries.

But the absolutely worst came on Saturdays when I would come in at 11 am and the assigning editor had absolutely nothing for me to do. Instead of turning around and going home, I would beg and plead for something. It wasn’t that I was such a go-getter, but more that I had just spend an hour on the Jersey turnpike and didn’t feel like hopping right back on. And so, more often than not, I got the worst assignment of all (yes, even worse than the obits) – the “man on the street” interviews.

As a part-time, introvert, I hated these. It entailed approaching random people in a random location, introducing yourself, and asking if it was OK to take their photo and record their response to a question of current interest. Super, duper creepy, right?

I would usually hang out in front of one of the local libraries for these interviews, where at least chances were OK that the people I approached would be somewhat coherent. And truth be told, more often than not people agreed to be photographed for the newspaper. But it still really sucked. I always felt like such a loser (time for Derek’s low-hanging fruit joke here [note from Derek: too easy]). Nonetheless, I always managed to suck it up and come back with something.

So since 2022 is officially the year that I overcome things I have have disliked (arugula salad, I’m coming for you!), I’m bringing back the “man on the street” interviews just in time for the Alliance meeting. Each day, I’ll be asking a hard-hitting question or two of a handful of the 500 400 200 (insert shruggy shoulder emoji) attendees and record their responses for everyone’s edification. I’ll likely add a few personal observations of the weirdness of attending a live conference for the first time in 2-ish years in the super fun era.

Maybe you even have something in mind you’d like me to ask everyone – I’m certainly open to suggestions. Just type something in real quick in the comments box below.

 

As I do on most weekends, I was out at one of our local malls last Saturday putting in another rugged day of full-contact shopping with the suburban moms. I have gotten very good at throwing around sharp elbows and blaming it on the toddlers running around aimlessly at my feet.

Anyway, being that this is the holiday season, Santa was hanging around and listening to the wish lists of every little Tommy and Louisa in the area. Here is an example of a conversation I overheard more than once.

SANTA: And what would you like for Christmas little boy/girl?

LITTLE BOY/GIRL: A CMEpalooza Platinum level sponsorship! No one has every gotten one before, and I want all my friends to be sooo jealous of me!

SANTA: Well, that sounds like it would be quite a gift. I wish I could have a CMEpalooza Platinum level sponsorship too. Sounds like just the thing that Mrs. Claus would love to receive in her stocking. (Whispers quietly to little boy/girl) Can you tell me how I get a CMEpalooza sponsorship?

Yes, indeed, ’tis again that time of year when we open up sponsorship opportunities for CMEpalooza Spring and Fall (dates announced last week by Derek). Some of you may have seen that we updated our Sponsor tab of the website with our annual Sponsor Prospectus, and we’ve already heard from quite a few of the early birds who wanted to jump on 2022 opportunities. As with CMEpalooza itself, our sponsorship opportunities continue to evolve, and we have a bunch of unique goodies to put under your figurative tree. I promise you that these are all better than another lump of coal.

I should warn you that we sell out of a lot of the higher-level sponsorships very quickly, so best not to think about this for too long as you sip on another glass of egg nog. Just some friendly advice.

Our sponsor events always bring out the Inspector Clouseau in the CME community, and this year was no different. We received thousands of entries (not really) and our interns spent the entire weekend filling out little slips of paper with the names of all of our successful entrants. These then went into one of those giant spinning Bingo baskets which spit out the names of the five winners.

Here they are – each $100 richer (in Amazon funds) thanks to, well, us.

• Jess Henry, Consultant, Learning, OhioHealth Learning Continuing Medical Education
• Simon Schrick-Senasac, Assistant Scientific Director, National Association For Continuing Education
• Judith M. Orvos, Owner, Orvos Communications, LLC
• Jackie Farley, Educational Projects Coordinator, University of Nebraska Medical Center Center for Continuing Education
• Melissa Ketchum, Director, Continuing Education, Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at Eisenhower

For all of you wondering about the correct answers from our special event, here is the complete list of clues and solutions. Now don’t be shy congratulating the winners. You put in the effort, you get the reward.