One of the (many) perks of being a higher tier CMEpalooza sponsor is the special add-ons we offer throughout the year. This year, we decided to up the ante by throwing all of our Silver and Gold sponsors into a pile to select the winner of a complimentary CMEpalooza Company Spotlight this Spring (there will be another drawing before the Fall meeting). The winner, as we announced a few weeks ago, was Global Academy for Medical Education.

After a flurry of intense meetings and negotiations, we settled on noon ET on Wednesday, April 12 for the live broadcast.

So what exactly will be happening during this 30-minute pre-Palooza session?

Certainly, you’ll learn a little about Global Academy for Medical Education, but these Spotlight sessions are primarily designed to showcase how different organizations approach challenges in CME in unique ways that are applicable throughout our industry. This is not going to be mindless drivel where we go through the catalog of activities available on the Global Academy for Medical Education website – that would serve no one’s interests.

Instead, during this Company Spotlight you’ll learn about how to build learner and faculty loyalty to your education, when and why to build external partnerships to strengthen your education, and how to identify and leverage what is unique about your organization to benefit your overall educational program.

As with all of our regular CMEpalooza sessions, there will be ample opportunities to ask probing questions of our panelists. We hope you’ll join us.

 

Here at CMEpalooza headquarters, we take our internship program seriously. Only the best and the brightest from Grand Lakes University (home of business tycoon Thornton Melon) pass through these hallways.

We expect a lot from our interns, putting them in charge of important tasks such as “Make sure Derek isn’t wearing his shirt inside-out again.” They do vital research as well, such as their current project, “Set the clocks in Derek’s office 5 minutes forward every day and then document how long it takes him to figure out something is awry.”

No one takes advantage of free labor quite like we do.

Alas, our interns don’t always have all of the answers. Case in point — when I asked them for ideas for our Spring Sponsor event, the room turned quieter than the Warnick household when reruns of Alice come on TV (Derek loves his Vic Tayback).

So seeing as I was getting no help from “the kids,” I was thrilled to see an email from a medical writer colleague of mine, Carrie Noriega, arrive in my inbox.

General paraphrasing here — “It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to be able to contribute an idea to CMEpalooza. Is there anything — please — that I can do to help you out?”

Far be it for me to dash someone’s dreams, I took Carrie up on her offer, asking her to come up with an idea for our Spring sponsor event.

Admittedly, she initially struggled to come up with something as her first two ideas (brutal honesty coming) sucked. But the third try was jusssttt on the right side of mediocre – hey, we don’t set the bar too high here – and we ran with it.

And with a small seed of an idea, CMEpalooza Pursuit blossomed.

As always, there are prizes for those who successfully enter our Spring Sponsor event. We’re giving out $500 worth of Amazon gift cards to randomly selected entrants – a $100 grand prize, 5 $50 second prizes, and 6 $25 third prizes.

Here are the rules of CMEpalooza Pursuit:

1. Call up the Sponsor page on the CMEpalooza website. You’ll need this for reference purposes to access our Sponsor’s websites.

2. Download the CMEpalooza Pursuit question form by clicking on this link.

You’ll see that questions are divided into categories that will be familiar to anyone who has ever played Trivial Pursuit – Geography, Entertainment, History, Arts & Literature, Science & Nature, and Sports & Leisure. There are three questions within each category, the answers to which can all be found on the sponsoring company website.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to answer every question – just one per category. If you want to be the teacher’s pet, of course, you can answer every question, though you get no formal extra credit, just that all over warm feeling for a job well done.

3. Download the CMEpalooza Pursuit answer form by clicking on this link. This is where you will enter in your answers – remember, only one answer is required per category. I promise that none of the questions are tricky or difficult. If it takes you more than 10 minutes to complete the entire challenge, you are doing something wrong.

4. Email me your completed answer form. It’s scott@medcasewriter.com. All completed forms will be entered into our drawing. One entry per person. Perhaps you make this a company-wise challenge and have your entire team enter individually. Perhaps you keep this a secret so that your chances of winning improve. Whatever. Just make sure that your entry is submitted by the deadline of midnight ET on Thursday, April 6.

That’s about it. Now if you’ll excuse me, they just finished installing an extra springboard at our company pool. Our interns are going to try to teach Derek how to do the Triple Lindy.

As a Jewish kid who grew up in the Northeast, I spent many a summer at overnight camp. Best time of my life. You get to play sports all day, eat as much sugar cereal as you want at breakfast (another bowl of Cocoa Krispies? Don’t mind if I do), and, of course, no parents telling you what to do for 8 whole weeks!

I understand that a lot of you – well, probably just about all of you – don’t get the beauty of overnight camp. I have tried explaining to my Irish Catholic wife many times how overnight camp is great for both kids and parents (another glass of wine with dinner out on a random Wednesday night? Don’t mind if I do), but I don’t know that she totally gets it.

Overnight camp was where I learned how to make a bed with hospital corners (and shoot a rifle – yes, they had a rifle range for 9-year-olds back in those days. Can you imagine?), where I found out what it means to be independent (it’s awesome), and, of course, where I kissed my first girl (thank you Maggie Cohen).

(Coming back around to make this relevant…slowly…wait for it…)

Every morning at overnight camp, we would have an assembly where one of the camp directors would tell everyone very briefly what important things were happening outside of our little world – ie, did the Phillies win last night? – and go over what sorts of activities were planned for that day. One of the things that stuck with me these many years later is his daily description.

“We have a bevy, a plethora, a cornucopia, perhaps even a mélange of activities for everyone today…”

Since I work with words, I always liked that, and it stuck with me.

(Making the connection…soon…almost…here we go…)

One of the most enjoyable things about putting together the agenda for our biannual CMEpalooza events is coming up with groups of potential faculty members. Both Derek and I have been around the CME circles for long enough that we know a goodly number of folks in the industry, and yet there are always plenty of new names and faces we are introduced to through CMEpalooza. I always look forward to building new relationships and tapping into the brainpower of a broader community as we prepare and produce our live broadcasts.

We presented our Spring agenda last week, which boasts both a bevy of sessions and a plethora of talented panelists. We made some modifications to our agenda development process this spring, and while it put a bit more of the burden onto Derek and I during the development process, we think it’ll be worth it when you join us on Wednesday, April 19. You’ll be exposed to a cornucopia of new ideas and hopefully be provided with a mélange of building blocks to improve your day-to-day experience as a CME professional.

You bring the S’mores, and I’ll provide the left-handed smoke shifter (and if you get that obscure overnight camp reference, you let me know).