Like most men, there are few things I find more enjoyable than a long, emotional conversation about life issues that end with tear-stained hugs.

Whenever I board a plane for a long trip, I’m always excited by the possibility of sitting next to someone really interesting whose life story I can delve into hour after hour while we ride the skies.

I’d write more, but I’m busy talking out my office window to the woman whose dog just peed on my front stoop. We’re 2 hours into our conversation (did you know that city dogs live longer than country dogs? I didn’t, but I find it totally riveting).

Ah, screw it. No witty introduction to today’s blog post.

One of the new, unique session designs we’re including within the CMEpalooza Fall agenda on Wednesday, Oct. 19 is called “Casual Conversations in CME.” This one will begin at 11 a.m. ET. Clearly, it’s not a session I would likely have personally volunteered to be a participant in, but I’m nonetheless looking forward to being an educational eavesdropper and hearing what our panelists have to say.

For this session, we’ve paired 3 panels (2 people each) and really given them carte blanche to talk about whatever they want to for 15 minutes each. Presumably, it will have something to do with something related to CME, but beyond that, I really don’t know what to expect (OK, I have a little bit of any idea – I mean, we do talk to these people before our live broadcast date).

What I think will be interesting about this session is that we’ve purposefully created interesting pairings of people. For instance, Jann Balmer and Ron Murray worked together for many years and will (hopefully) fall easily into a casual banter. Our other two panels — Hilary Schmidt and Rob Bartel along with Mike LoPresti and Ro Brual — only met due to our matchmaking ability (my yenta grandmother would be so proud!) and have had to both “get to know each other” as well as figure out what they want to talk about during this session.

Frankly, I have never seen anything quite like this session, and I’ll be very interested to see how it goes. You should be too. So tune in.

Just don’t try to talk to me if we ever sit next to each other on a plane.

We held our prize drawing for CMEpalooza Bingo!! this morning in a top secret location witnessed by representatives from the table next to us at the neighborhood coffee shop. It was fraught was tension and caused quite a bit of excitement – there may or may not have been a latte spilled on the floor while selecting our grand prize winner (I am bound to secrecy).

Congratulations to all of the winners. They are:

Grand Prize Winner: $100 Amazon Gift Card

• Jena Williams – Provider Education Coordinator, Office of the Medical Director, Washington State Department of Labor & Industries

$50 Amazon Gift Cards Winners

• Ron Murray – Freelance CPD/CME Professional
• Sandy Mardant – Continuing Education Manager, A.D.A.M.
• Janice G. Richards – Richards Professional Development
• Sally Cook – Compliance & Assessment Manager, Education Department, American College of Radiology

$25 Amazon Gift Card Winners

• Anita Misra-Press – Freelance Medical Writer
• Michèle Gagnon – Director, Education & Strategy, liV Medical Communication & Training Agency
• Joanne Wise – Center for Public Health Continuing Education, University at Albany, School of Public Health
• Karin Pearson – Director, Tufts University School of Medicine, Office of Continuing Education
• Amanda Kaczerski – Director, Education Development, Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning
• Kristi J. English – Program Manager, Academic Affairs, Department of CME/Conference Management, MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Bonnie J Bixler – Director, Continuing Education, Penn State College of Medicine
• Donna M. Stout – Continuing Education Program Specialist, Department of Education, Lehigh Valley Health Network

Our winners have all been contacted via email and will be receiving their prizes shortly.

I know what everyone else is whining – “How come I didn’t win?” Well, either you didn’t play (shame on you) or you simply weren’t fortunate enough to have your number drawn (you had lots of company). I am sure we will come up with another creative contest next spring, so you’ll have another chance in the future.

One of these weekends, we’ll give our crack staff at CMEpalooza headquarters the weekend off to enjoy the fall colors and reunite with their families. This simply wasn’t one of those weekends.

Far surpassing Derek’s prediction of zero entries (he’s both an introvert and a pessimist), we had close to 300 successful entries into our inaugural contest (we’re admittedly using the phrase “close to” somewhat liberally here).

Judging by the messages we got from those who completed their entry forms – one eager beaver filled out the entire Bingo board – it was a fun diversion from work that even helped them learn something about some of our sponsors. If you missed out on the fun but have a burning desire to find out the answers, we’ve got a handy answer key for you right here.

We’ll be having our prize drawing on Wednesday, where we’ll be divvying up $500 in Amazon gift cards to 13 of our successful entrants (one $100 winner, four $50 winners, and eight $25 winners). We’ll announce the winners in this space, and also contact them privately via email.