Author: Thecmeguy

Timing is Everything

~ Thecmeguy ~ 1 Comment

This past week, we have had record cold temperatures and windchills in my hometown of Philadelphia, PA. How cold? This cold:

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That’s cold. I, however, was nowhere close to frigid Philly. With prescient timing, I was vacationing in sunny El Salvador (yes, El Salvador) where temps were just a tad warmer.

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It was obvious from the various Facebook postings from my friends and family back home that the weather was absolutely miserable and nasty and causing everyone major stress. Did that stop me from making fun of them and posting pictures like this?

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or this

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on my Facebook page? No. No it did not. I’m not a particularly nice person.

But, as the title of this posts suggests, timing is everything, and while my vacation timing was spot on as far as the weather is concerned, it was absolutely horrible for all things related to CMEpalooza. We had some major developments while I was away — most notably the release of the CMEpalooza Spring agenda — and Scott did an excellent job of keeping everyone abreast of all the goings on. I don’t want to rehash everything from the past week, but if I may, here are three quick bullet points I’d like to add.

  • I am thrilled with the final Spring agenda and thought the entire voting process worked out fabulously. I truly believe this will be the best palooza yet. But…a little part of me isn’t happy. I hate the fact that people took the time and energy to think of an idea and submit an abstract and we had to tell them no. I think that every single one of the abstracts submitted had merit and the potential to provide a valuable educational experience and deserved to be part of the agenda. Logistically, it just isn’t possible or practical to include everything and while I accept that, I still don’t like it. So, for all of you who submitted an abstract that was not chosen for the agenda — from the bottom of my heart: thank you and I’m sorry.
  • We have a new logo!!! (Did you notice?? It’s subtle, but if you look again at the top of the page, I think you might catch it.) Just for kicks, here’s another version of it:
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    Fist-bumps to Karen and Bhaval over at infograph-ed for working with us on it and coming up with a design that really catches the spirit of CMEpalooza. I love it! If you haven’t already, make sure you check out their profile on our sponsor page.
  • And speaking of sponsors (Yes! Nailed the segue!), we have three additional sponsors for CMEpalooza Spring. Decision Simulation and Forefront Collaborative are both Bronze-level sponsors — and both sponsoring for the first time — and Imedex is back again for a second round as a Silver-level sponsor. A huge thanks to all!

 

Last Chance to Vote!

~ Thecmeguy ~ Leave a comment

Every once in a while, something works out much better than you ever expected – and no, I’m not referring to ELO’s appearance on the Grammys last night, though Mr. Blue Sky was totally awesome (note: I’m old). I’m talking about our decision to post all the CMEpalooza Spring abstracts online and ask people to vote on their favorites. I admit that I was a little worried about it. What if everyone else thought it was a stupid idea and nobody voted?

But that didn’t happen. Not even close. As of Sunday night, we had over 730 total votes submitted, which roughly translates to approximately 150 voters.  I never imagined we would get this kind of a response, and it delights me to no end.  To me, CMEpalooza will always be the little conference that could, so to have this many people expressing an interest in determining the agenda for CMEpalooza Spring is both overwhelming and gratifying. Thank you all so much for making this work!

And if you haven’t yet had a chance to have your voice heard, you still have time. We will officially close the poll at 5 p.m. ET, so go to https://cmepalooza.com/poll/ now (1 vote per device). We’re coming down to the wire and the tally is still very close. I have no idea what the final agenda will be, which is a tribute to how many great abstracts we had submitted. Go vote now!