Last week, Scott wrote a blog post that ostensibly was to provide a couple of CMEpalooza summer updates, but appeared to mostly be just a convenient excuse for him to rant about getting old and these dang kids and their newfangled abbreviations (and also to complain about great literature? What was that all about? My guy is out here putting Dickens and Bradbury on blast. Granted, given that I’m the guy who just dove into a 900-page Winston Churchill biography—and that’s just volume one of three—so perhaps I shouldn’t be the arbiter of what is or isn’t boring. But I digress…)

Buried amongst the complaints and Gen Z abbreviations was an announcement that CMEpalooza Trivia Night will be back for a third consecutive year at the Alliance Industry Summit (AIS). I wanted to provide a few more details for anyone who has never attended AIS or been to a CMEpalooza Trivia Night.

• WHAT: CMEpalooza Trivia Night
• WHEN: During AIS from 6-7:30 pm on Monday, September 14
• WHERE: Mortimer B. Zuckerman Research Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York (same location as AIS)
• WHY: Because it’s fun! Also, thanks to our event sponsor, AcademicCME, there will be free food and drink as well as cash prizes for the winners.
• HOW: This is an excellent question. Typically for our trivia events, we have five rounds of 5 questions. The first four questions of each round will be related to the theme of that round, and the last question of each round will be a pop culture question.

Here is a general breakdown of the types of questions you will encounter during CMEpalooza Trivia Night:

Round 1: AIS Day 1. We will create one question from each session from the first (half) day of AIS. As Scott mentioned previously, due to the nature of this year’s AIS schedule, we will only be able to cover one block of presentations with our questions. As an example, this is one of the questions from last year’s CMEpalooza Trivia Night (I’ll put the answers at the very end.)

Is it compliant to hold accredited and nonaccredited CME programs in the same room?

1. Yes, as long as each is properly identified
2. Yes, as long as each is properly identified and there is a 30-minute gap between them
3. Yes, as long as each is properly identified and there is a 60-minute gap between them
4. No

Round 2: Alliance Almanac. This round will include four questions developed from recent Almanac articles, so you better start cramming now! We may include questions such as:

Are more participants really always better in outcomes reports?

1. Yes! The higher the number the better!
2. No! If 75% of participants are students or retired clinicians, that’s not better!
3. I don’t know! Ask Greg Salinas, he wrote the article!
4. Who cares! I’m going to get more free snacks and drinks! Thanks AcademicCME!

Round 3: AcademicCME. This is a special round dedicated to our sponsor for the evening, AcademicCME. All questions for this round will feature AcademicCME or AcademicCME-adjacent trivia. For example:

Temple University is the alma mater of AcademicCME’s founder Tim Hayes (and Hall & Oates). Which bird of prey is the Temple U mascot?

1. Eagle
2. Hawk
3. Falcon
4. Owl

Round 4: ACCME. This one is fairly self-explanatory. It’s questions about or related to the ACCME. For example:

According to the 2025 ACCME Annual Report, which provider type has the most accredited organizations?

1. Hospital/Healthcare Delivery System
2. Publishing/Education Company
3. School of Medicine/Health Sciences
4. Professional Membership Organization

Round 5: CME Wildcard! (I used an exclamation mark because it’s wild!) This section will consist of general questions related to anything having to do with CME and/or CME organizations. Here is an example from last year:

2026 is the Alliance’s 50th Anniversary. Which city hosted the first Alliance conference back in 1976?

1. Chicago
2. Atlanta
3. Philadelphia
4. San Francisco

Pop Culture Questions: As mentioned, the last question of each round will be a pop culture question. We’re using “pop culture” as a bit of a catch-all term here. It basically means questions on any topic other than CME or AIS. It could be anything from TV shows to movies to history to sports to whatever. Since AIS will be in NYC, most of these questions will likely have a NYC slant to them. Here is an example from last year, when AIS was in Philly:

Which of the following TV shows is NOT set in Philadelphia?

1. Abbott Elementary
2. Boy Meets World
3. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
4. That ‘70s Show

Now that you know all about CMEpalooza Trivia Night, make your plans to join us. There will be snacks. There will be prizes. We’ll be done in time for you to make your dinner reservation. See you in September!

ANSWER KEY: Correct answers in GREEN

Is it compliant to hold accredited and nonaccredited CME programs in the same room?

1. Yes, as long as each is properly identified
2. Yes, as long as each is properly identified and there is a 30-minute gap between them
3. Yes, as long as each is properly identified and there is a 60-minute gap between them
4. No

Explanation: This is known as the “30 minute rule” and is outlined in Standard 5.2a.

Are more participants really always better in outcomes reports?

1. Yes! The higher the number the better!
2. No! If 75% of participants are students or retired clinicians, that’s not better!
3. I don’t know! Ask Greg Salinas, he wrote the article!
4. Who cares! I’m going to get more free snacks and drinks! Thanks Academic CME!

Explanation: Greg explains it much better, and with fewer exclamation marks, in this Almanac article.

Temple University is the alma mater of Tim Hayes (and Hall & Oates). Which bird of prey is the Temple U mascot?

1. Eagle
2. Hawk
3. Falcon
4. Owl

Explanation: They decided on the owl due to Temple’s origin as a night school (night owls.) Temple’s founder Russell Conwell famously remarked “The owl of the night makes the eagle of the day.”

According to the 2025 ACCME Annual Report, which provider type has the most accredited organizations?

1. Hospital/Healthcare Delivery System
2. Publishing/Education Company
3. School of Medicine/Health Sciences
4. Professional Membership Organization

Explanation: Hospital/Healthcare Delivery System (676), Professional Membership Organization (319), Publishing/Education Company (229), and School of Medicine/Health Sciences (168)

2026 is the Alliance’s 50th Anniversary. Which city hosted the first Alliance conference back in 1976?

1. Chicago
2. Philadelphia
3. Atlanta
4. San Francisco

Explanation: The Alliance “group” started meeting in 1974, but the first conference was held in Atlanta at the incorporation of the Alliance in 1976.

Which of the following TV shows is NOT set in Philadelphia?

1. Abbott Elementary
2. Boy Meets World
3. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
4. That ‘70s Show

Explanation: That 70s Show is set in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin

My inner monologue upon returning from vacation last weekend and reading through the blog posts Scott wrote the week I was gone.

Ahhhhhh, I am feeling fresh and relaxed after a week off. Might as well crank up the ol’ laptop and see what Scott wrote last week. I hope he hit all the key points in his post announcing the 2026 CMEpalooza Fall agenda. Let’s see what we have here…ok, random Back to the Future quote, good, that’s important…reference to us being crochety old men, nice, very on brand…ah ha! Yes! A mention of LeBron James now being on the Sixers! Whew! I was worried he would forget to include that. Great, great, I think he covered all the important stuff. Oh, he did a second post later in the week? Interesting…let’s give this a read…”If you were to ask 10 people to think of an adjective that best describes me, ‘kind’ would not be a word that ended up on anyone’s list”…aww, c’mon, that’s not entirely true. I bet at least a couple people would have it at number 9 or 10 on their lists. Remember that time I met Scott for lunch and I offered to pay but then realized I had left my wallet in the car? He only rolled his eyes a couple times before sighing and paying the bill. That was sort of kind…

Hopefully by now you have all had a chance to check out the new agenda. Though I don’t like to do it too often, I’ll offer a big thank you to Scott for handling the agenda release while I was out on vacation.

Where did Derek go on vacation, you may be asking yourself (you’re probably not, but I’m using it as a literary device so I can tell you where I went and make a point). Good question, and one that I have been asked many times this summer over the course of normal small talk. This year, the responses I have received when I answer the question have been a bit different.

Here’s a typical example:

Them: Are you traveling anywhere for vacation this summer?

Me: Yes, we’re leaving in a couple weeks.

Them: Nice. Where are you going?

Me: Iowa

Them: Oh…why?

After I say “Iowa” there is always a pause, a look of confusion, maybe raised eyebrows, followed by the inevitable “Why?”

The “why” is that we have two very good friends who both teach at Luther College in Decorah, IA, who have been inviting us to come visit them for years. For a number of reasons—including the fact that neither of my kids have much interest in vacationing in Iowa—we had yet to take them up on their offer. Until last week.

Here’s the thing: it was great. Unexpectedly great. If you were born with a coastal bias like me, when you think of Iowa, you think of miles and miles of flat ground populated by cornfields, silos, and maybe a couple of cows. Maybe that’s what the rest of Iowa looks like, I dunno, but unbeknownst to me, the northeastern part of Iowa is part of the Driftless Area of the Midwest. It’s about a 25,000 square foot area of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois that the ice sheets missed during the last Ice Age. Instead of the flatlands typically left behind by the glaciers, this region maintained its craggy bluffs, deep valleys, freshwater streams, etc.

We spent a lovely week kayaking, hiking, and exploring the small but fun town of Decorah. The week ended on a high note with a visit to the Pizza Farm, which is exactly what you think it is. It’s an active farm that also sells pizza. Fantastic. Five stars all around.

As you’re looking through the CMEpalooza Fall agenda and deciding which sessions you want to watch, I encourage you to give consideration to participating in a session or two that you might usually skip. Maybe your role primarily focuses on accreditation, and you don’t have much interest in grants. Or maybe you have been working in IME for half your life and have trouble drumming up much enthusiasm for a session targeting those early in their careers. That’s fine. We recognize that every session isn’t for every learner.

Buuuuuuuuut, it wouldn’t hurt for you to take a couple minutes and check out one of the sessions you shrugged your shoulders at when you read the description. What else are you going to do, work? You say you’re going to work, but we both know you’re not going to work. You’re going to check your phone, look at your socials, send your family a couple funny cat videos, get a cup of coffee, use the bathroom, and generally putz around until the next session starts.

Who knows, maybe the session you thought would be boring will be great. Unexpectedly great.

While I was updating the CMEpalooza Archive with all the recent sessions from CMEpalooza Spring 2026, I noticed we had reached a somewhat notable milestone: CMEpalooza Spring 2026 was the 25th Palooza. Woo.

Having realized this momentous achievement, I of course immediately shared the news with Scott (note: these are our actual texts.)

Naturally, he was overwhelmed with emotion, as you can easily see from his response.

Wow, what a moment. You can really feel the love. We both took a moment to collect ourselves, and then it was right back to business.

Be careful, my enthusiasm is contagious.

In all seriousness, a big thank you to everyone for helping us make it through CMEpalooza #25! I can’t promise we will do another 25, but then, I also didn’t think we would do more than one, so what do I know?