Transcript from the recent CMEpalooza 2024 planning meeting

Scott: OK, it’s the 10th anniversary of the original CMEpalooza. Do you have any bright ideas for how we can celebrate?
Derek: Yes, sir! I am positively brimming with ideas! I got ideas coming out of my ears, I have so many.
Scott: [rolls eyes] Great, let’s hear them.
Derek: OK, picture this: A session-by-session remake of the entire agenda from the first Palooza, including all the delays and glitches.
Scott: [stares directly at Derek without blinking]
Derek: I can see you are at a loss for words and unable to respond to my brilliance. It will be great. We can dress like it’s 2014. I’ll grow out another terrible goatee to match-…
Scott: [still glaring] The original CMEpalooza was 2 days long. There were 22 sessions. Some were only 15 minutes long.
Derek: I know! It will be great! We’ll have to adjust our timing and…
Scott: The content is 10 years old. Some of the speakers have retired or no longer work in CME.
Derek: Well, sure. I guess we’ll have to put on our detective hats and try to track them do-…
Scott: No. Next idea.
Derek: OK, picture this: We could ask people to submit abstracts again.
Scott: [standing up to leave] Perfect, let’s do that.

(Note from Scott: I know you all think that Derek is exaggerating in his replay of our conversation, but this is pretty much spot-on. At least the part where I stood up to leave 5 minutes into our discussion.)

Yes, it’s that time of year, and the planning has begun for CMEpalooza Spring (it’s on Wednesday, April 24. Save the date in your calendar if you haven’t already.) As in the past few years, we want to include a broad range of the CE community in the planning and development process of the CMEpalooza agenda. Anyone is welcome to submit an idea for a CMEpalooza Spring session, though it’d probably help if it’s a good idea (we tend to like those).

The process is fairly simple. If you have an idea for a session that you would like to lead at CMEpalooza Spring, just complete the CMEpalooza Spring 2024 Abstract Submission form by the end of the day on Wednesday, February 14 (yes, Valentine’s Day – nothing more romantic than a CMEpalooza abstract). After that, Scott and I will review all the proposals we receive and select at least five for the official Spring agenda. If there are more that we like, we may hold onto some ideas for the Fall event as well.

Here are a few guidelines:

1. This is a virtual conference and all sessions are done via StreamYard. It’s easy.
2. Proposals will only be considered if they are submitted via the abstract submission form. Or if you hire a wagon train and deliver them in writing to my front door. Whichever is easier.
3. The deadline for proposals to be submitted is 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, February 14.
4. We are open to pretty much any idea as long as it relates in some way to CME/CE. The more creative, the better. My dream is for someone to propose a musical (this is not Scott’s dream).
5. Interactive formats with multiple presenters, such as panel sessions and interviews, are encouraged. If you want to figure out a unique way to incorporate Poll Everywhere into your session, that’s totally fine too.
6. Please verify the availability of all presenters for the date of CMEpalooza (Wednesday, April 24) before submitting their name in your proposal.
7. We don’t want to limit creativity, so there isn’t a limit on the number of proposals you can submit, but use common sense and be reasonable. We will likely only choose one proposal for which you are listed as the lead contact, so don’t submit 10 proposals or something crazy like that.
8. While it’s not a hard and fast rule, we’d prefer that you not simply submit a proposal that mirrors a presentation you gave at another conference within the last 12 months. At least give it a unique spin.
9. We will notify you within a week of the abstract submission deadline if your proposal has been accepted or not.
10. If you have any questions, feel free to email Derek (thecmeguy@gmail.com) or Scott (scott@excaliburmeded.com), or find us at the Alliance conference in a couple weeks.

I think that about covers it. I especially want to encourage people who have never presented at CMEpalooza to submit a proposal. We are always happy to have new presenters participate. Maybe you are intimidated by getting up in a front of a room full of your colleagues and presenting material — not a problem with CMEpalooza. Maybe you are worried that your idea would be too “out there” for a traditional conference — not a problem with CMEpalooza. Maybe you are just too lazy to want to put together a slide deck for a presentation — so are we, which is why we often encourage our panelists to use few (if any) slides.

Give it a shot.

Click here for the CMEpalooza Spring 2024 Abstract Submission form

I made my way past the abandoned bookstalls on Rue Montague, a tattered homburg my only shield from the icy darts falling from the sky, crossed the rain slickened cobblestones, and cautiously approached the café on the corner. Given the late hour, the café was shuttered for the night and, other than the tortoiseshell tom cat fleeing the miserable weather down the alley ahead of me, not a soul was in sight. Discreetly glancing left and right to confirm I was alone, I quickly descended the six cracked slate steps partially hidden from view by the café’s trash bins, creaked open the massive oak door that served as the underground speakeasy’s only security measure, and slipped inside.

The indoor lighting was barely more than the gloomy night I had just escaped. I took a moment to scan the room as rivulets of rain streamed off the brim of my hat and saw only one other patron – a sad-sack old man with a faded tweed coat and Churchillian nose, morosely nursing the remnants of a pint at the far end of the bar. A mustachioed bartender with sleeves rolled past his elbows paused his vigorous wiping down of the line of coupe glasses in front of him just long enough to give me an almost imperceptible nod in the direction of the back corner of the room, where a high-sided booth waited, the lazy swirl of cigarette smoke hovering above it outing the hidden presence within.

Ignoring the good manners my mother taught me, I left my damp trench coat and homburg in place and started across the scarred hardwood floorboards in the direction of the booth in the back. Walking past the weathered bar, the bartender deftly slid out a cut glass tumbler of generously poured scotch that I grabbed in stride, no eye contact necessary. Ten more steps brought me to the head of the booth and I eased my lanky frame into the seat across from the rumpled occupant.

I knew him only as Marcel, though I doubted that name could be found on any birth certificate he owned. He was hatless, wore a frayed and wrinkled fawn London Fog, had at least three days’ worth of stubble on his face, dark purple crescents under his eyes, a half-smoked Gauloise in his hand, and four more stubbed out on the tin ashtray in front of him. The only light at the booth emanated from a candle jammed in the neck of an old wine bottle, fresh wax dripping down to obscure the label, but that was all I needed to see that Marcel was as tense as an overtuned cello.

He glanced at me briefly as I sat but otherwise kept his shifty-eyed gaze averted, his left knee endlessly jiggling up and down beneath the heavily lacquered table. I took a sip of the smoky Lagavulin and softly tapped the glass bottom on the table to get his attention.

“Is it done?” I asked, quietly but with enough firmness to indicate I was in no mood for tomfoolery.

“Let’s not do this here,” he pleaded, a trace of hysteria in his voice. “There’s too many ears around.”

“No. We’re doing this now. The bartender is on the payroll and the sad-sack at the bar is oblivious to the external world. I’ll ask again: Is it done?”

“You won’t get away with this,” he hissed. “The archive. Keeping everything free. It’s not right. No one gives content away like this for free. No one! It’s not right, I say!”

I was getting annoyed.

“Is it done or not?”

Sweat was beading on Marcel’s forehead as his clumsy nervous fingers fumbled with his lighter, unable to get a flame going. He stuck the unlit Gauloise in his mouth anyway.

“There’s going to be trouble, I tell you. Trouble. When the others hear about this. You can’t keep doing this. The archive. I wish I never heard of the archive. I wish I never heard of you!”

Gently setting down the glass with my left hand, I swiftly grabbed Marcel by the lapels of his raincoat with my right hand, pulling him halfway across the table until our faces were inches apart, his tobacco-stained breath making me instantly regret this action.

“I’m going to ask you one more time,” I growled. “Is. It. Done?”

I stared directly into his bloodshot eyes and waited. Marcel swallowed hard and finally croaked out in a strained voice,

”Yeah. It’s done. The archive is updated. Everything is on there. Every session from every year. Everything free.”

Without a word I released my grip, his torso slumping across the table. I finished off the last of the scotch and slid out of the booth. As I walked away, I could hear Marcel muttering “He’s a madman” as he straightened himself up and tried again to light his cigarette.

A curt nod to the bartender and I was back out the door and up the steps. It was still raining. Slowly crossing back over the slippery cobblestones, I flipped up the collar of my coat, adjusted my hat, and walked off into the night.

The CMEpalooza archive has been updated with every session from CMEpalooza Fall 2023 (Thanks, Marcel!) You will also find an archived version of every session from every CMEpalooza, including the very first CMEpalooza ten years ago. 

This is one of those blog posts where I summed up the entire thing in the title: the 2024 CMEpalooza Sponsorship Prospectus Is Now Available. You can find it here.

That’s pretty much it. I did suggest to Scott that instead of accepting sponsorship payments by check or PayPal we require them to be sent in a money bag with a big dollar sign stamped on the outside like in an old timey bank heist (see picture below.)

He said no because he is no fun. Also, I think this might be the Hamburglar, which leads me to wonder why he is holding a bag of money and not a bag of burgers. And why is he wearing a cape and hat? I’m not complaining, it’s a good look for him. It just seems like an inefficient disguise and the cape would be easy for a pursuing copper to grab or maybe get caught in a door.

Anyway, if you are interested in a 2024 CMEpalooza sponsorship, take a look at the prospectus and let us know. PayPal and checks are still accepted…for now.