As you may have heard, we have opened our abstract submission process for CMEpalooza Spring 2024, which you can read all about here. Submissions are due by the end of the day on Wednesday, February 14. If you are looking for motivation as to why you should consider submitting an abstract, you are in luck! Here are the Top 5 Reasons to Submit an Abstract to Present at CMEpalooza Spring 2024.

5. We are presenting 10 Years of CMEpalooza: Lessons for the CME Community at the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions conference. Wait a minute, you may be thinking to yourself, this is not a reason to submit an abstract to present at CMEpalooza Spring 2024. This is just a shameless self-promotional plug for your Alliance presentation next Tuesday from 3:45 – 4:45 pm CT in the Nottoway room on Level 3. 

To these accusations, I can only respond as follows: Guilty as charged. You caught me. I apologize. It shan’t happen again.

4. We are featured in the most recent Alliance Podcast, Episode 43 – The Impact of Educating the Educators (with the Founders of CMEpalooza). Now hold on, you are probably thinking to yourself, this is another shameless self-promotional plug that has nothing to do with submitting an abstract to present at CMEpalooza Spring 2024.

Uh oh — outed again! Excellent detective work. I shall endeavor to do better with the rest of the list.

3. Fame and fortune await! That seems unlikely, is what you are likely thinking to yourself, though at least you aren’t promoting another unrelated event.

If your definition of fame and fortune is someone you meet at a conference saying, “Hey, I remember you from your session at CMEpalooza,” then friend, this is the opportunity for you.

2. It’s easy. Hmmmm, you might be thinking to yourself, this one sounds suspiciously similar to what you wrote in a blog post the last time you asked us to submit an abstract for CMEpalooza Spring.  

Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. Who can remember from one year to the next? What I do remember is that the abstract submission process is still easy. I feel confident in saying that you will not find an easier abstract submission process for a virtual conference for CME/CE professionals. Seriously, it’s only 7 questions, and half of those questions are for your contact info.

(Note from Scott: So there are 3.5 questions about contact info (7/2=3.5)? I guess this is the new “Derek math” that they are teaching in schools these days. Thank your teachers everyone)

You don’t have to give us goals (boring), objectives (which are just goals with different verbs), headshots (we don’t care what you look like), or any of that stuff. Just tell us who you are, give us a summary of your program, and let us know if you need anything special to present it. To paraphrase the great Lionel Richie, it’s easy like Sunday morning…

1. It’s a good opportunity. OK, you are thinking to yourself, you are definitely now just copying and pasting from last year’s blog post. But we agree that presenting at CMEpalooza is a good opportunity.

Finally something we can agree on. Speaking at CMEpalooza is a good opportunity. You get to present to a decent sized (think >200 people) audience of your peers in a low stress environment from the comfort of, well, wherever you want to do it from. And…

[discreetly glances left and right]

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Move in closer so I can whisper it to you.

A little closer.

A little closer.

OK, not that close. I had a lot of garlic for dinner last night.

[whispering] We don’t care where you work or what your title is.

It’s true. You can be a first-year program manager or a CEO with 30 years of experience – it doesn’t matter to us. What does matter is whether or not you have a good idea for a presentation. If you do, submit it to us!

Did you know…

…that there are only two escalators in the entire state of Wyoming? It’s true!

…that the unicorn is the national animal of Scotland? It’s true!

…that Venus is the only planet that spins clockwise? It’s true!

…that the Easter Island heads have bodies? It’s true!

…that Alexander Graham Bell’s preferred greeting when answering the phone was “Ahoy-hoy”? It’s true!

…that you can now submit an abstract to present at CMEpalooza Spring 2024, that the due date is February 14, and that you can read all the details here? It’s true!

Look, it’s Friday. It’s cold. I don’t feel like writing a long blog post. You don’t feel like reading a long post. Can we all just agree that I’ve written something clever and witty to remind you that you can now submit an abstract to present at CMEpalooza Spring 2024 and move on with our day? Yes? Super.

Happy Friday, everyone!

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