Announcement #1: Google Hangouts On Air Is Dead But CMEpalooza Is Not

Here is an abbreviated version of my email exchange with Scott yesterday morning:

Scott: Google killed Hangouts On Air last month. It’s gone.

Me: Well…that’s not good.

Scott: Nope. We should probably find an alternative.

[googles “Google Hangouts On Air alternative”] 

[clicks first link he sees]

Scott: Problem solved. I found something.

Me: Great. Let’s use that.

And that’s pretty much how it all went down (minus a few swear words and inappropriate gestures.) Google did indeed kill Google Hangouts On Air (GHOA), which is the platform we have used to run CMEpalooza since it’s inception. And in about five minutes, we (Scott) found an alternative to use that is pretty dang close to the same as GHOA. We are still testing it out, but have been pleased with how it has performed during our trial runs. I really don’t think you will see much of a difference. With the certainty of death, taxes, and the Phillies bullpen blowing a 3-run lead, CMEpalooza will continue on.

Announcement #2: The CMEpalooza Archive Has Been Updated

I updated the CMEpalooza archive to include all of the sessions from 2019 CMEpalooza Spring. We now have a total of…I don’t know how many sessions. Honestly, it was sort of a stressful day and I didn’t bother to count them. It’s a lot. I’m going to guess it’s 97 sessions in the archive. Ninety-seven sounds like a good number. It’s also the same number of times I banged my head on my desk when I found out GHOA was gone.

Announcement #3: Send In Your Questions For The CMEpalooza Grants Hotline

Yes, they’re not due until September 13, but why wait? Click here and send them in now!! 

The following is a factual statement: the #1 requested topic for CMEpalooza (Every. Single. Time.) is “More content about grants.” It doesn’t matter how many times we do one, people want more. With that in mind, now is your opportunity to get all your grants-related questions answered. The Grants Hotline is officially open and operators are standing by!

Our Grants Hotline session is scheduled for 11 AM ET during CMEpalooza Fall (Wednesday, Oct. 16), and the concept is fairly simple. Submit your question via one of the methods listed below and our expert panel will answer it*. That’s it, that’s the session. The more questions you ask, the more content we have.

*I feel obligated to state that your question needs to be related to the grants process, panelists can opt out of questions they aren’t comfortable answering, and we might not be able to get to every question. So for all you wisenheimers who want to come up with a “hilarious” question that you think will “make our day,” I mean, go ahead, but you’ll be wasting some of your wonderful creativity on an audience of, maybe, two people.

How to submit your questions:

Option #1:

Option #2: Text your questions to the Grants Hotline at 267-666-0CME (0263)

We are going to leave the Grants Hotline open until September 13, so you have two weeks to get your questions in. After that, you will just have to wait until CMEpalooza on October 16. Rumor has it that our fearless moderator will be showing off his Hotline Bling dance moves at the end of the session. Tune in to find out! (note: he didn’t actually tell me that he would be dancing, nor did I ask him, but he also didn’t not tell me that he would be dancing, so who knows?)

Momentum is only as good as the next day’s starter. – Earl Weaver

Exactly one month ago, Scott wrote a blog post trumpeting “We have momentum!” We then proceeded to write a grand total of zero blog posts since then. That’s some momentum. Personally, I blame the heat. It’s been so hot in Philly, the dog swore at me when I tried to take her out for a walk. Who knew greyhounds had such a potty mouth?

The good news is that, despite our lack of blog momentum, we have actually been doing some work behind the scenes, and our CMEpalooza Fall agenda is rounding into shape nicely. It’s not quite ready for prime time, but I thought I would at least give you all a sneak peak into what I think might be our best agenda ever (and yes, we say that every year). So, here are a few things you can expect in the 2019 CMEpalooza Fall agenda:

• An exclamation point in the title of a session
• A reworking of the lyrics to Drake’s Hotline Bling
• A Back to the Future II reference
• Pet rocks, mood rings, and Cabbage Patch Dolls
• A CME detective
• Quizzo!
• Mystery session(s) (to build suspense)

If that doesn’t get you excited for CMEpalooza Fall, then I don’t know what will. Fingers crossed, we hope to have the agenda close to finalized and posted in the next week or two. Stay tuned!

***

On a more serious note, I wanted to offer a brief tribute to my dad, Don Warnick, who passed away a few weeks ago. Perhaps this is a silly place to do such a thing, but Dad was extremely proud of CMEpalooza, even though he didn’t really understand how it worked or what I do. He was my sounding board when I first came up with the idea for palooza, encouraged me to give it a try even though I expected it to fail, and loved the fact that I was creating something new and unique. The least I can do is mention how important he was to me and to the development of CMEpalooza in one of my blog posts. I think he would have gotten a kick out of that.