palooza haiku
of course we did it again
you know you love it

coming in one week
cmepalooza fall
be there or be square

9 AM ET – Creating a Community of Care Through Innovative Education, Outcomes and Point-of-Care Tools

great kick-off session
not great is that I forgot
the oxford comma

10 AM ET – You Can’t Do That in CME!

my dad always said
never say “I can’t do that”
turn can’t into can

11 AM ET – Grants Hotline

you people sure have
a whole bunch of grants questions
grants hotline can help

Noon ET – Lunch

first ever lunch break
or breakfast or morning snack
east coast bias? yes

1 PM ET – Back to the Future (of CME)

a look at the past
how did our predictions do?
then predict again

2 PM ET – CME Fads: Gone for Good or Coming Back Around?

gamification
the mullet of CME?
really makes you think

3 PM ET – Jake Powers, CME Detective – Accreditation with Complications

this might be the best
or the most ridiculous
thing I ever wrote

4 PM ET – The Great, Big, Play at Home in Your Jammies CME Quiz

you can win money
with your CME knowledge
what a world this is

Sponsors

haikus for sponsors
just one of the many perks
though not a great one

Gold

first time gold sponsor
cool cats from Med Learning Group
peep their video

repeat gold sponsor
Academic CME
thanks for the lunch break

Silver

i am very close
to Prova Education
five miles from home

PER has been
around since the mid-90’s
here’s video proof

and now for a group
that needs no introduction
we all know Medscape 

it’s not in-fo-graphed
try four syllables not three
say “in-fo-graph-ed“

HME — short for
Haymarket Medical Ed
with MyCME

lots of global groups
Global Education Group
sole silver sponsor

need education
that has creative concepts?
check out CEC

the lower case “i”
in ASiM CE
is a mystery

Scott tells me I am supposed to remind everyone about the CMEpalooza Bingo!! thing, so, fine. All the forms you need to play can be accessed by clicking on this link and you can get all the details on how to play by looking at Monday’s blog post. Entries are due this Sunday evening for some reason that makes zero sense to me, but whatever. I’m sure Scott has a good reason for it [eye roll]. But, you can win some cash money, so get those forms in soon!

OK, with that out of the way, let’s move on to the main reason for this blog post, which is to announce a totally original idea for a new game that I created all by myself. I call it CMEpalooza Day Bingo!!!

Now, you may be thinking to yourself that this sounds very similar to CMEpalooza Bingo!! and this will be very confusing. I assure you that CMEpalooza Bingo!! and CMEpalooza Day Bingo!!! are very different. For starters, I added the word “Day” and an extra exclamation mark to the title to make sure it was obvious which is which.

Second, you will not win any money in CMEpalooza Day Bingo!!! or any other prize. The enjoyment of participating will be prize enough! Also, Scott wouldn’t give me any money 😦

Lastly, CMEpalooza Day Bingo!!! is designed for you to play on the day of CMEpalooza (Wednesday, October 16). You now see the cleverness of the title, no? Just click here to print our your CMEpalooza Day Bingo!!! card and play along while watching all the sessions during CMEpalooza Fall. If you win, give yourself a hearty pat on the back, because we are all winners on CMEpalooza day!

I am compelled to point out to everyone that at 3 pm ET on the day of CMEpalooza Fall (October 16), there is going to be a session that is essentially a dramatization featuring a CME detective named Jake Powers. I am not making this up. This is an actual session that you will be able to watch live, as it happens. Here is a sample scene:

Eddie Malone looks up from forging signatures on an LOA for a CME program that occurred 2 months ago and glares at his partner-in-crime, Frank Falco, who is pacing a hole in the already threadbare burnt orange rug in their fifth-floor walk-up.

“Sit down, you friggin’ lunatic,” Eddie growls around his unlit Cuban. “You’re makin’ me seasick with all the back and forth. You want me to yack all over these papers?”

Frank glaces at Eddie with the uneasiness of a terrier after two bowls of water and throws himself into a ratty yellow Lay-Z-Boy, dirty stuffing trickling out of the split seams.

“We shouldn’t a dunnit, Eddie! We shouldn’t a dunnit! It was too risky, and they’re on to us. I know it! We shoulda just gave ’em the buffet dinner like we said we was!”

“Shut your yap, you dang fool. It’s the perfect crime. We say we’re havin’ dinner, get grant moneys for it, don’t have the dinner, pocket the moolah, and no one’s the wiser!”

Frank shakes his head and takes a slug straight from the half-empty bottle of Jim Beam he’s been cradling like a baby.

“Somebody’s gonna snitch.”

“Yeah, well, snitches get sti-“

A pounding on the front door causes Frank to drop the bottle, amber liquid gurgling between cracks in the decrepit floorboards. He looks wildly at Eddie, eyes wide with fear. Eddie holds up a finger to shush him and reaches for the top drawer of his desk.

“Who is it?” he barks out, slowly removing his cellphone from the desk drawer.

The gravely voice that answers sends a tremor from the top of Eddie’s greasy head to the base of his scoliosic spine.

“It’s Powers. Jake Powers. I’m a CME detective, and you two rats are coming with me.”

Eddie begins thumbing a number into his phone while Frank babbles incoherently into his hands.

“Powers,” Eddie mutters. “Why did it have to be Powers?”

OK, I totally made that up. I have no idea what they’re actually doing, but it’s still intriguing, right? I mean, c’mon, a CME detective? What could be better than that? (Don’t answer that.)

The point is – and the point Scott made with yesterday’s post – you should definitely try to tune in for the afternoon sessions during CMEpalooza Fall. All the sessions are going to to be great, but the last two of the day, I think, are particularly creative and fun. You won’t want to miss them.

As a side note, for anyone wondering where the heck the idea of a CME detective came from, I am somewhat chagrined to admit it comes from an unfinished story I wrote on my old blog back in 2011. A period of time when I clearly had too much time on my hands. But if you are a sucker for original source material, feel free to give it a read.