Hey gang, just a quick note to let you all know that today is not the last day to register for CMEpalooza, because, well, we don’t have registration at CMEpalooza. You can just drop by whenever you want on Wednesday, April 17, click on the live video stream, and start watching. It’s wild.

Of course, if something truly awful happens that prevents you from watching CMEpalooza live – like if you have a burst appendix or perhaps accidentally eat a piece of white chocolate and have to go to the ER – you can always watch the archive of all the presentations later that day (or any other day). Again, no registration and no charge. The advantages of a virtual conference.

Scott and I briefly toyed with the idea of trying an actual in-person, live meeting CMEpalooza. Rather, I toyed with the idea. Scott thought it was a dumb idea from the very beginning, which is probably right. Anyway, I checked out a potential venue last week. Here’s my picture from inside the Wells Fargo Center, home of the Arena Football League’s Philadelphia Soul. Also, apparently a couple teams named the Flyers and 76ers play there. News to me.

Frankly, I’m not sure if this space is big enough to accommodate us. Is the Astrodome still around?

Speaking of the 76ers, Sixers legend Bobby Jones was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame this past Saturday. While Bobby Jones looked like a high school AP calculus teacher even in his prime playing days, he was surprisingly athletic and a nasty dunker. Whenever he passes on from this world to the next, I imagine his conversation with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates will go something like this:

St. Peter: “Name?”

Bobby Jones: “Bobby Jones.”

St. Peter: “Reason you should be let into heaven?”

Bobby Jones: “I dunked on Larry Bird.”

St. Peter: “Uh…didn’t you start a sports ministry for at-risk youth??”

Bobby Jones: “Yes, but…” [whips out cellphone and plays this video]

St. Peter [with a small smile]: “OK, you’re in. Next!”

Did I just write this entire blog post for the sole purpose of showing a video of Bobby Jones dunking on Larry Bird and knocking him on his butt?

Only St. Peter knows for sure…

My son is a freshman in high school and is on the rowing team, which is a new sport for all of us. I think he likes the fact that this is one of the few sports I know nothing about — other than what I read in The Boys in the Boat — and therefore I can’t give him any helpful advice. This may come as a shock to some of you, but he seems not to particularly care for my undoubtedly extremely helpful tips and pointers as to how he can better himself in any number of areas in his life. His loss.

An email recently went around to all parents of the rowers on my son’s team asking for volunteers to “drive a launch” at the upcoming spring regattas. Now, I had no idea what “a launch” is. I thought it was a truck with a trailer that hauls around the boats. So I volunteered. Why not?

It wasn’t until a few days later that I discovered that a launch is actually a mini-catamaran that coaches use during practice and referees/marshals use during the regattas. They use volunteers to zip the referees around on the water during the races. Once I realized that, I was totally in. I had one training session on how to drive the launch (I still have no idea why it’s called that) and then went live last Sunday. I had no idea what I was doing.

Fortunately, despite the frigid temps, the marshal I was responsible for motoring around was very nice, and we had a fun morning out on the lovely Schuylkill (pronounce it with me: “SKOO-kill”) River, yelling at rowers and getting them lined up correctly at the starting area. Here’s a picture of me hard at work along the famous Boathouse Row.

(Here comes the segue.)

Today we, ahem, launch something new at CMEpalooza (did you see what I did there?)

(note from Scott: Unfortunately, I did. We have, ahem, sunk to a new low. Did you see what I did there?)

The people have spoken and you are requesting, nay demanding, a CMEpalooza podcast. And we have heard you and responded. Kind of. There is a CMEpalooza podcast now, but it is basically just an archive of the audio from previous sessions. And for right now, it’s just the audio from the very first CMEpalooza back in 2014 as part of our 5-year anniversary celebration. It’s a work in progress, and we’ll be gradually adding the rest of the sessions over the next few weeks. Like driving the launch on Sunday, I really don’t know what I’m doing, but you’re all nice people and hopefully this will turn out fine, too.

Will we ever turn it into an actual podcast with original content updated on a regular basis? I don’t know. We’ll see. For now, this is what we have. Here are the links if you want to subscribe. Or you can just search for “CMEpalooza” in either Apple or Google podcasts.

Apple podcast (I can’t get the stupid Apple podcast badge to work, so here’s the link)

Just a quick post today. I have to go pick up my kid from rowing practice, so I’m squeezing this in before I go. Two topics for your input and consideration:

Topic #1: CMEpalooza Podcast — Yay or Nay?

I have had a couple people talk to me recently about turning the CMEpalooza videos into audio podcasts, I guess so they can listen to them while they are driving or “exercising” (insert eye-rolling emoji). Honestly, I don’t see the appeal, but different strokes for different folks, I guess. Maybe they are just anxious to hear the smooth dulcet tones of Scott Kober through their new $300 Bose headphones. I dunno.

Anyway, after thoroughly researching the idea (I googled it for 5 minutes), it looks like it would be possible to do without too much difficulty, if enough people are interested in that type of format. Let’s do a quick poll!

Topic #2: Can we all just agree that the odds of me remembering that you were on a CMEpalooza panel are not very good and not get offended when we talk later and I inevitably forget?

It’s not you, it’s me. This happened to me twice last week at the SACME conference and a few more times before that at the Alliance conference. Usually, I will be having a pleasant conversation with someone and then mention something about how I co-produce an online conference called CMEpalooza. The person I’m talking to will sigh, roll their eyes, and say something like, “I know, Derek. I did a CMEpalooza session last year.” To their credit, most people don’t get offended, and we have a nice laugh after I smack my forehead and hang my head in shame. Still, I do feel bad about not remembering.

Look, Scott and I have done a lot of sessions over the past 5 years. Just look at the Archives. I’m going to forget people, especially if you weren’t on a session that I was running. I have never been great at remembering names and faces, and my rapidly increasing age is not helping matters any. Personally, I recommend adding “Previous CMEpalooza Participant” to your name badge, so I can steal a quick look at it and remind myself. That would make my life sooo much easier.