You’re all in for a special treat today (no, it’s not ice cream). I’m going to let you in on the creative process Scott and I go through when we’re planning CMEpalooza. Below is a paraphrased version of how we decided to do a Pecha Kucha during the last CMEpalooza Fall. Feel free to try and replicate our brainstorming process in your own professional life.

Me: We should do a Pecha Kucha during CMEpalooza Fall.

Scott: I have no idea what that is.

Me: 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide, auto-advancing.

Scott: Sounds dumb.

Me: It will be great.

Scott: Whatevs.

End scene. Of course, I was right and it was great and you should all immediately go and watch it now, if you haven’t already done so.

In all seriousness, we did get a lot of feedback that people enjoyed the Pecha Kucha format and would love to see it again. So, your wish is our command — we’re doing a Pecha Kucha at CMEpalooza Spring! Here are some of the details:

• Go here to submit a Pecha Kucha abstract. This is not to be confused with an abstract for a regular CMEpalooza Spring session, which can also be submitted today, tomorrow, or next week.
• Submissions are due by the end of the day on February 1. Same deadline for the regular abstracts.
• What is a Pecha Kucha? Go here for more details on the format.
• We’re leaving the topic open ended. It should relate to CPD/CME, but otherwise, it’s up to you.
• As with everything palooza-related, the process is fluid. We plan to have five presentations during the Pecha Kucha. If we get more than five submissions, we’ll do a similar crowdsourcing process as we are doing with the regular CMEpalooza Spring submissions.

If you have never done a Pecha Kucha presentation before — and I’m guessing most of you reading this have not — I encourage you to challenge yourself and give it a try. It’s not easy, but I think most of the presenters from the CMEpalooza Fall Pecha Kucha would agree that the experience of preparing and presenting a Pecha Kucha was an interesting and rewarding experience. If you have any questions about, please feel free to reach out to me.

You like data? We got data. Below is our CMEpalooza Fall 2015 infographic summarizing some of the key takeaways from the meeting. Two highlights for me:

1. This was easily our most successful program in terms of participants/viewers. For the first time, we had a session with more than 200 live viewers (Why Did My Grant Request Get Rejected?) and every session but one had more than 200 combined live and archive viewers. Additionally, approximately 20% of the 84 participants who completed our survey watched CMEpalooza Fall with at least one other person, so the actual number of viewers is likely higher. For perspective, the highest amount of viewers I had for a session during the inaugural CMEpalooza was 50. The low was 10.
2. I continue to be honored and humbled by the kind and flattering comments on our post-activity survey, but two in particular made me happy. The comments were from two small, nonprofit organizations, thanking us for the free education provided by CMEpalooza, since it is often a struggle for them to budget funds for CPD for their staff. This is the reason I started CMEpalooza, and it is why Scott and I continue to do it.

As always, I’d like to give the creative geniuses at infograph-ed a big thank you for putting together the infographic for us. It’s you’re looking for a cool and unique way to display information, I recommend popping over to their website and checking out what they have to offer.

And lastly, a quick reminder that we are now accepting abstracts for CMEpalooza Spring 2016. Click here for more details. Due date is February 1, so don’t wait too long!

 

We’re back! Did you miss us? No? I’ll rephrase: Did you miss me? Yes? Awww, thanks!

Anyway, I’m here to announce two things (drumroll…)

1. CMEpalooza Spring is going to be held on April 6, 2016
2. The opening of the CMEpalooza Spring abstract submission process is going to be…now (deadline is Feb. 1)

As you may recall from last year, CMEpalooza Spring is a bit different than CMEpalooza Fall in that instead of Scott and me picking the agenda, we let you pick the agenda. We do that through an open abstract process where anyone is welcome to submit their idea for a CMEpalooza Spring session and then we post all the abstracts online and ask the CME/CE community to choose the five sessions they are most interested in. We had over 800 votes last year and we’re hoping for even more this year!

How do you submit an abstract for CMEpalooza Spring you ask? Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezee. It’s only takes 5 steps:

1. Come up with an good great amazing idea
2. Go here and complete the form
3. Make yourself a cup of coffee. I recommend using an AeroPress. If you’re going to use a Keurig, I suggest just boiling water and adding brown food coloring. Pretty much the same thing.
4. Twiddle thumbs
5. Click the submit button

And you’re done!

I should add that, based on the success of the CME Pecha Kucha at CMEpalooza Fall, we are planning to bring it back for CMEpalooza Spring. We’ll have a separate application process for that, which we’ll announce later on, so keep that in mind while you’re brainstorming abstract ideas.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to let Scott or I know. Below is a picture of our new intern triaging all of the CMEpalooza questions that flood in every day. He’s waiting for your call/email now!