Every so often when Derek and I chat, one of us will come up with a “Wouldn’t it be nice if…” idea.

“Hey Scott, wouldn’t it be nice if we could design a costume for a CMEpalooza mascot?”

“Hey Scott, wouldn’t it be nice if we required every one of our panelists to write a personal mission statement as a haiku?”

“Hey Scott, wouldn’t it be nice if I juggle during every CMEpalooza session just to change things up?”

Needless to say, Derek’s “Wouldn’t it be nice…” ideas typically don’t make it very far.

But we do have our rare moments of genius (OK, maybe not genius, but mild competence). Probably three years ago, one of us (probably me) suggested that it was perhaps time to update the CMEpalooza website. Since our humble beginnings, we have used the DIY site that Derek designed on his own. And to give credit where it’s due, it always functioned just fine. It was simple and basic, just like Derek (note from Derek: True.)

But it also looked like a DIY site, kinda like that ’74 Chevy Nova that is sitting in your garage with parts from, well, who knows because you can’t get the original panels, wheels, or upholstery. It works, but it sure ain’t pretty.

After poking around informally for a while, we finally took the plunge a few months ago and hired a local designer to give our site a quick tune-up. Nothing major that would require you to re-learn how to navigate around our site (I hate when companies do that), but just a few tweaks that would hopefully improve your overall CMEpalooza experience.

We’re happy to formally unveil the brand new CMEpalooza website today just in time for CMEpalooza Spring next week. You may note the cosmetic differences with fonts and colors, but there are some more substantive modifications as well. The biggest is that we created an archive for our blog, so if you want to go and see what Derek wrote about on the very first CMEpalooza post in October 2013, it’s easy to find. If you search hard enough, maybe you’ll even stumble upon an Easter Egg that will lead you to Derek’s old “Confessions of a Medical Educator” website (note from Derek: the first person to find the old blog post where I adapted Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” to vent about the state of CME wins a prize!)

We don’t think there are any glitches to the new site, but please do let us know if you find anything and we’ll get them fixed faster than you can say, “Donald Igwebuike.” Thanks everyone.

I am going to begin this post with what some may consider to be a controversial statement: Wanted Dead or Alive is the best Bon Jovi song. I dare, nay, demand that you listen to this song through without once joining in with the echoing “want-ed” in the chorus. It can’t be done, I tell you. And who among us has not told the day by the bottle that you drink? (Hopefully none of you, because frankly, that sounds awful. Maybe that one time in college…)

You know what else is wanted dead or alive? Your questions for the Surviving 2021: Lessons Learned from Surviving 2020 panel (See what I did there, Scott? That’s how a professional handles a segue.) (Note from Scott: At least he used italics, because we all know one thing about Derek: He is no professional) The panel is anxious to know what questions you may have related to how COVID-19 and social justice issues have impacted the health of under-represented communities and would like to spend part of the 10 a.m. ET session addressing them.

If you have any questions you would like to send the panel, this is your opportunity. You can enter them in the form below. We’ll take questions until the end of the day on Wednesday, March 17.

Last October I wrote a blog post appealing to everyone to stick around for the last session of the CMEpalooza day and play a little CME Pop Trivia. Did everyone listen? No…but a good amount did. Enough for us to exceed the capacity of our Poll Everywhere account, which, er…sorry about that. Scott I We sort of forgot about that limitation until it was too late. Oops.

Anyhoo, we have upgraded our Poll Everywhere account (huge thank you to our ARS sponsor PeerAudience!) to accommodate everyone so I am again putting out a call for lots of people to stick around and play CME Pop Trivia II at 4:00 pm ET on March 24. Why? Because it’s fun!

I, Derek (not Scott), will once again serve as the all-knowing Quizmaster for four rounds of CME trivia…and a sprinkling of pop culture, too. Our four noble Questionmasters did such a great job last time that I asked them all to return and, remarkably, they all said yes! They will each develop four questions in their topic:

• From Questionmaster Brian McGowan: CME Legends & Lessons Learned
• From Questionmaster Scott Gorman: Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education
• From Questionmaster Tricia Wilson: Faculty Management
• From Questionmaster Jon Simmons: CM-Editoriana

After each set of 4 questions, there will be an extra question based on some piece of arcane pop culture trivia that will have no relation to anything else. Why? Because it’s fun!

There will be music. Why? Because it’s fun! (Here is the Spotify playlist from CME Pop Trivia)

There will be drinking. Why? Because it’s fun! (make sure you revisit last year’s post for my overly-long description of how to create an excellent Manhattan, the perfect complement for trivia playing.)

There will be prizes. Why? Because of the generous support from our prize sponsor Academic CME! (First place gets a $250 Amazon gift card. Second place gets $150. Third place gets $100.)

As noted, we will again be using Poll Everywhere, so if you want to be super-prepared, you can go ahead and download the Poll Everywhere app.