This Fall marks the 14th iteration of CMEpalooza. That includes the inaugural two-day free-for-all in the spring of 2014 during the BSE (Before Scott Era) and then 13 Spring/Fall events featuring the best duo since the Captain and Tennille. Every year, Derek and I try to make some minor changes to the way we do things, many of which our audience probably doesn’t even notice. Like the year when Derek suggested that we “get crazy haircuts” the week before our live event. I went to my neighborhood barber to give him carte blanche and he laughed at me. He’s mean.

But anyway…

For this Fall’s event, being held next Wednesday, October 14 between 9 am-5 pm ET, there are more “new” things than usual, so I wanted to get everyone prepared:

1. The biggest change is with our LIVE page, otherwise known as the page where you view our sessions. In previous years, we would stream each session on the same page and force learners to refresh their page every hour to view the next session. No more. Thanks to technological advances of our production platform, StreamYard, we are now able to pre-schedule all of our sessions, which means that we can also create unique pages to view all of our sessions. So now, when you go to our LIVE page on the day of our live broadcast, you just need to click on the link to the session you want to view. If you are really, really bored, you can even click on each link now and just sit there staring at the screen until the session begins. The staring record is 22 hours, 17 minutes, 19 seconds. Email Derek if you beat it.
2. It’s not that Derek and I are cheap (OK, maybe we are), but we’ve always used the “free” version of whatever recording platform we were using at the time (note from Derek: we did this to make a point. Mission accomplished, I think.) Consequently, you would always see a little icon with the logo of that platform on the screen of our sessions. This year, I finally convinced Derek to be a grownup and pony up some of his hardly-earned cash to upgrade to the lowest tier of StreamYard’s paid plan. So now you’ll see the CMEpalooza logo in the top right corner of each session. Super important, I know.
3. A few years ago, we offered all of our brilliant CMEpalooza sponsors the opportunity to embed a promotional video beneath their listing. We would typically have 2 or 3 sponsors who took us up on the offer. For whatever reason, this fall we’ve had way more people asking us to put up their videos than usual. As of this writing, there are 10 promotional visits you can check out. Many of these are quite slick.
4. We’ve used Poll Everywhere as our audience response technology for the last few CMEpaloozas. It’s fairly simple to program and run, so we now offer it to our session panelists. I don’t know that everyone will use it this Fall, but a fair number will (and for the anchor 4 pm Trivia session, you absolutely will need Poll Everywhere to play along). Not a bad idea to download the app to your phone/device in advance. Our meeting “handle” is CMEpalooza000. If you don’t want to download another app, you’ll be able to go to this link.
5. While it’s totally voluntary, we are asking everyone to tell us a little about yourself by going to this link. Like I said, not mandatory, but if you want to let us know how amazing you are, this is the link you need to click on. So please, click on this link.

You know what’s not changing about CMEpalooza? The cost. CMEpalooza remains and will always be free for everyone to watch. No pre-registration, no credit cards numbers, no nothing. Every year, we always get a few people emailing us to ask “How do I register for CMEpalooza?” We tell them the same thing – you don’t. You just show up whenever you want to. Missed a live session? View it in the Archives. Also for free.

Like a mother hen gathering her chicks around her, I love all of my CMEpalooza sessions with equal affection. But I will admit that I do have a special fondness for whatever session ends up in the last slot of the day. That slot always has the toughest row to hoe and regardless of topic or start time, always has the fewest number of viewers. It has always been the case with live conferences and it is the case with virtual conferences, too. (Note from Scott: Derek, stop giving away our secrets!)

With that in mind, I would like to give a plug for everyone to stick around for the last session of CMEpalooza Fall 2020: CME Pop Trivia! I, Derek (not Scott), will serve as the all-knowing Quizmaster for four rounds of CME trivia…and a sprinkling of pop culture, too. I have requested the services of four noble Questionmasters to develop four questions in four topics and they all graciously accepted.

• From Questionmaster Brian McGowan: CME History
• From Questionmaster Scott Gorman: ACCME Commendation Criteria
• From Questionmaster Tricia Wilson: Standards for Commercial Support
• From Questionmaster Jon Simmons: Your Editor’s Top Pet Peeves About Your Proposals

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!

There will be drinking. Why? Because it’s fun!

Lengthy side note: It is the last session at the end of what is always a long day, so yes, I plan to take advantage of the situation and have myself a beverage while hosting trivia. Feel free to join me.

The drink of the day will be a Manhattan (note from Scott: Yes, Derek is an old man). No need to Google a recipe when I am here to help.

My preferred Manhattan is as follows:

• Fill a cocktail shaker half full with ice
• Add 2 oz rye (Bulleit is nice, Rittenhouse is better, and Dad’s Hat Vermouth Finish Rye is my favorite)
• Add 1 oz sweet vermouth (Antica Formula is excellent and Dolin Rouge is also nice. I suppose you can use Rosso, too, just don’t tell me.)
• Shake in 3 dashes of Angostura bitters
• Cover and shake until the shaker freezes your hands
• Strain into a glass (you’re supposed to use a coupe glass, but seriously, who even has those?)
• Add one, maybe even two, Luxardo cherries. DO NOT USE GENERIC MARASCHINO CHERRIES. Look, if your idea of fine dining is a 4:45 reservation at Applebees, well-done steak with ketchup, and a bottle of Bud Light, then maybe regular old Maraschino cherries are for you. Otherwise, trust me on this one and spend a few extra bucks on Luxardo. They make everything better.
• Pro tip: after adding your cherries, scoop out a little of the cherry syrup and mix it into your drink. You will thank me later.
• Grab your drink and get ready for trivia!

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

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

I really hope that some/many/all of you can join. It should be a fun time and who knows? You might even learn something.

By now, you have undoubtedly heard about the controversy associated with this year’s CMEpalooza sponsor event, CMEpalooza Pursuit.

People submitting duplicate entries using fake email addresses and fake names.

People using blue pens instead of black pens to complete their entry forms.

People trying to slyly answer 8 instead of 9 questions, thinking we wouldn’t notice.

People forgetting to use the secrecy envelop and mailing in naked forms (note from Derek: oh, the humanity!)

Frankly, it was all a bit discouraging and required a lot of extra work to cull out those successful entrants from those tricksters who tried to worm their way into the prize drawing. Fortunately, we didn’t end up arguing in front of the Supreme Court, although we did have to throw out several thousands entries who didn’t follow our very detailed, intricate submission instructions. All it took was one misspelled word and you were out. Sorry, but dems the breaks (note from Derek: I see what you did there and I approve.)

Nonetheless, we’re happy to report that there were quite a number of individuals who qualified for this morning’s prize drawing. As promised, we had five winners, each of whom were awarded $100 Amazon gift cards. I’d suggest holding on to them for Amazon Prime Day – not coincidentally scheduled to overlap with CMEpalooza Fall on Wednesday, October 14 – so you can maximize their value.

Here are the winners of CMEpalooza Pursuit:

• Vanessa Gray, Director, Continuing Medical Education, Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences
• Jesse Henry, Consultant, OhioHealth Learning Continuing Medical Education
• Monica Nicosia, Nicosia Medical Writer LLC
• Cindy Davidson, Scientific Editor, Global Learning Collaborative
• Amanda Kaczerski, VP, Educational Strategy and Design, The Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning

Congrats to the winners. To the losers, as Philadelphia sports fans throughout history have said over and over again, better luck next year.