Back in ancient times, a wise man once said: “Why do we pay lots of money to go to conferences when we could stay at home in our comfy clothes and do the same thing much cheaper?”

That wise man was me (and by “wise” I mean “lazy and bored”) and the year was 2014 (Ahh, 2014. Back in the days when we did crazy things like leave the house and give random strangers high-fives. Such an innocent time.) CMEpalooza was born, and maybe there were other virtual conferences around then, but I certainly wasn’t aware of them. I don’t say that to brag – it seemed like sort of a silly idea at the time.

Fast forward six years and virtual conferences are now everywhere. Was CMEpalooza a trendsetter that made everyone jealous so they decided to copy our idea? As much as I’d like to claim imitation as the sincerest form of flattery, clearly the coronavirus deserves all due credit for the surge in online meetings. We were just lucky enough to stumble onto the idea a few years ahead of time.

As Scott mentioned earlier in the week, we have started the planning process for CMEpalooza Fall (happening on Wednesday, October 14), and I wanted to share with you a few updates we are making to help keep us on the cutting edge. Like a wide receiver sprinting downfield, we at CMEpalooza have looked over our shoulder, seen the cornerback closing in, and made our move. We are going old school.

That’s right, the original virtual conference is going audio-only! Instead of video conferencing, we are switching to the old teleconference format you grew to love in the early aughts. It’s going to be great! Approximately 300 people on a teleconference with beeping and booping every time someone calls in or hangs-up. During the Q&A time, we will open the line for anyone to talk so that there will be a long period of silence and then a cacophony to rival the Tower of Babel as everyone asks a question at the same time. Just think of the fond memories it will dredge up.

Also, we will be shutting down the blog and transferring everything over to Google+ and MySpace. Despite going old school, Scott and I still believe that social media is a vital cog in our outreach to the CE community. TikTok is the hot social network of 2020, but the TikTok Teens aren’t really our key demographic, you know? We think these two platforms will really help us reach our target audience.

I know these changes might seem a bit drastic, but I really think that nostalgia-conferencing is the next big thing, and we are ready to jump on it. If anyone has any questions or ideas you want to discuss with me, just hit me up on my beeper. The number is 267-99-…hold on.

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OK, I have just been informed that MySpace is now myspace and barely functional and Google+ is…well…extinct. Shoot, that really puts a crimp in our promotional strategy. Ugh, this is going to take more planning than I expected. Sigh…I guess we will just have to go back to the old video conference format for the time being.

Sorry to disappoint you all. It looks like nostalgia-conferencing will have to wait for another time…

(Note from Scott: Please, someone save me from Derek’s flashbacks to the “good old past” and fill out an application to be our Fall intern. It’ll be fun. Maybe.)

Hello again people. We’ve missed you. Heck, we’ve missed anyone. How do I know? Even Derek said to me last week, “Man, I really miss socializing with people besides my wife and kids.” You know when the world’s self-proclaimed No. 1 Introvert starts to break down that things are seriously ca-ca.

Anyway, after the usual dragging of our feet following a successful Spring meeting (record attendance once again BTW), Derek and I reconvened last week to start talking about CMEpalooza Fall (set your calendar for Wednesday, October 14). We have the usual basket of good/bad ideas for sessions that we’ll be picking over a bit more this week, but one thing we know we’ll be repeating is the selection of an official CMEpalooza Fall intern.

Admittedly, our Fall intern will have some pretty big shoes to fill. Not only will they be following in the footsteps of our most talented intern ever (the illustrious Spring intern Katie), but they’ll also have to up their game to even approach the varied skills of Derek and I. OK, maybe that second component won’t be so tough.

Not convinced this is the perfect opportunity for you? Maybe you’ll be swayed by what Spring intern Katie had to say about her experience.

“It was OK, I guess.”

A rousing endorsement if I’ve ever heard one.

So what exactly are the expected duties of the CMEpalooza Fall 2020 Intern?

1. You’ll have the opportunity to contribute to the CMEpalooza blog at your leisure. Maybe once a month or so. You can write about just about anything. Hopefully nothing that will offend others. That’s typically my territory.
2. We’ll have you shadow one of us virtually as we plan a CMEpalooza session. You’ll learn how the proverbial sausage is made. Maybe you’ll even pick up a thing or two that you can incorporate into your real job. You’ll even have the chance to show up on camera during a Fall session so you can show your doubting friends and family that, yes, you are officially part of the CMEpalooza team.
3. You will spend every other Saturday spending 2 hours sewing masks to send to every CMEpalooza panelist for our Fall meeting (optional duty)
4. You can let us know if there is another way you want to contribute. Maybe you are web-savvy and have some suggestions on how to spruce up the website. Maybe you have an idea on how we can market CMEpalooza better. Maybe you just want to frequently tell Derek and I how great we are. These all work.

So what qualifications are we looking for?

1. You should be working in CME in some capacity
2. You should have a thick skin – it’s pretty certain that we will make fun of you at some point
3. You should not consider Mork and Mindy to be the “greatest TV show ever about an alien being” (that would be ALF). Sorry, but we have to draw the line somewhere.

Beyond that, we’re open to anyone. Maybe you have only worked in CME for 1 year and want to learn more about our industry? Great. Maybe you’ve worked in CME for 25 years and want to do something fun? Also great. Maybe it’s been your lifelong dream to get a personal email from Derek and you think that this is your chance? Er, um, OK.

Please also note that if you applied for our Spring intern position and were not selected, you can send in an application once again for this fall. The questionnaire is slightly different, but still very simple to complete.

While this is an unpaid position, Derek has promised to send our CMEpalooza Fall 2020 Intern an unopened pack of Garbage Pail Kids trading cards (he’s a fan of Schizo Fran).

The application process for the CMEpalooza Fall 2020 Intern is simple and short. Fill out a brief questionnaire by clicking on this link to apply. Every answer is vitally important so please think before you respond. The application process will close on Friday, July 3, at which time a special task force will cull through the applications to select our winner. You can email us if you have any questions (our email address is on this site somewhere – you just need to find it).

Picture this: Packed live in-person/virtual meeting, lots of questions from the audience, limited time to get to them.

A voice says: “We’re sorry, but we’re out of time. If we didn’t get to your questions, please feel free to write it out, give it to one of our staff, and our faculty will address them after the session. We’ll make their responses available, um, somehow.”

But do they? Not in my experience.

Well, CMEpalooza is not like those other meetings, so when our faculty promises to “get back to everyone” with their thoughts on questions we could not address during our live sessions, they mean it! And so, today, we’re offering you additional thoughts from two of our most popular sessions last week where the questions came flooding in from the live audience:

• We Can Do It! Getting Change-Ready Ahead of the ACCME’s Updates to the Standards for Commercial Support
• Grant Request Rock!

In addition, we also had requests for slides from two other sessions. You can find those below:

• How Should the CE Industry Respond to a Novel Healthcare Crisis?
• Shiny Outcomes People