This past weekend, I spent my Saturday morning watering the plants in the backyard and listening to podcasts.

(A brief digression, if I may. When I think of great opening lines in literature, some of the first that come to mind are from Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities [“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”], Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow [“A screaming comes across the sky.”], and King’s The Gunslinger [“The man in Black fled across the Desert, and the Gunslinger followed.”] Unlikely to be included in that group in the future is “This past weekend, I spent my Saturday morning watering the plants in the backyard and listening to podcasts.” Maybe next time!) (Note from Scott: Someone needs to be reminded what the word “brief” means)

The host of the podcast was moaning about fans of the Philadelphia Eagles (who won the Super Bowl in February, in case you hadn’t heard) and their penchant for never missing an opportunity to remind you that they won the Super Bowl this year (touché). I admit to chuckling a bit over his laments and then mumbling to myself that the same can probably be said about fans of any team who have just won a championship of some sort. Then I went inside to make myself an iced coffee and noticed the following on the back of the bag of coffee beans:

For those who may not know, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots 41-33 in the Super Bowl. Also, Tom Brady dropped the football. Perhaps the podcast host was on to something.

Now you may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with CMEpalooza? Well, I will tell you, but first please watch this very important video clip.

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CMEPALOOZA I JUST WANTED TO RUB IT IN ONE MORE TIME BEFORE THE SEASON STARTS THURSDAY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Also, I updated the CMEpalooza archive with all of the Spring 2018 sessions. We now have over 80 archived sessions, so head on over and take a look. And please share with anyone you think might would benefit from these FREE sessions.

Go Birds!

It is just me, or did this summer just drag on and on and on? Enough with the 16 hours of sunlight, not having to check the weather forecast every morning before getting dressed, daily visits from the ice cream truck, and many (many) glasses of wine on the roof deck.

As Punky Brewster would say, “Holy macanoli, who needs it!”

Surely, there are more important things around the bend as the air gets crisper, the days get shorter, and school buses belch black smoke throughout the neighborhood. I’m talking the start of the NFL season (our World Champion Philadelphia Eagles kick off the season next Thursday night), fighting with the kids to see how long they can delay starting their homework, and leaf piles in the backyard.

But most importantly of all, we’ve got CMEpalooza Fall lurking jjjuussttt around the bend (Wednesday, October 17 from 9 am-5 pm ET, but you already knew that).

After a few brief teasers from Derek these past few weeks, we’re finally ready to show off our Fall agenda. You can check it out by clicking this link. It’s not 100% locked in final final, but it’s pretty close, and we’ve been dilly dallying with it enough, so voila…

As usual, you’ll see a variety of sessions that will hopefully apply to the wide cross section of settings and responsibilities of CME professionals. You’ll be able to learn about MACRA, the mysterious RFP process, vexing accreditation questions, and many other topics. My personal favorite session title is called “What I Hate About You,” which could very well have been the title of the tell-all biography written by Derek’s 11th grade girlfriend (coming soon to a bookstore – wait, do they still have bookstores? – near you). Alas, it’s merely a way for providers and supporters to get a few things off their chest in a collegial sort of way. (Note from Derek: my personal favorite session title is the one I almost called the RFP session — Do You Even RFP, Bro? I changed it at the last minute because I figured I would probably be the only one who thought it was funny. That seems to happen a lot…)

Sessions will, of course, be FREE for anyone to view either live or in our archives. So take a look at the agenda when you have a chance, pull a few Rainbow Brite puffy stickers from your 3rd grade sticker book to highlight those sessions you are most interested in, and stay tuned to the blog for many more witty posts in the coming weeks.

 

 

Hey gang! Derek here. I wanted to have a little chat with all of you about CMEpalooza (Again. I originally posted this in 2017, but some people never learn). Not the actual Fall event, mind you. Until we have the agenda totally set (we’re almost there), we don’t have much more to tell you about it. No, I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend lately, and I wanted to bring it to a quick end. I’m here to talk to you about the word “CMEpalooza.”

Here’s the thing — it’s”CMEpalooza.” It’s not “CMEPalooza” or “CMEPALOOZA” or…(ugh)…”CME palooza.” It’s one word with the first three letters capitalized. It’s a mash up of “CME” and “palooza.” It’s a palooza of CME. It’s CMEpalooza.

In one of the first emails Scott sent me when we first started working on CMEpalooza together, he referred to it as “CMEPalooza.” I responded to him with a threat of fisticuffs if he ever spelled it that way again. It’s one of the few arguments I’ve ever won with him. To be fair, most of our arguments rarely extend beyond this exchange:

Me: Hey, should we try this?
Scott: No.
Me: Why not?
Scott: Because it’s dumb.
Me: Good point.

So, winning this argument was no great feat. Still, I even had “CMEpalooza” t-shirts made. See?

What I’m trying to-…wait a minute. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? That’s right — CMEPALOOZA T-SHIRT CANNON AT THE NEXT ALLIANCE CONFERENCE!!! I can see it now. The first day’s keynote speaker finishes up and we’re just about ready to break for the first round of plenary sessions, when all of a sudden a loud siren begins to sound, I run onto the stage with a massive t-shirt cannon while Scott grabs the microphone and yells out “WHOOOOOOOOO WANTS A T-SHIRT?!?” The crowd goes wild as  Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It”  blares overhead and I begin firing t-shirts left and right. Man, that would be great.

Where was I? Oh, right — just remember: If you’re writing it out, it’s “CMEpalooza.” All one word, no capital “P.” Now, does anyone know where I can rent a t-shirt cannon for cheap?