Like most men, there are few things I find more enjoyable than a long, emotional conversation about life issues that end with tear-stained hugs.

Whenever I board a plane for a long trip, I’m always excited by the possibility of sitting next to someone really interesting whose life story I can delve into hour after hour while we ride the skies.

I’d write more, but I’m busy talking out my office window to the woman whose dog just peed on my front stoop. We’re 2 hours into our conversation (did you know that city dogs live longer than country dogs? I didn’t, but I find it totally riveting).

Ah, screw it. No witty introduction to today’s blog post.

One of the new, unique session designs we’re including within the CMEpalooza Fall agenda on Wednesday, Oct. 19 is called “Casual Conversations in CME.” This one will begin at 11 a.m. ET. Clearly, it’s not a session I would likely have personally volunteered to be a participant in, but I’m nonetheless looking forward to being an educational eavesdropper and hearing what our panelists have to say.

For this session, we’ve paired 3 panels (2 people each) and really given them carte blanche to talk about whatever they want to for 15 minutes each. Presumably, it will have something to do with something related to CME, but beyond that, I really don’t know what to expect (OK, I have a little bit of any idea – I mean, we do talk to these people before our live broadcast date).

What I think will be interesting about this session is that we’ve purposefully created interesting pairings of people. For instance, Jann Balmer and Ron Murray worked together for many years and will (hopefully) fall easily into a casual banter. Our other two panels — Hilary Schmidt and Rob Bartel along with Mike LoPresti and Ro Brual — only met due to our matchmaking ability (my yenta grandmother would be so proud!) and have had to both “get to know each other” as well as figure out what they want to talk about during this session.

Frankly, I have never seen anything quite like this session, and I’ll be very interested to see how it goes. You should be too. So tune in.

Just don’t try to talk to me if we ever sit next to each other on a plane.

My son Drew is just starting the 7^th grade and has a fantastic teacher – Mr. Leonard. Mr. Leonard challenges his students, expects great things from them, and makes himself available when they struggle. On the first day of school, the first thing he taught everyone was the proper way to shake hands. That’s awesome.

This morning, Drew told me about the writing assignment Mr. Leonard had given the class a few days before. They were supposed to write about an epiphany they had recently experienced. He showed me the title of his epiphany-based paper: The Day I Discovered My Dad Was Good at Basketball. I was flattered, though, I would have been more so if he hadn’t used the past tense in his title. I’m a foot taller than that kid and I can still take him! What does he mean was good?!? That’s it – I’m getting my high-tops on. LET’S GO! RIGHT NOW! YOU AND ME, KID! MAKE-IT-TAKE-IT FIRST ONE TO 10!!!

Sorry, sorry…where was I? Right, epiphanies. A couple years ago, I had an epiphany of my own while covertly using Google Hangouts On-Air to record and stream Lawrence Sherman’s presentation at the Alliance conference so a colleague overseas could watch. Fast forward a few years (and a name change from Google Hangouts On-Air to YouTube Live) and we are now on our 6^th(!) iteration of the result of that epiphany – CMEpalooza. That is wild.

Anytime you do a conference this many times, there is a danger of it becoming stagnant and repetitive. It’s not easy to come up with new ideas, topics, and formats. That’s why Scott and I are particularly proud of the agenda for this version of CMEpalooza. We really tried to push the envelope and come up with a wide range of formats to keep things interesting. There’s a little something for everyone. We’ve got CE experts engaging in casual conversations. We’ve got our very own Jamie and Adam to bust some CME myths. One session is basically a reality TV program with our panelists only given 24 hours notice to resolve some common and not-so-common case conundrums in CME. And of course, we’re bringing back our CME Puntua Lortu for another round to close out the day. If you have never stuck around long enough to watch the previous Puntua Lortus, I highly recommend you do this time. They’re a lot of fun.

We also sprinkled in a few traditional panel sessions, though I have to say I’m a little disappointed that only one person caught the literary reference in the title of my The Brief, Wondrous Life of a Grant Request session. Mr. Leonard would be very disappointed in all of you.

So, if you haven’t already marked your calendar for CMEpalooza on October 19, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR please do so now. Watch all the sessions or watch a few, but however much you decide to watch, just remember what my Grandpa Warnick always said: You can pick your friends and you can pick your sessions, but you can’t pick your friends’ sessions (unless you’re watching with your friends and it’s your computer and you’re in control of picking the sessions you watch, which ruins my entire closing sentence. Thanks. Thanks a lot.)

We held our prize drawing for CMEpalooza Bingo!! this morning in a top secret location witnessed by representatives from the table next to us at the neighborhood coffee shop. It was fraught was tension and caused quite a bit of excitement – there may or may not have been a latte spilled on the floor while selecting our grand prize winner (I am bound to secrecy).

Congratulations to all of the winners. They are:

Grand Prize Winner: $100 Amazon Gift Card

• Jena Williams – Provider Education Coordinator, Office of the Medical Director, Washington State Department of Labor & Industries

$50 Amazon Gift Cards Winners

• Ron Murray – Freelance CPD/CME Professional
• Sandy Mardant – Continuing Education Manager, A.D.A.M.
• Janice G. Richards – Richards Professional Development
• Sally Cook – Compliance & Assessment Manager, Education Department, American College of Radiology

$25 Amazon Gift Card Winners

• Anita Misra-Press – Freelance Medical Writer
• Michèle Gagnon – Director, Education & Strategy, liV Medical Communication & Training Agency
• Joanne Wise – Center for Public Health Continuing Education, University at Albany, School of Public Health
• Karin Pearson – Director, Tufts University School of Medicine, Office of Continuing Education
• Amanda Kaczerski – Director, Education Development, Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning
• Kristi J. English – Program Manager, Academic Affairs, Department of CME/Conference Management, MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Bonnie J Bixler – Director, Continuing Education, Penn State College of Medicine
• Donna M. Stout – Continuing Education Program Specialist, Department of Education, Lehigh Valley Health Network

Our winners have all been contacted via email and will be receiving their prizes shortly.

I know what everyone else is whining – “How come I didn’t win?” Well, either you didn’t play (shame on you) or you simply weren’t fortunate enough to have your number drawn (you had lots of company). I am sure we will come up with another creative contest next spring, so you’ll have another chance in the future.