Admit it – when you attend live events, there is nothing more fun than picking up one of those game cards at the registration desk that require you to visit a certain number of sponsors, engage in mindless chitchat as you feign interest in their organization, and then politely ask for a stamp to complete your card so you can enter to win an outdated iPad from 2012 (maybe still in the box, maybe “slightly used”).

Wait, you don’t enjoy that? It’s not fun counting the seconds until it’s polite to excuse yourself from uncomfortable sales pitches? Huh, I had no idea.

Here at CMEpalooza headquarters, where we start every day with the Pledge of Allegiance (yes, we all remember the words), we’re all about making our audience comfortable while encouraging them to learn something and perhaps have a little fun in the process.

That’s why today we’re happy to announce the debut of CMEpalooza Bingo!!, our latest creative salvo to bring joy into your days and free money into your wallets. No awkward conversations, no minutes wasted waiting for stamps or stickers from exhibitors — just a little solo research on your own time to learn a little about the sponsors for CMEpalooza Fall (reminder: broadcasting live on Wednesday, October 19).

Here is how CMEpalooza Bingo!! works:

• There are a few documents you’ll need to download and/or print out — The bingo card, the question sheet, and the answer form. Don’t worry – we’ve compiled these into one document that you can print out or download. You can get everything you need by clicking on this link. If you want the CMEpalooza Bingo!! Answer Form as a Word document you can write on, we’ve got that right here for you.
• On the bingo card, you’ll see that each CMEpalooza Fall sponsor has been assigned a specific slot (there are a few CMEpalooza slots to fill out the card). Each slot has coordinates listed in the upper left-hand corner. This is important to note as you are filling out the Answer Form.
• To get the answer to the questions, you’ll probably need to visit some of our sponsor websites. You can find direct links to all of them on the CMEpalooza Fall sponsor page.
• We’re not cruel, so we won’t make you complete the entire card. Simply make one Bingo by answering 5 questions that complete either a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line (just like, you know, as in a Bingo game). Feel free to visit any additional sponsor sites if you really want to, but it’s not mandatory.
• Fill out the Answer Form and return it to me via email (scott@medcasewriter.com) by Wednesday, September 21

I know what you’re saying right about now – “This seems like a lot of work. Why should I bother?”

First of all, we promise that it’s not a lot of work. The answers to all of these questions can be found very easily on every one of the Sponsors sites. We didn’t come up with questions that will require a deep search – pretty much everything is 1 click away, at most.

Second, there are prizes! Lots and lots of glorious prizes! There will be 13 winners in all – 8 people will win a $25 Amazon gift card, 4 people will win a $50 Amazon gift card, and 1 lucky individual will win a $100 Amazon gift card! Everyone who successfully completes and returns a CMEpalooza Bingo!! card to me by the deadline will be entered in our random drawing for these prizes. If we get a lot of entries, we may even do the drawing live via Google Hangout. We’ll see.

Now back to my fine-tuning my fantasy football roster for week 1.

We’ve had some good blog posts and we’ve had some bad blog posts, but I’m not sure that we’ve ever had a blog post with a more riveting title than this. I mean, just take a moment and read it aloud. “Derek & Scott Chat About the CMEpalooza Agenda.” Wow. Can you feel the excitement?

I don’t have too much more to say about this, really. The title pretty much covers it. It’s a 12-minute video of Scott and I talking about the CMEpalooza agenda. Why are we talking about the agenda? Well, we have a number of sessions this time around that are weirder different formats than we have had in the past and thought it might be helpful if we gave a little more description as to what to expect. What is CME Mythbusters? What are Casual Conversations in CME (if you’re like me, you may be disappointed to find out that it does not involve people sitting around in smoking jackets with snifters of brandy, talking about which level of outcome they find most charming)? Tune in to the video to find out!

Folks, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s hot out there. I mean real hot. It’s so hot, I cracked an egg on my sidewalk and it jumped up and ran away. It’s so hot, planets are starting to orbit around us. It’s so hot, my pet camel asked to go back to the desert to cool off. It’s hot.

My advice? Just stay inside. Don’t even bother to go outside. What’s the point? You’ll be sweating so much, the sidewalk will look like a fire at Madame Tussauds. You’ll be sweating so much, Captain Ahab will shoot a harpoon at you. You’ll be sweating so much, the Coast Guard will put up “No Wake Zone” signs behind you as you walk. You’ll be sweating a lot.

What’s that you ask? What can you do with all your free time while lounging around inside in the cool A/C? Well, just mosey on over to the newly updated CMEpalooza archive, where you can find hours and hours of free (FREE!) educational (and entertaining!) videos that you can watch to your heart’s content. I suppose you could binge watch old episode’s of Bob Ross’s “Joy of Painting” on Netflix like Scott does every night (that dude loves painting happy little trees), but why do that when you can binge watch over 50 episodes of CMEpalooza?

Every session from every iteration of CMEpalooza is now available for your viewing pleasure. That includes 2 PechaKucha/Puntua Lortu sessions, 4 QI sessions, 13 sessions on educational design, and 18 sessions on outcomes! What more could you ask for? (Don’t say a pony. My daughter has already asked for one and those things are expensive. I have a small backyard. Where would I put it?)

So grab your favorite internet viewing device, mix up a tropical drink with a little umbrella in it, find the nearest chaise lounge, and prepare to spend a little quality time inside with the CMEpalooza archive. You’ll be so glad you did, you might even start painting some of your own happy little trees.