For those of us who live and die by the fickle nature of grant applications/approvals/rejections, designing potential educational initiatives is both an exciting and frustrating endeavor.

Exciting because we get to put on our creative hats, map out new approaches to educating healthcare providers, and collaborate with colleagues to come up with innovative solutions that (hopefully) will improve patient care.

Frustrating because if these proposals are not funded, well, we all know what happens. The ideas die on the vine, never to see the light of day. There are few things more frustrating in our industry than proposals which take weeks to put together, all amounting to nothing. My virtual trash can is full of these.

And then there are simply some ideas that are “not fundable” either because they focus on an educational area that is too niched and for which funding is unavailable, or because the design is so unique that no one would take a chance on funneling money into something whose outcome is largely unpredictable.

This isn’t me whining (OK, maybe just a little), but rather a little bit of insight into why serving as the co-producer of CMEpalooza is so professionally energizing.

My proposals always get approved! I can implement every new idea I want to!

As long as I make sure to ply Derek with his monthly supply of Fifth Avenue bars, I always get the same reply to every kooky idea I come up with – “Well, if you think it will work, I guess it’s fine with me.”

Those of you who have looked over the Agenda for CMEpalooza Fall that we first put out earlier this week were presumably dazzled with the variety of approaches we’re trying out (and if you weren’t, just pretend please). Really, there are currently only 2 “traditional” CMEpalooza sessions on the agenda with a moderator and a group of panelists, and even these have unique twists. For the others, we’re either trying out something new or improving upon something previously piloted in earlier Paloozas.

This is the kind of stuff that makes our careers interesting. I mean really, after maybe 3 times of getting a group of faculty together to talk about “New and Emerging Therapies for Treatment of Disease XX,” the same old/same old can get pretty dull.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing with everyone more details on some of our new educational designs for CMEpalooza Fall, giving insight into what we were thinking when we came up with each idea and how we envision things playing out. Undoubtedly, the vision in our mind isn’t exactly how each session will truly come together – that’s the unpredictable nature of education – but we’re hopeful that we have the right people in place to make everything work and keep people interested in watching.

A few months before every iteration of CMEpalooza, Derek and I organize a brainstorming session in a secret location a few miles off the Amalfi Coast. It’s in a cave. Underwater. You’d never find it in a million years.

But I digress.

Our agenda during this session is rigorous – we each bring mounds of spreadsheets, cases of 5-Hour Energy shots, and enough technological might to power a small country (like Liechtenstein, for example). By the end of the day, we’re both exhausted, but during these powwows, we’ve always managed to accomplish what we intended to and put in motion the plans for our next event.

Subsequently over the course of the next few months, things start coming together. Emails are sent, invitations are proffered, negotiations are carefully massaged with agents, sponsors, and all of the major networks. It’s a full-time job (and yes, we have other full-time jobs, too)

I won’t lie – planning for this fall was perhaps the toughest challenge yet. With a variety of new session formats and twice as many faculty as we’ve ever had for a previous Palooza, there were a lot of bumps to overcome.

But overcome we did. Overcome we did.

And so without further ado…

(Clearing throat) Hear ye, hear ye… On behalf of the esteemed CMEpalooza planning committee, we are proud to present the agenda for CMEpalooza Fall 2016 (click the link, dummy).

You’ll be hearing more about each of our sessions in the coming weeks, including what we were thinking when we chose the topic and format, who the people are that you’ll see in front of the camera, and all the way that things might (but won’t) blow up in our faces.

Needless to say, we’re excited about the Fall meeting. It could either be really cool and interesting, or it could totally blow up in our faces (but it won’t).

Just in case though, I’m going to start pushing #Liechtenstexit.

Yes, all has been quiet on the CMEpalooza front, but never fear! Our minions have been hard at work behind the scenes starting preparations for CMEpalooza Fall (coming Wednesday, October 19! Save the date now!). Here’s a clip of them I filmed earlier today:

The agenda is starting to round into shape and I think this is going to be the most fascinating ‘palooza we have ever had, with all sorts of new formats and topics being tackled. I won’t go into too much detail at this point as we are still firming up final topics and faculty, but I can say that we will be doing another CME Puntua Lortu and it is open for anyone to submit an abstract to present. I’ll take your questions in order:

1. What is a Puntua Lortu? It is our version of a Pecha Kucha. You can read more details about the format and the name here. My fake Basque grandfather implores you.
2. No really, what is it? Sigh. It’s a presentation format where you get 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide, and the slides automatically advance. You can see some fantastic examples from CMEpalooza Spring 2016 and Fall 2015.
3. What do you need from me? If you are interested in presenting a Puntua Lortu at CMEpalooza Fall, we need you to submit an abstract here.
4. If I submit an abstract, am I guaranteed a slot in the CMEpalooza Puntua Lortu? No. We have five open slots, and we will review all the abstracts and pick the five we are most interested in. That said, we typically don’t get a lot of proposed sessions for this format, so unless a cavalry of brave CME soldiers appears on the horizon, if you put in a proposal, your chances are reasonably good. But no promises.
5. What topic should I present on? Anything related to CME. The more creative the better.

We ask that all CME Putua Lortu abstracts be submitted by July 1. After that, we’ll review them and let you know if your abstract has been accepted for a presentation at CMEpalooza Fall. If you have any questions about the format or the abstract process, feel free to ask them in the comments or to send me an email.

Click here to submit a CME Puntua Lortu abstract.