A little more than a week ago, Derek wrote a meandering post about how faith in the Philadelphia 76ers’ “process” of losing over and over again is akin to having faith in the power of Google Hangouts On Air (the free broadcast platform we use for CMEpalooza).

Frankly, he lost me about 2 sentences in – not that that is terribly unusual. I remember there was something about the Bible, a reference to Growing Pains (where have you gone Joanna Kerns?), and maybe a commentary on 17^th century French politics. Like I said, it was all pretty confusing.

The one thing I can agree with, however, was Derek’s admonition that you don’t need to think of Google Hangouts on Air (GHOA) as this scary, complicated monster that requires years of testing and training to figure out. As Paul Pasqualoni (Google him) would so ineloquently say, “It ain’t rocketship science.”

Unfortunately, I get the sense that the majority of the healthcare community still sees GHOA’s as this mysterious platform that they don’t even want to mess with. It’s unfortunate, as my experience using GHOA’s to deliver accredited education has shown that faculty overwhelming enjoy using the platform once they understand how simple it is and how it can be a powerful way to reach learners.

Don’t believe me? Take a quick look at a broadcast I produced this week at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN6mtgaT1Ao (note that this was actually not an accredited program, but the content is similar to what one would expect from accredited education). This is just one example of many in my personal portfolio.

You had 4 individuals on the call – 1 from her office and 3 from their respective homes. Does it look different than a studio broadcast? Yes, of course. But is the quality of the education any worse? Is it more complicated to follow along with? I’m biased, but I really don’t think so.

I’ve done quite a few Google Hangouts over the course of the last 5 years, both as part of CMEpalooza and as part of my other day-to-day responsibilities (indeed I have a “real job” as well). There have been very few issues over the years – I’m not saying the technology has always been perfect, but it’s usually worked exactly as it should. Oh, and you do realize it is FREE to use, right?

That said, I am not personally familiar with anyone else in the CME field who has used the GHOA platform to broadcast a live discussion or event (yes, you can film a live symposium/event and use GHOA to broadcast it live if you think creatively). If I’m wrong, please point me toward another example.

At this point, since it’s not new technology and we’ve consistently shown through CMEpalooza how GHOA’s can work and work well, my questions to other CME providers are these:

What is preventing you from using the GHOA platform for enduring education? Is the technology still too new and mysterious? Are you afraid potential funders won’t understand it (and fund it)? Are you afraid faculty won’t want to give it a try?

Next week at the World Congress of Continuing Professional Development, Derek and I will be pulling back the “magical curtain” and demoing how easy it is to set up and use a GHOA at an Innovation Lab session (11 a.m. PT on Friday). During our demonstration, we’ll walk learners through the simple, step-by-step process of how to set up and moderate a GHOA (yes, you too can learn our secrets!). There are a number of how-to videos and written guides online that we’ll probably plagiarize brilliantly adapt as a handout. Perhaps we’ll even post it to this blog when we’re done.

In the meantime, I’ll be curious whether anyone wants to provide any feedback on their views of GHOA as a platform for accredited CME either via comments to this blog or in person next week in sunny San Diego.

Here at CMEpalooza headquarters (slogan: Never a Line for the Women’s Restroom), we’re often on the cutting edge of, well, something. And with our pre-event promotional efforts, as you are no doubt aware, we often try to inject some humor and quirkiness into things.

Before our previous Paloozas, we typically have held “themed” interviews with session moderators that at times were interesting and insightful. One problem: Not many people took the 10 minutes necessary to watch them. So we figured for this spring that we wouldn’t waste any more of your day than absolutely necessary.

Hence our 3-minute conversation with Derek Dietze below, which is quick and to the point. You’ll see the agenda, you’ll see Derek (no truth to the rumor that a decaying body is under the sheet in his background), and you’ll get a little bit of the flavor of the session he will be presenting this Spring, entitled Your CME Saved the Health Care System How Much Money?

And then you can go back to your day.

I have a confession to make: I…am a Philadelphia 76ers fan. Not a lukewarm-fair-weather-occasionally-catches-a-game-on-TV-when-they’re-playing-Golden-State-or-LeBron fan, but a dyed-in-the-wool-rarely-misses-a-game-even-when-they’re-losing-by-30-again fan. I grew up watching Dr. J and Moses battling Larry Bird and the hated Boston Celtics (I’m not one to condone fighting, but this is one of my all-time favorite moments in the history of that storied rivalry), named my dog after my favorite Sixer (Charles Barkley), and was in the stands when Allen Iverson and crew beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals. They’re my team til’ death do us part.

Lately, the team has been…not good. Pretty bad, actually. OK, historically awful. I think it’s fair to say that the 2015-2016 Sixers will go down in history as one of the worst professional basketball teams of all time. They have currently won 8 games and lost 51. And yet, my love for the team has only increased. In fact, this past Friday night I attended the game with 300 other listeners of a Sixers-themed podcast so we could all sit in a group and yell chants in support of embattled team GM Sam Hinkie (you can read a little blurb about us here). Sounds great, right? A friend of mine asked the obvious question —  why? This is how I explained it to her.

Imagine an NBA team stuck in perpetual mediocrity. They hire a new GM who decides the best way to win a championship is to trade away all the decent players, be terrible for several years, and then begin rebuilding from scratch with young players via the draft. The majority of fans hate what has become known as “The Process” and think they should be better right now. A small loyal contingent of fans are all in on “The Process” and think it’s already working, despite the current horribleness of the team. We believe in what Sam Hinkie is doing. We trust “The Process.”

Trust the process. Have faith in the system that has been built. Believe it will work. This is what Scott and I do every time we have a CMEpalooza (Note from Scott: Give yourself a high five if you’ve read far enough to get to the CMEpalooza segue. Puntua Lortu Warnick!). And every time, we have people who come into it doubtful of how well it will work. They don’t usually tell us beforehand, but every palooza we have a presenter or two who, upon using Google Hangouts for the first time remarks, “Hey — this works really well!” We still get comments on our evaluations from participants commenting on how smoothly the event went. They didn’t trust the process before, but they do now.

Quite frankly, I’m surprised more people in the CME/CE community haven’t taken advantage of the Google Hangout technology. I’ll give you two quick reasons why you should at least check it out:

1. It works.
2. It’s free.

Listen — I figured out how to put on an entire conference using only Google Hangouts and I’m not that smart (At least, my son seems to think I’m not. Here’s a blurb from a recent conversation we had):

Son: “We had a practice TerraNova test at school today.”
Me: “OK…”
Son: “You know what I mean by ‘practice’?”
Me: “I’m familiar with that word, yes.”
Son: “It means it wasn’t a real test. It doesn’t count or anything.”
Me: “Right. I got it.”
Son: “OK, I just wanted to make sure you understood what I meant.”

On the other hand, I was a key member of the Holy Cannolis, winner of the OMC Trivia Night fundraiser on Saturday night [it was a busy weekend]. I contributed with an absurd knowledge of bad ’90s pop songs [the name of that Spice Girls song is Wannabe], bad 80’s TV themes [nailed both Growing Pains and Who’s the Boss?], and Bible trivia [the name of John the Baptist’s father was Zechariah. My wife — who is officially 200 SAT points smarter than me and a preacher’s kid to boot — tried to insist it was Ezekiel. For shame, dear. For shame.] But I digress…)

The point of all this is that every year we run two CMEpaloozas and every year they both run just fine. We have little glitches here and there, but overall it works great. The major reason it works so well is the technology we use. It’s not us (well, maybe it’s us a little). It’s Google Hangouts. It works for us and it will work for you. Give it a try.

Trust me. Trust the process.