Welcome to the finale of our “5 Minutes With…” series, and who better to end with than one of the true pillars of the CME community, Derek Dietze. Derek, who is President of Improve CME, will be moderating our 4 p.m. ET CMEpalooza Spring session entitled “Why We Matter: Successful Strategies for Demonstrating the Value of CE Within Your Own Organization.” A few tidbits from my conversation with Derek (Scott was dilly dallying with something else at the time):

• His self-admitted 24 years experience in CME puts him in a tight race with Kurt Boyce as our “most experienced” CMEpalooza presenter. Amazing that both these gentlemen got their start in CME in their mid-teens (ahem).
• While naming the other individuals involved in his CMEpalooza Spring session, Derek mentions that “someone from a society” will also be part of it but was still TBD. That individual is no longer TBD and is now Wanda Johnson from the Endocrine Society.
• This session is one example of the ACEhp Advocacy Committee’s addressing their key strategic initiatives for 2015. Derek and fellow panel members Heather Guerrero and Marissa Seligman are all current members of the Advocacy Committee.
• And finally, I’d like to take a moment to thank Derek for spelling his name the correct way. Sorry Derrick, Derik, Deric, Daric, and Derec — your mommas got it wrong.

It’s always nice when our CMEpalooza Spring participants dress up for their on-screen appearances. It’s even better when they fly in a stylist from Milan, employ a wardrobe coach to overhaul their closets, and spend thousands of dollars on sparkly new jewelry. Not that the latest victim (er, subject) of our “5 Minutes with…” series did any of that, but those of you who know Karen Roy will have to agree that she is the most stylish of our moderators yet. Apologies to everyone else who was vying for the crown.

Karen, who is Principal of the Ardgillan Group and a CMEpalooza 3-timer, is moderating our 3 p.m. ET session entitled “Style and Substance:  The Evolution of Content Presentation in Medical Education.” A few fun things you’ll learn during the course of our 5 minute-ish interview:

• How close the world came to “Good morning, Miss Karen. I’ve got to go poop!”
• Why we’re innovative in designing education and measuring outcomes, but stagnant in organizing and presenting content
• The accent? It’s fake

Oh, and that’s a root beer in my hands folks! Though we’d be happy to have a sponsor come along who wants to have an “Official Beer of CMEpalooza.” I am sure we could come up with a very inexpensive arrangement.

The CMEpalooza Spring countdown is into the single digits (9 days from today!), which means that our presenters are starting to get serious thinking about their sessions. Derek and I aren’t meanies who require slides weeks and months in advance. Not that either of us has created a presentation on a plane the day before the event — no, of course not, not us — but we recognize that it happens sometimes. To other people. Not us. No, of course not.

Nonetheless, we are always impressed with those presentation teams who get their acts together weeks in advance and start coming up with a semi-formal agenda. One of those teams — our 3 p.m. ET session focused on Style and Substance:  The Evolution of Content Presentation in Medical Education — is asking for input from our prospective viewing audience to help guide their session.

If you can please take a few minutes to click on the following link — www.infograph-ed.com/palooza-presentation.html, you’ll be asked to review a few potential presentation components and complete a quick quiz. Consider it your personal favor to us for the day.