Every once in a while, something works out much better than you ever expected – and no, I’m not referring to ELO’s appearance on the Grammys last night, though Mr. Blue Sky was totally awesome (note: I’m old). I’m talking about our decision to post all the CMEpalooza Spring abstracts online and ask people to vote on their favorites. I admit that I was a little worried about it. What if everyone else thought it was a stupid idea and nobody voted?

But that didn’t happen. Not even close. As of Sunday night, we had over 730 total votes submitted, which roughly translates to approximately 150 voters.  I never imagined we would get this kind of a response, and it delights me to no end.  To me, CMEpalooza will always be the little conference that could, so to have this many people expressing an interest in determining the agenda for CMEpalooza Spring is both overwhelming and gratifying. Thank you all so much for making this work!

And if you haven’t yet had a chance to have your voice heard, you still have time. We will officially close the poll at 5 p.m. ET, so go to https://cmepalooza.com/poll/ now (1 vote per device). We’re coming down to the wire and the tally is still very close. I have no idea what the final agenda will be, which is a tribute to how many great abstracts we had submitted. Go vote now!

Here at CMEpalooza headquarters (12-story building, 1,000 employees, 4 full-service restaurants, and free valet parking for all staff, in case you want a mental picture), we’ve been counting down the days.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to brainstorm topics and gather colleagues to submit an abstract for CMEpalooza Spring. There are some really interesting proposals that came in, and both Derek and I are humbled by all of the creativity we are seeing.

Today, we turn things over to you. If you click on the Poll tab, you will see the list of titles and lead presenters at the top, followed by a full description of each proposed session, full faculty, and the marketing pitch. Some are serious, some are silly, some are a little bit of both.

You can vote for up to 5 presentations. You can vote only once per device (so if you have an smartphone, tablet, and laptop, you can vote 3 times).

Voting will stay open for one week, closing at 5 p.m. PT on Monday, Feb. 9. Those abstracts with the most votes get on the Spring agenda. It’s that simple.

It’s hard to say exactly how many abstracts will be included since some submissions were for 30 minute sessions and some for 60 minute sessions, but our guess would be somewhere around 10-12. Once the final vote is done, we’ll sit down and figure it all out before reaching out to those lucky individuals to schedule the specific time for their presentation.

Hopefully by the end of the week (a special Valentine’s Day present for everyone), we’ll be able to announce the official agenda.

Let the voting begin!

Since haikus are so yesterday…

While we await your submissions
You should know there are conditions
Meet today’s deadline
And you’ll be just fine
Don’t ask for special provisions

And for those old schoolers…

There once was a man from Nantucket
Said: “CMEpalooza? Got it!
When are abstracts due?
Today?! Had no clue!
I guess I need to get right on it!”