When I put together the first CMEpalooza back in March, I fully admit that a large part of doing it was to prove a point: You don’t have to spend a lot of money to produce a pretty good continuing education program.

Mission accomplished.

With CMEpalooza Fall, Scott and I wanted to move beyond just proving a point and producing something that was “pretty good.” Our goal this time around was to improve the educational experience for those watching and to provide something of real value to the continuing healthcare education community. Judging from the feedback we have received about last week’s event, I believe we can say that we succeeded.

But before I put too much strain on the ol’ rotator cuff patting myself on the back, I’d like to offer up a few thank yous.

Thank you to all of our panelists. Really, I don’t think we could have asked for a better group. If you’re looking for an advantage between holding a virtual vs. a live conference, look no further than the panelists we were able to line up. I have absolutely no doubt that the only reason some of our panelists agreed to participate was the fact that they could do it from their home/office and not have to travel. That’s a huge plus.

I also want to thank our panelists for their patience in learning a technology that few of them had used prior to CMEpalooza and dealing with the goofballs running the program. Poor Christopher Drake patiently spent 40 minutes on a practice Hangout with me while I tried to figure out why his audio wasn’t working, only to discover the next day that I had my laptop muted the entire time. The lesson, as always, is that I’m an idiot.

Thank you to our moderators. A big reason that CMEpalooza went as well as it did was the fantastic work of the moderators. I admit to being slightly nervous as to how seriously they would take their role considering that many of them had no idea what CMEpalooza or a Hangout was. But every single one of them proved to be adaptable to the format and did a marvelous job of directing the conversation. Several folks mentioned that one of the things they most appreciated about CMEpalooza was the difference in tone of the conversations — both more casual and candid than the typical conference. That is a direct result of the work of the moderators to encourage that type of conversation (I also think it’s a result of the panelists not being able to see an actual audience…).

Thank you to my co-producer, Scott. Yeah, yeah, I’m not going to get too mushy here, but I do want to give credit where credit is due. After the initial Palooza, Scott is the one who came to me with the idea of doing another one with only panel sessions in order to better utilize the Hangout format for its intended purpose. He was right, and CMEpalooza Fall was a better program as a result. Kudos to him (side note: in case you ever get concerned that we take CMEpalooza too seriously, just ask to read our supposedly CMEpalooza-related email exchanges sometime. Recent conversations included an argument over whether or not Cool Ranch Cheetos do, in fact, exist, along with one where Scott called me a “waffler” and I responded with a Homer Simpson-esque “mmmm…waffles.” It’s amazing we get anything accomplished.)

Thank you to all of you who watched CMEpalooza Fall. It goes without saying that this is the most important thank you of all. I was truly blown away by the number of viewers for CMEpalooza and the amount of individuals who completed the survey (for more specifics, you can read the post Scott wrote earlier in the week). The fact that the website had over 400 unique visitors on the day of CMEpalooza Fall is just stunning to me. If ever you need a reason to believe in the power of social media, consider this: the majority of the marketing for CMEpalooza Fall was done via four social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blog). We were also really thrilled with the increased amount of questions and interaction from the audience this time around. I think the inclusion of a texting line to send in questions helped, but I also think people were a little more willing to try out Twitter and Google+ this time. Plus, there were just more people watching to send in questions.

And last, but certainly not least, a big thank you to our sponsors. I realize this is where everyone rolls their eyes and thinks, “Oh, great – he’s pandering to the sponsors now. BORING!” so I’ll keep it brief. It’s not an easy decision to support a conference where, when you ask the guys in charge to tell you how many people participated last year and how many you expect this year, they shrug their shoulders and tell you, “We’re not sure.” I am thankful for those who took a chance on sponsoring CMEpalooza and I hope they’re happy with the results.

Thanks again to all of you. This was fun. How about we all do it again in the spring?

In the months leading up to CMEpalooza Fall, we were often asked, “How many people attended the inaugural spring CMEpalooza? And how many do you expect at this one?”

Our answers? “We’re really not sure.” And, “We’re really not sure.”

So much for a data-driven industry.

This time around, however, we have a much better handle on these sorts of things. And 7 hours of education later (with a few days to decompress and let the numbers sink in), we’re happy to report the following:

• The CMEpalooza website attracted 449 unique visitors and 3,042 page views on the day of the event, both daily records for the site.
• There were between 64 and 103 live viewers at any given time for our 7 sessions (note: one viewer can sometimes equal greater than one participant. See first bullet point under the survey data description below). The most viewed live panel was our “Have We Forgotten About the Content in Continuing Medical Education?” session. On average, the live audience for CMEpalooza was about double what we saw for the spring event.
• According to YouTube, there have been 1,343 views of our sessions. Currently, the most viewed session is “The Future of CME: What Will CME/CPD Look Like in 5-10 Years?”
• Since we announced the date and format of CMEpalooza Fall on May 13, we had 10,388 page views to this website. Some days (namely, the weekends), we only had 10-20 folks who came to the site, while most weekdays, especially when new content was made available, we ranged between 50-150 page views.

In addition to this raw data, we also received completed surveys from 116 individuals (thank you to all of them). If you didn’t complete one, there is still time. Go here.

Here is what we learned so far:

• Of the survey cohort, the majority (90%) watched CMEpalooza alone, although there were several large groups, some with as many as 25 individuals who gathered to marvel at the wisdom of our panelists.
• Our audience was diverse, with 38% from medical education companies, 12% from both hospitals and medical schools, 8% from both industry and medical associations/foundations, 7% from medical specialty societies, and 16% from the mysterious “other” category
• People gave us a lot of feedback about CMEpalooza Fall, such as:

I think it would be nice to have some presentations on the nuts and bolts of things, like QI – maybe the project manager who actually worked through the QI project and not the CEO or Dean who just oversaw the process. (Our response: Yes, always good to remember that people in the trenches have lots to teach as well)

I think this is a great initiative — steep climb to make changes in entrenched system (Our response: The more we do it, the easier the climb)

Can’t afford to attend in person meetings for CME education/providers so this is so welcome and appreciated! (Our response: The “free” thing is good for sure)

CMEpalooza Fall is AWESOME (Our response: With a capital ‘A’)

Need more controversy! How about a debate next year? (Our response: Next year? There is going to be a next year? Well, OK, if you insist)

I love eggs (Our response: We love bacon)

Number of times the word “love” was used in feedback for CMEpalooza Fall: 8 (Our response: You’re pretty OK, too!)

As with any robust data set, there are many ways these numbers can be cut up and presented, and we’ll likely do some cutting to get a better handle on our audience as we attempt to build on our success for next year (wait, next year? There’s going to be a next year? OK, fine, fine).

A full blog post and thank you will be coming sometime next week, so, in lieu of anything more substantial, here are the jokes people submitted into our survey.

 

A pair of jumper cables walks into a bar. The bartender says, “I’ll serve you, but don’t start anything!”

 

Where do sick boats go? The dock!

 

CFO to CEO: “What happens if we go to the expense of training these people and they leave?” CEO’s response: “What if we don’t and they stay?”

 

Q: What’s brown and sticky? A: A stick!

 

I didn’t say they were good jokes. Anyway, if any of you participated in CMEpalooza Fall on Wednesday and didn’t complete our (very short) survey, we’d be ever so grateful if you clicked this link and did so.

Have a great weekend everyone!