Today’s the last day to get those steps in! The CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge ends tonight.

Click here for all the details.

Good luck, and step to it!

Because I usually like to be a minimum of 3-5 years behind all trends, I recently purchased a turntable and have joined in the vinyl collecting craze. Spend 30 bucks to listen to something I can already listen to on Spotify? Count me in!.

My last three record purchases are all albums that you would probably expect from a 50-year-old dude who grumbles about the quality of music these days: U2’s The Joshua Tree, Radiohead’s Kid A, and John Lee Hooker’s The Cream. While I do love John Lee Hooker, I have to admit that a big part of the reason I bought it is because of the album cover.

The sundae, the pipe, the suit, the hat, and the grin…it’s all pretty great.

One convenient consequence of owning a turntable is that now I have something to do when my wife wants to go antiquing or flea marketing. It’s amazing how many boxes of old vinyl you can find at these places. It’s also amazing how many terrible albums you can find in those boxes. Some are terrible, some are hilarious. I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective. Here are three terrible/hilarious albums I’ve found during my crate diving last weekend, judged entirely by the album cover.

Yikes.

The great thing about wandering around a giant flea market looking at records by fast food icons is that the steps add up awfully quick. I was over 15,000 steps by the end of the day without even trying, easily qualifying me for the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge, if I was allowed to enter (I’m not [frowny face]).

So, if you’re looking for ways to get over that 10,000 step mark, may I humbly suggest a round of crate diving at your local flea market? Or perhaps an accordion dance party? I know an album you can play!

Also, this is a reminder that the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge ends Sunday. Click here for all the details.

Good luck and happy stepping!

In the last few weeks before each of our live CMEpalooza broadcasts, our blogs typically become spaces where we’re launching events (or reminding you to enter them, or telling you who won prizes) or finding silly ways to entertain you (“cough cough, haiku!”). We probably don’t do enough to actually, you know, whet your appetite for the education you are going to be seeing during CMEpalooza itself.

Well, my friends, today begins a new chapter that more than likely won’t be replicated in future years because I’ll be too lazy busy, so you should take advantage of these insights now into what to expect next week when CMEpalooza Fall takes place.

1. It might help if you refresh your memory by taking a look at our Fall agenda. This will give you a sense of what sort of topics you’ll be hearing about and who you’ll be hearing from. It’s a fairly diverse menu.
2. What might strike you first is what is not on the agenda (at least not in any big way) — AI in CME. This seems to be the year of education about the current/future impact of AI in CME, and we’ll have a sprinkling of it here and there, but no more than that. Frankly, it’ll be good to take a break from thinking about this topic too much – it seems like AI in CME is front and center at every other industry educational event these days. I am sure it will come back around to CMEpalooza in 2025, but our Fall agenda is a good reminder that there are still plenty of other important issues we need to talk about.
3. So then let’s turn to what is on this agenda that you don’t hear nearly as much about these days. Things like millennial perspectives of CME, outcomes claims data, and (my personal favorite) the wild world of podcasts. Why podcasts? Isn’t that, I dunno, kind of a 2010 thing? Well, it might surprise you — I know it surprised me — but one supporter recently told me that the No. 1 proposed delivery mechanism they see in current grant requests is podcasts. Not live activities, not enduring broadcasts, but podcasts. Part of me understands it — podcasts are inexpensive to develop and produce — but I still was not aware of how ubiquitous they have become in medical education. I know how pervasive they are in the broader world (thank you, Kelce brothers), but I’ll be interested to hear from this panel about best practices in planning, recording, and marketing quality podcasts. I used to host a variety of podcasts for clients using just my cell phone to record the interviews. I’m assuming there are better ways to do things (note from Derek: there are [rolls eyes]).
4. We’re going to be trying out some new technology during one or more of the sessions. We love to be experimental during CMEpalooza. Things like our audience response system (sponsored this fall by Horizon CME) are more or less second nature by now, and we’ve done other quirky technology things over the years. I won’t give away what we’re testing out next week, but hopefully it’ll be cool and, well, actually work.
5. Secrets and surprises. One of our favorite things about CMEpalooza being in its 10th year is that we don’t have to personally get involved in the planning of content of each session anymore. Frankly, we don’t have any better idea than you do about how our panels are going to pull off most of these sessions. Will there be costumes? A murder mystery? A special appearance by Taylor Swift? You never know…