We have a greyhound named Bardot. A popular myth about greyhounds is that they are high-energy dogs that need tons of exercise. That is false. While they are super fast, they are also incredibly lazy. They are the world’s fastest couch potatoes. They are basically just giant cats. Whenever I take Bardot for a walk, there is usually an initial burst of enthusiasm, but it quickly degrades into an annoyingly slow pace with frequent stops to sniff anything and everything of interest. Needless to say, this gives me plenty of time to listen to podcasts.

Over the weekend, I was listening to a podcast while walking Bardot that included a Gen-X host and a Millennial interviewee. The Gen-Xer made a joke about Millennials, to which the Millennial responded, “You guys used to put tinfoil on your rabbit ear antennas because you thought it improved the reception.”

“Hey!” I thought to myself, “We used to put tinfoil on our rabbit ears. What does he mean by ‘thought it improved the reception?’”

When I returned home, I did a quick google search for “does tinfoil on rabbit ears help” and…it does not. This is embarrassing.

Until the age of 12, I lived in the southern part of Delaware, affectionately referred to as “slower lower.” My Grandpa Warnick and Aunt Mary Kathryn still lived on the farm where my dad grew up, and we would frequently spend our Saturdays there helping out with various chores (picking lima beans, baling hay, tending animals, etc.) Once the work was done, we would all gather in the family room of the farmhouse for dinner. Since there wasn’t a table big enough for everyone to sit at, we usually would just spread throughout the room and eat off of TV trays. (note from Scott: Derek should explain here what a “TV tray” is since it is another Gen-X relic. It’s basically a standup version of an airplane tray table. It’s only slightly better than eating off your lap)

On the TV, we would watch NASCAR (We rooted for Bobby Allison [he was a Christian man] and frowned at Richard Petty [he cussed and smoked cigars]. I am not making any of this up.), The Lawrence Welk Show, and Hee Haw, often in that order. To this day, I was certain the only reason we got any kind of TV reception in that part of the country was because Grandpa Warnick had the foresight to cover the tips of the TV antenna with tin foil. I have been living a lie for 40 years.

My very first job in CME was at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia in the early 2000s. The Internet was advancing beyond its toddler phase, and more and more organizations–TJU included–were adapting on the fly to utilize this untapped resource. One of my first big projects at TJU was to turn our CME webpage from nonexistent to useful for our learners. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job with it, but I definitely had a couple tinfoil-on-the-antenna ideas that, in hindsight, were not nearly as helpful as I thought they would be at the time.

For instance, I thought it would be an amazing idea if we recorded all of our grand rounds sessions and posted the raw video on our website for people to watch. It was not. I also thought that people would love sitting in front of their desktop computers reading 15-20 page journal articles in PDF format instead of settling into a comfy chair with a hardcopy journal in hand. They did not.

The funny thing is, it’s 20 years later and I am still seeing these types of antiquated CME programs. Live symposia that are recorded and converted into online programs with little additional formatting. Journal articles or monographs that are posted online in big blocks of text or not optimized for mobile devices. While the intent is valid, there is little actual value added.

If you ever find yourself stuck in a rut with CME program design and needing a spark to modernize, may I humbly suggest that you head on over to the CMEpalooza Archive? (note from Scott: Did anyone else read on and on and on wondering what the heck this all has to do with CMEpalooza? I’m glad Derek finally got here — well, sort of glad). We have an entire section of the archive that focuses specifically on educational design, with more than 40 different sessions to choose from, all free. Hopefully you can find something there that will help you get rid of the tinfoil and throw away the rabbit ears for good.

I’ll let everyone read today’s blog headline and ponder for a moment.

I can see the wheels spinning in your head now. “Hmm, CMEpaTrivia? TriviaPalooza of CME? Lotsa Looza Trivia? OK, I give up. Surely, you guys are more creative than I am and have come up with an incredibly creative and witty solution to this challenging conundrum.”

While that is very kind of you, you give us too much credit. In fact, we were unable to come up anything more creative than “CMEpalooza Trivia Night” for what is bound to be one of the most memorable evenings in CMEpalooza history. True, our live broadcasts always end at 5 p.m. ET so there have been few evenings in CMEpalooza’s history, but this one will be memorable nonetheless.

Here are the important details:

• WHO: Derek and Scott will be your hosts (duh), with some special guest contributors
• WHAT: CMEpalooza Trivia Night
• WHERE: Philadelphia Free Library’s Central Branch (1901 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA 19103), Skyline Room. We’ll have someone in the library’s lobby to show you how to get up to the event.
• WHEN: Tuesday, September 17, from 6-7:30 pm ET
• WHY: This event is being held in conjunction with the Alliance Industry Summit (AIS), which is being held only a 5-minute walk from our event.
• HOW: This event is being supported by a generous anonymous donation in memory of longtime CME professional Jason O’Grady, who passed away earlier this year

There will be Philly-themed snacks and drinks (note: the Free Library is an alcohol-free venue, so you’ll need to get your craft cocktail fix either before or after trivia, We are happy to provide recommendations.), as well as generous cash prizes for the winners. There will be mostly CME-themed trivia questions (many based on AIS presentations), but we’ll have plenty of pop culture and other quirky topics to ask about as well, so don’t feel like you need to study in advance or anything like that.

This event, as with everything CMEpalooza-oriented, is free to anyone who wants to come along. Please note that you do not need to be in town for the AIS conference to attend — this event is open to anyone and everyone in the CME world. While no one expects you to fly in from, say, Sri Lanka, especially for this event, if you do live in the Tri-State area and want to sashay in, you are certainly welcome.

To get a sense of overall attendance, we have created a very short registration form that you can access by clicking this link. While it is not required that you register to attend this event, it will be helpful for our planning. Plus, there is a clue to one of the questions on the form.

Before I wrap this up, I wanted to leave you with a brief story from my family’s recently-completed vacation to Italy. I won’t write 1,000 words like Derek did about his family summer vacation, but since we’re talking about libraries here, this is tangentially relevant.

I have written plenty about my love of libraries in the past, and I usually carve out time in whatever city I am visiting to check out their biggest and best library. Consequently, on our last day in Naples, I set aside time to walk to the Vittorio Emanuele II National Library, which was only a 10-minute jaunt from where we were staying.

Here is what happened when I walked in the doors.

Snooty Italian Library Guy: “Ze library is not open during the summer. You can only see it during our daily tours at 10:30.”

Me (Checks his watch): “Yes, I saw that on the website. It’s 10:27 right now. So I’m ready whenever you are. I love libraries – super excited to see this one. I bet it’s amazing – it was built in 1700, right?”

Snooty Italian Library Guy: “Zere is no tour today.”

(Snooty Italian Library Guy turns his back, walks away, and mouths to his friend — “Silly American”)

Me (Shouting and flailing my arms): “I won’t let you get away with this! I flew thousands of miles for the sole purpose of seeing this library. You are crushing my soul! Please, please let me in!”

Snooty Italian Library Guy (slowly closing the door to his office): “Arrivederci, Rocky Balboa.”

Grrrrrrrrrr

(note from Derek: I like this Snooty Italian Library Guy!)

There has recently been a lot of chatter in the news about two old men past their prime who continue to hang on and chase yet another run at glory. I understand that you might not have caught this important information with all of the wall-to-wall coverage of the political upheaval we’re currently going through, so I have transcribed the audio feed from Public Access Channel 78 in Oshkosh, WI, for you:

NEWS ANCHOR #1: In other national news, the agenda for CMEpalooza Fall was released last week. It’s pretty amazing, dontcha know..

NEWS ANCHOR #2: Is that still those Derek and Scott guys? Haven’t they retired yet? I mean, I don’t want to offend anyone, but I believe they both were around when you mailed out CME certificates to learners. Like, in the mail.

OK, fine, Derek and I are now “old man joke” punching bags since we both passed the half-century mark, but that’s OK. Our doctors tell us we are mentally “capable” (it is weird that our doctors both used hand quotes when they told us? I didn’t think so), so we are soldiering on with another iteration of CMEpalooza Fall this October.

I don’t mean to brag (which means that I absolutely do mean to brag), but CMEpalooza is kind of killing it these days. Our blog topped 1,000 subscribers earlier this year and we smashed our previous record with 1,668 individuals tuning into our Spring event. That means a large swath of the CME community is paying attention to what we’re doing and saying every single day. Yes, we’re just as surprised as you are.

Of course, along with our live broadcast date on Wednesday, October 16, comes our usual slew of sponsorship opportunities. This is the best chance to show the CME world how your company is rolling with the times, how supportive you are of your professional community, and how much you love old people like Derek (I am much, much younger than he is).

And as our events evolve, so do our sponsorship opportunities. While we have a lot of the “old standbys,” we’ve thrown in some new wrinkles once again this year, many of which we successfully piloted at our recent events. Don’t be shy about taking a leap of faith and committing to something new.

Feel free to take a look at the updated Sponsorship prospectus (just click the link). We make the sponsorship process simple – you just send me an email saying something like, “CMEpalooza is like a fine wine – it gets better with age. Please count «Company» in as a (Silver/Bronze/other) sponsor,” we collect some basic information from you, and VOILA! up you go on the CMEpalooza website. You get in on all of our promotions and special events, and you receive as much exposure as we can possibly offer.

Of course, if you have any questions or would like any additional information, please don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll be sitting on our rocking chairs out on the porch with our lemonades and will be happy to take a few moments to answer whatever questions you have. Just make sure it’s no later than 9 p.m. – we have early bedtimes these days.