By now, you are surely bored with the shameless self-promotion of our 10th anniversary session being presented later today at the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions conference (but if not, it’s taking place from 3:45-4:45 CT in the Nottoway room).

But since we know that the majority of you won’t be able to attend for a variety of reasons, we wanted to at least give you something. That “something” is a fancy schmancy Sporcle quiz that is all about CMEpalooza – our past, present, and future. We’ll be encouraging those of you who do attend our session to complete this quiz while you are waiting for our magic act to begin, but anyone can simply go in and test their knowledge now.

Take the quiz by clicking here 

It’s 10 multiple choice questions. Even Derek didn’t get them all right. Anyone who beats Derek’s score gets free registration to CMEpalooza Spring in 2024 – can’t beat that people.

NOTE: There may be some ads you have to scroll past – just a minor annoyance hopefully.

Good luck everyone.

 

As you may have heard, we have opened our abstract submission process for CMEpalooza Spring 2024, which you can read all about here. Submissions are due by the end of the day on Wednesday, February 14. If you are looking for motivation as to why you should consider submitting an abstract, you are in luck! Here are the Top 5 Reasons to Submit an Abstract to Present at CMEpalooza Spring 2024.

5. We are presenting 10 Years of CMEpalooza: Lessons for the CME Community at the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions conference. Wait a minute, you may be thinking to yourself, this is not a reason to submit an abstract to present at CMEpalooza Spring 2024. This is just a shameless self-promotional plug for your Alliance presentation next Tuesday from 3:45 – 4:45 pm CT in the Nottoway room on Level 3. 

To these accusations, I can only respond as follows: Guilty as charged. You caught me. I apologize. It shan’t happen again.

4. We are featured in the most recent Alliance Podcast, Episode 43 – The Impact of Educating the Educators (with the Founders of CMEpalooza). Now hold on, you are probably thinking to yourself, this is another shameless self-promotional plug that has nothing to do with submitting an abstract to present at CMEpalooza Spring 2024.

Uh oh — outed again! Excellent detective work. I shall endeavor to do better with the rest of the list.

3. Fame and fortune await! That seems unlikely, is what you are likely thinking to yourself, though at least you aren’t promoting another unrelated event.

If your definition of fame and fortune is someone you meet at a conference saying, “Hey, I remember you from your session at CMEpalooza,” then friend, this is the opportunity for you.

2. It’s easy. Hmmmm, you might be thinking to yourself, this one sounds suspiciously similar to what you wrote in a blog post the last time you asked us to submit an abstract for CMEpalooza Spring.  

Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. Who can remember from one year to the next? What I do remember is that the abstract submission process is still easy. I feel confident in saying that you will not find an easier abstract submission process for a virtual conference for CME/CE professionals. Seriously, it’s only 7 questions, and half of those questions are for your contact info.

(Note from Scott: So there are 3.5 questions about contact info (7/2=3.5)? I guess this is the new “Derek math” that they are teaching in schools these days. Thank your teachers everyone)

You don’t have to give us goals (boring), objectives (which are just goals with different verbs), headshots (we don’t care what you look like), or any of that stuff. Just tell us who you are, give us a summary of your program, and let us know if you need anything special to present it. To paraphrase the great Lionel Richie, it’s easy like Sunday morning…

1. It’s a good opportunity. OK, you are thinking to yourself, you are definitely now just copying and pasting from last year’s blog post. But we agree that presenting at CMEpalooza is a good opportunity.

Finally something we can agree on. Speaking at CMEpalooza is a good opportunity. You get to present to a decent sized (think >200 people) audience of your peers in a low stress environment from the comfort of, well, wherever you want to do it from. And…

[discreetly glances left and right]

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Move in closer so I can whisper it to you.

A little closer.

A little closer.

OK, not that close. I had a lot of garlic for dinner last night.

[whispering] We don’t care where you work or what your title is.

It’s true. You can be a first-year program manager or a CEO with 30 years of experience – it doesn’t matter to us. What does matter is whether or not you have a good idea for a presentation. If you do, submit it to us!

As part of my day-to-day, non-CMEpalooza professional responsibilities, I spend a lot of time working on presentations that will be delivered by other people. This isn’t always easy. Sometimes, I don’t even know the clinician for whom I am creating or editing content beyond a few emails back and forth. I usually try my best to put myself in their shoes (“How would I try to convey this concept?”), while knowing full well that they are going to put their own spin on things. I am always fascinated when I’m working on a series of live programs and have the chance to see different people take the exact same presentation deck and deliver a completely differently-focused activity.

By now, I like to think I’m pretty good at composing material for other people (at least no one complains), but this wasn’t always the case. I remember one time in my late 20s when I had to write a draft of a speech for our association president to deliver at the annual conference, and I inserted way, way too much of my own snark into the speech. I don’t think there were too many ‘80s pop culture references, but there may well have been. Needless to say, my draft was pretty much gutted as it went up the internal food chain, and my days as a speech writer were over. It was pretty humbling.

But as with everything else, you learn as you grow professionally. These days, I have figured out how to remove my personality (mostly) from content that I will not be personally delivering by making things more straightforward and to the point. It doesn’t always make for the most exciting material, but it allows faculty the leeway they need to craft their own story.

Every once in a while, though, it’s good to be able to put my own personality into content that I am going to personally deliver. Derek and I usually stick to behind-the-scenes roles, but we’re stepping out from behind the webcam in two weeks at the annual Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions conference in New Orleans to give a presentation we’ve entitled “10 Years of CMEpalooza: Lessons for the CME Community.” Basically, we’re cramming a decade of educational tidbits into 60 minutes. There will be haikus, there will be trivia, there will be snarky asides, and there will be lots and lots of ‘80s references. Basically, everything that CMEpalooza is known for jam packed into an hour. Things will probably go off the rails fairly quickly and I’ll start throwing things at Derek, but it’ll all be in good fun. The best thing is that this session is buried so far into the afternoon agenda that we can all just go to the bar when we’re done and laugh it off (note from Derek: I suggest we cut out the intermediate step and all just meet at the bar).

Speaking of innovative presentations, did you hear that we’re accepting abstracts for CMEpalooza Spring taking place on Wednesday, April 24? You know that Derek is dying for a musical adaptation of the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Education, but I personally wouldn’t suggest going that route unless, you know, you want to likely embarrass yourself in front of hundreds of your colleagues. But hey, maybe you have a little Judy Garland in you and want to go for it. Be my guest (note from Derek: ignore Mr. Grumpy Pants. A musical adaptation of the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Education would be amazing and would impress all of your colleagues.)

I do hope that, musical or not, you give some thought to having a little fun in finding a way to share your professional expertise. That’s the joy of public presentations – it gives you a chance to show the world a little bit of your personality while also passing along something of educational value. It’s a delicate balance that maybe takes a time or two to get right, but here at CMEpalooza, we love to be guinea pigs for new concepts. Just use your imagination. And if you have an idea that you think is absolutely, completely impossible to pull off, run it by us. Maybe we can help you figure out how to cook a soufflé while talking about Moore’s outcomes levels. We’ve done stranger things.