Another CMEpalooza is in the books (this was CMEpalooza XIX if you are scoring at home) and boy, it was definitely a historic day. Historic how, you ask? Well, let me tell you.

1. We set a new record for viewership. There were a whopping 1,090 of you who watched at least one CMEpalooza session yesterday. Derek and I were skeptical that we would ever top our numbers from April 2020 (the very beginning of COVID when CMEpalooza was about the only thing happening in the world), but it only took us three years to get there. Thanks to everyone who tuned in. (Note from Derek: a quick peek at the YouTube analytics this morning tells me that we had over 200 live viewers for every session (not counting the last session — see Scott’s note below.) That has never happened before.)
2. We had our first weather delay…and our first weather-related postponement. We’re all hearing so much about the ways that climate change is affecting weather patterns around the world, and we can now proudly (?) say that CMEpalooza is not immune to these challenges. Two of the panelists for our 4 p.m. ET session were under a tornado warning in the late afternoon, causing us to delay the start of the session by 15 minutes until the warning expired. But then 10 minutes after we revved things up, their phones did the whole boop-boop-boop emergency chime and they were told to shelter in place once again. We’re working on a new time/date for this session since it was a really cool (and important) presentation. We’ll keep you posted. And just in case you were worried, we’re told that our panelists are both fine – just a lot of wind and rain in south Florida yesterday.
3. Derek set a record for the quickest update of our session archives. OK, he didn’t (no Spring 2023 tab yet). This is just my way of giving him a subtle nudge (note from Derek: a valiant, yet ultimately futile,  attempt at guilt-tripping me into action. Good effort.) That said, if you go to our Spring 2023 agenda page, you can find all of the archives from yesterday’s sessions. Those are pretty much automatically set for us, so it doesn’t take much effort. Feel free to go in and watch any sessions you missed. One word of advice: Please don’t submit questions via our text line to a session you are watching in the archives and expect a live answer from our panel. They aren’t there anymore. It’s always a little weird, but this happens from time to time.

Before we leave you for a few weeks of tropical fun (the corporate jet is on the runway and the pilot is tapping his watch to hurry us along), I wanted to share a few final tidbits of feedback that we received yesterday. As always, these are real comments from our viewers.

Kudos to you both. CMEpalooza is the most valuable industry conference to me, hands down. I took notes. Yep, notes.

That was a great day of CMEpalooza right there

A huge thank you for your epic efforts in providing quality education for CME writers that is accessible all over the world.

Did Derek realize he had a piece of spinach stuck between his teeth all afternoon?

Yup, these are our people.

To watch live CMEpalooza Spring sessions, go here: https://cmepalooza.com/live/

To watch the archived version of the CMEpalooza Spring sessions, go here: https://cmepalooza.com/spring-2023/

To take the CMEpalooza Spring 2023 survey, go here: https://forms.gle/xPeppQsYoTHnACQC6

Where do I watch CMEpalooza Spring? You watch it on the LIVE page.

Do I have to refresh the page to watch new sessions? That is super annoying. No, you do not have to refresh the page to watch new sessions. Every session has a unique link, so you don’t need to refresh the LIVE page to watch each new session. Just find the session you want to watch at the appropriate time and click that link to begin. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

Will people be able to hear me on the broadcast? No. You are not on the broadcast. You are only watching a video feed of the broadcast. You can sing Party in the U.S.A. by Miley Cyrus at full volume (nodding your head like, yeah) and no one will hear you except your neighbors, who might call the police, who might interrupt you while watching CMEpalooza. So, don’t sing Party in the U.S.A. by Miley Cyrus at full volume (nodding your head like, yeah) while watching CMEpalooza.

Can I watch CMEpalooza at home? Yes.

Can I watch CMEpalooza at the office? Yes! Probably! Check your office guidelines to be sure! Or stay home! Either one is fine!

Can I watch CMEpalooza in a conference room with 150 other people? Sure? I mean, that’s not really my cup of tea, so I’m probably the wrong person to ask. But don’t let me stop you.

Can I watch CMEpalooza with the Ted Lasso crew? I don’t know. Let’s ask them.

 

 

 

 

I guess not.

Do I have to pre-register or register? Nope.

Do I have to pay anything to watch CMEpalooza? I love paying registration fees.

 

 

 

 

No. You don’t have to pay anything to watch CMEpalooza.

Do I have to take a survey afterward? Well, you don’t have to, but it would be nice if you did. It’s only a couple questions and shouldn’t take you more than 60 seconds. If it takes you more than 60 seconds, Scott will come to your house and, from memory, recite O Captain, My Captain! by Walt Whitman for you and a group of friends.

Can I get a certificate for watching CMEpalooza? Actually, yes. Well, kind of. We’re not accredited or certified or anything like that, and we have no way of verifying whether you actually watched any of these sessions or not. But if you want a certificate of completion that you can use to self-report participation in CMEpalooza Spring 2023, here you go. We’ll also post it on the LIVE page. Who knows, maybe these certificates will be worth something 200 years from now.

How do I ask questions of the presenters? There are three ways you can ask questions:

1. Send a text to the CMEpalooza text line at 267-666-0CME (0263)
2. Tweet a question using the #CMEpalooza hashtag
3. If you open up the viewing window in YouTube (click on “Watch on YouTube” on lower left corner), you can enter in questions within the YouTube chat function.

We try to get to as many questions as we can throughout each presentation.

Do I have to watch all the sessions? YES! No. Watch what interests you.

Will the sound quality for each presenter be crystal clear with consistent volume and no glitches? I mean, really, have you been on, I don’t know, 500 web calls in the last month? Is it always perfect for everyone? Of course not. That said, we’re better with this technology stuff than the average bear – we HAVE been doing this for 10 years now so hopefully we’ve learned something. So will it be pretty good for almost every presenter? Yes, yes it will. There will be some people who sound better than others. There may be a few glitches and hiccups. That’s just how it goes with a free conference where presenters volunteer their time and use their own equipment. Some people aren’t comfortable doing a presentation while wearing headphones and a mic, so we don’t force them to use it. We do the best that we can with what we have available to us.

Will I be offended by anything during CMEpalooza? I doubt it, but who knows? If you are, please email Scott and tell him all about it in extensive detail.

What if I’m busy during the day of the live broadcast? All the sessions will be archived on the website, like, immediately. How are we able to do it so fast? We have a new intern who is a real crackerjack on the interwebs. Here he is taking a break from writing our latest blog post.