Hey gang, it’s your pal Derek here. Feels like it has been a while since I posted anything on the ol’ palooza blog. How’s your summer going? If the weather where you are has been anything like it’s been in Philadelphia, you have probably been spending the majority of your time inside like me basking in the A/C. I think weather like this can best be summed up by the lyrics of modern-day minstrel Rob Thomas from his 1999 ballad Smooth, which opens with Rob crooning the poetic words:

“Man, it’s a hot one.”

Truer words were never spoken, Rob.

Speaking of modern-day minstrels, few people realize what a lovely singing voice CMEpalooza’s own Scott Kober has. He is far too modest to ever say anything about it, but I once heard him bring down the house with his 1 am version of Firehouse’s Love of a Lifetime in the JW Marriott Orlando hotel lobby bar at the Alliance conference a few years ago (note from Scott: Derek’s memory is failing him. It was The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News in San Francisco). That alone was worth the cost of the registration fee. I recommend asking Scott to sing a little something the next time you see him. Sometimes it takes a little encouragement to build up his confidence, so don’t feel bad about nagging him constantly to do it.

But let’s get back to the main point of this post: finding more opportunities for sitting comfortably indoors in the A/C. Lucky for you, we have a CMEpalooza Spotlight session with our friends at Daiichi Sankyo coming up on Thursday, which gives you another opportunity to bask in the coolness of the indoors. Here are the details:

CMEpalooza Spotlight. Thursday, July 22. 11 am ET. You watch it here.

Heeding the advice of Rob Thomas in the parting words of Smooth — “Let’s not forget about it” — I recommend adding the CMEpalooza Spotlight to your calendar now. Hope to see you all there!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t understand the “summertime blues.” You don’t have to worry about what to wear every morning, it’s light out until late in the evening, and you can do all kinds of fun stuff outside. What about that gets you down?

But hey, maybe you are tired of people leaving their empty beer cans from the bar three doors down in your flower pots (wait, that’s just me? Huh) and that’s given you those good old “summertime blues.” Well, my good man (or woman), you are in luck because we have just the thing to turn that frown upside down.

As we announced in late May, we have a very special CMEpalooza Spotlight coming up with the good folks at Daiichi Sankyo. I know it’s been a while since we announced this live broadcast, and maybe you don’t mark down your calendars that far in advance, so consider this your reminder.

CMEpalooza Spotlight. Thursday, July 22. 11 am ET. You watch it here.

Among other topics, we’re going to be focusing on the inner working of a grant team during times of crisis. I think you’ll find it quite interesting. So, um, join us. Oh yeah, this goes without saying – no cost, no pre-registration necessary. Just show up.

Those pesky cyberhackers are at it again.

Derek received an email a few weeks back telling him that they had highjacked the CMEpalooza servers and would release extremely personal information on the thousands of people who had shared their sensitive financial information with us unless we rescheduled out CMEpalooza Spotlight with the fine folks at Daiichi Sankyo for sometime later this summer.

Little did they know that the joke was on them. There is no registration for CMEpalooza and never has been, so we have no personal information on any of you. Take that Phiber Obtik001!

Nonetheless, being the extremely cautious team that we are, we decided to reschedule the upcoming CMEpalooza Spotlight previously scheduled for mid-June. I mean, you never know, right?

So open up your Outlook calendar and note that we’ll now be talking about “Innovations in CE: A Supporter’s Perspective on Using RFPs to Enhance Public Health” on Thursday, July 22 at 11 am ET. This is scheduled for approximately 35-40 minutes. Among other topics, we’ll be honing in on the inner workings of a grant team during a time of crisis. I’m looking forward to it. You should be too.

Now back off AnonyMoose215!