Alright, I confess.  This is actually the second blog post I’ve written since I got home from ISTE 2011 — the first one appeared last Friday on The Entrepreneur’s Bible.  Yes, I am getting a lot mileage out of this, but that’s the way you have to do it.  This time around, though, I am going to focus more specifically on the ISTE experience rather than the general conference experience.

I will start off by saying that our EdTech Karaoke Tweetup was a smashing success.  If you are interested in seeing any of the pictures and videos taken at the event, I suggest you visit the Facebook fan page.  They should be slowly appearing anytime now that the holiday weekend is over.

I heard that Google threw a party the night before we did that had about 200 or so people in attendance.  Word is that it was a private affair, but technically so was ours.  And we definitely had more than 200 people there — I would say between 300 and 400 at the peak from 9 to 11 pm.  The karaoke (provided by Joey McCann), was of course a huge hit, with people dancing on tables to sometimes off-key hit music.  Hopefully we’ll see some good videos surface from that.  There’s one already…

The photo booth was a quite successful as well.  And by “quite successful” I mean that there are 528 pictures of people having a grand old time at our tweetup on the A+ Entertainment Website.  If you want to get in to see the photos, just find EdTech Karaoke @ ISTE 2011 in the list of Event Photos.  The password is “dicon.”  And don’t worry, I checked them all and the most NSFW thing you’ll see is a couple alcoholic beverages and a rubber chicken.

But there was more going on at EdTech Karaoke than pure debauchery.  There was a lot of quality networking to be done, and it seemed like the attendees knew it.  A lot of business cards got exchanged, and I caught snippets of a lot of education-related discussions going on as I made my way around the restaurant.  Tweetups in general are a great way to meet up with the most passionate individuals at a conference, and this was no exception.  In fact, this was probably the tweetup of ISTE.

I’m not going to lie.  The team is already looking forward to throwing another big bash at ISTE 2012.  There is talk or renting buses, boats, and even jets — although realistically we’ll just rent out another restaurant or bar and pack it with educators singing their hearts out, like we did this year.  Stick with what works, right?

In closing, I’d like to thank our co-hosts: Collaborize Classroom, Edutopia, SymbalooEDU, and SchoolTube.  I had a chance to learn more about each one of these organizations at ISTE, and I have to say that I recommend checking into each and every one.  See what they can do for you.

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing a blog post announcing the swingin’ party that TestSoup will be co-hosting at the ISTE 2011 conference in Philadelphia at the end of this month.  But that impression is entirely mistaken.  In fact, I wrote that post over a month ago now — back when our free karaoke tweetup only had something like a hundred pre-registered attendees.  Last I heard, which was over a week ago, we have around 400.  So if you haven’t done so already, I strongly encourage you to head on over to our Eventbrite page and reserve yourself a spot.

“But what if I’ve already registered?” you might ask.  A very good question, to which I have two answers.

First of all, don’t forget that you need to find one of us during the ISTE conference to claim your free VIP badge, which you will need to turn your attendance from pipe-dream to actual, factual reality.  We shouldn’t be that hard to find, really.  I mean, there are six of us co-hosts, and each of us will have multiple people on the ground, mingling with the crowd and attending various events for our own edification.

If you want to reach any of us during ISTE 2011, probably the best way to do that would be to @reply us on Twitter and establish a meeting place so that you can claim your pass to what promises to be one of the highlights of this year’s conference.  In case you need a refresher on who we are, our handles are as follows: @Collaborize, @SchoolTube, @Edutopia, @symbalooEDU, @findingDulcinea, and (of course) @TestSoup.

“But what else can I do?”  In my own humble opinion, I would suggest that you start getting excited for ISTE right now, and don’t stop until you are there, reveling in the magic of so much Ed Tech so close together.  This is TestSoup’s first conference ever, and from what we hear this one is absolutely a blast.  I’m sure our massive karaoke blowout on Tuesday night (the 28^th) won’t hurt.

Speaking of which, are you aware that SchoolTube has created a custom channel on their site for people to upload their own videos of past karaoke exploits?  Well they have, and although so far there haven’t been any takers, I’m optimistic that we’ll see something before the conference starts.  You can’t tell me that out of all those people who will be attending our tweetup that none of them have ever sang karaoke, or that no one has ever been filmed doing karaoke before.  Preposterous!

So unleash your wild side.  Get excited.  But above all, start planning your trip to ISTE 2011.  We’re getting closer every moment.

The times, they are a-changin’ here at TestSoup.  And by “the times” I mean “stuff.”  In the past couple months we’ve made a couple Big Leagues(TM) upgrades to the company, and I thought I’d take a moment to walk you through a couple of them.

• New website.  Do you like what we’ve done with the place?  We were so busy working on flashcard content before that we barely had time to get our website in order.  We were just throwing new content wherever it would fit, without regard for order, balance, and aesthetics.  The result was a mess, and we knew it.  That’s why we took some time to reorganize a bit.  And who could blame us for wanting to spruce things up at the same time, yeah?
• Way more information in our library page.  This one came up during our website redesign.  We started thinking, “If we provide so much information for each one of our apps in iTunes, why aren’t we providing that level of detail on our website?”  So now we do.  Check out the Accuplacer page, for example.  Sweet, right?  And that brings us to our next Big Leagues(TM) change…
• We’re on the iPhone.  And the iPad.  And the iPod Touch.  Really all the iOS devices.  How?  By writing apps that bring all the great content of our online flashcards to the most popular mobile devices out there.  We’re talking studying on the go without having to lug those obnoxiously huge study guides around with you.  Your phone is always in your pocket — now so are your test prep materials.
• We started working on apps for the Android OS as well.  After all, why leave millions of  smartphone users out in the cold?  Who are we to judge if your phone doesn’t have a piece of fruit on the back?  Nobody, that’s who.  So as soon as we got our iOS apps approved in the Appstore we started porting them over to the Android OS.  Should be ready in a couple weeks.  Patience.
• We started creating mini-sets.  People were asking us why we were so narrowly focused on test prep when our flashcards would be perfect for a much wider range of topics, from professional to trivia to purely entertaining.  Good feedback — we love good feedback.  So I am pleased to annouce that mini-sets with a broader focus are currently in the works, as well as a revised infrastructure that will allow us to crank out card sets quicker and easier.
• Finally, and perhaps most imporantly, we started our search for content creators to help bring our test prep content to students studying for AP tests, professional exams, and a host of other things.  As you may recall, we’re always hiring.  Drop us a line if you think you could fill a role on our site, or if you have ideas for new roles and markets that could use more more flashcards and less confusion.

Not bad for a couple months work, right?  And stay tuned — we have big things in the works for this summer.  Gotta take advantage of the downtime in the educational world, because those school years can be crazy!

Oh, and don’t forget that we’ll be at ISTE 2011 and will be co-hosting a karaoke-infused tweetup on June 28th in Philly.  We hope to see you there!

…and you’re all invited.  This is not a joke.  If you’re an educator, school administrator, or basically anyone else that will be at ISTE 2011 in Philadelphia on June 28^th, you should come rock the mic at the EdTech Karaoke Tweetup and take advantage of the our oh-so-generous hospitality. All you have to do is find a team member of one of the six companies involved during the conference to score yourself a VIP badge, which entitles you to free food, entry into raffles for a variety of prizes, and all the mediocre singing you can handle.

Just kidding!  I’m sure you’ll do great up there — especially after the complimentary alcoholic beverage you’ll get just for walking through the doors of the Public House in Logan Square (only eight short blocks from the Convention Center).  And if you don’t, you can always console yourself with the second complimentary drink we’re giving away to those people brave enough to give peace karaoke a chance.

Alright, I know what you’re thinking.  “Is this going to be one of those raucous events that convention-goers throw to dull the pain of carrying around all that free swag for days?  You know — the kind of party where people let their hair down with folks they just met?”  I’m going to be honest with you:  Probably.

The Public House can hold up to 400 people before angry firemen show up and demand that we throw out the riff-raff.  That’s why we’re taking sign-ups in advance and why we’re requiring VIP badges to get in.  So make sure you head on over to our Eventbrite page and put yourself on the list soon.  And then make sure you find one of us during the conference to claim your badge.

But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.  “Just exactly who is this us?” you may (rightfully) ask.  Allow me to leave you with a quick rundown of the people behind the curtain…

• Collaborize Classroom is a free online learning platform for teachers to bring discussions happening inside the classroom to a private online community where students can collaborate.  Find us at ISTE on Twitter or at booth #2361.  Twitter: @Collaborize
• SchoolTube.com is the nation’s largest K-12 moderated video sharing website that provides students and educators with a safe and FREE video sharing environment that is exclusively endorsed by leading education associations.  Find us at ISTE on Twitter or at the Bloggers Café.  Twitter: @SchoolTube
• The George Lucas Educational Foundation is dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by documenting, disseminating, and advocating for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students to thrive in their future education, careers, and adult lives.  Through Edutopia’s vibrant community of over 200,000 change-makers in education, The George Lucas Educational Foundation spreads the word about ideal, interactive learning environments and enables others to adapt these successes locally.  Find us at ISTE on Twitter or at the Bloggers Café.  Twitter: @Edutopia
• SymbalooEDU is the leading personal learning environment of choice for educators.  A FREE visual bookmarking tool that allows for teachers and students to curate, organize and share the best of the web.  Find us at ISTE on Twitter or at the Bloggers Café.  Twitter: @symbalooEDU
• TestSoup, the premier provider of online and mobile test prep solutions, was created to reinforce the fundamentals necessary for success on any standardized test.  By delivering expert educational resources, we’re helping thousands of students around the world become more successful.  Find us at ISTE on Twitter or at the Bloggers Café.  Twitter: @TestSoup
• SweetSearch is a Search Engine for Students.  It searches only credible web sites approved by Internet research experts.  Find us at ISTE on Twitter or at the Bloggers Café.  Twitter: @findingDulcinea

See you in Philly!