Lots of great exhibitors, talks and passionate physics educators and students.

Tutor.com recently had the opportunity to visit the 2010 American Physical Society and The American Association of Physics Teachers’ Joint Meeting in Washington, D.C. Despite the 30 inches of snow that brought the city to a halt for a few days, the meeting was very well attended.

The meeting encompassed a series of events with a focus on “Physics for the Nation’s Future”. Between the plenary sessions, such as “Re-Energizing America’s Focus in STEM Education” the exhibits showing the latest technology, programs and services in the world of physics, the poster sessions with many students presenting great research, and the awards ceremonies commending individuals for outstanding contribution to physics, this meeting was an all out physics fest. The Mayor of D.C., Adrian Fenty, even declared the week of Feb. 14 – 21 Physics Education Week!

We also had the opportunity to meet with our partners, The Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma Honor Society and were warmly invited to their version of Physics Jeopardy as well as their induction of Honorary Member and Pioneering Astronomer Vera Rubin who discovered dark matter in galaxies. How cool is that? There are more photos of the event on the SPS Flickr page.

Overall, this was a great meeting and we recommend that all of you Physics lovers make it out to the next one. And don’t forget to catch Spectra, the original laser superhero!

Highlights of the conference included attending the YALSA gaming night and the ULC reception at the Boston Public Library. At the YALSA event we enjoyed the cookies and it is always great to see our friends in Youth Services.  We learn so much about teen and youth outreach from some of the most innovative and energetic librarians we’ve ever met when we attend these events.  The ULC event provided us the opportunity to spend time in this beautiful building and socialize with directors and library staff from some of the great and venerable libraries from cities across the country.

But of course the main attraction is visiting with clients and future clients in the booth. To those of you who stopped by, we say thank you. For those of you who were not able to be there in Boston, we look forward to seeing you in Portland for PLA and Washington. D.C. for ALA Annual.

For more pictures of the weekend, check out Flickr.

1. Games, Gadgets and Gurus – We’ll kick-off the show with YALSA’s fun networking event at 8:00 p.m. on January 15^th.  Come say hi and check out the Tutor.com Learning Suite and cool, online classroom.  Look for the “Homework Gurus” sign to find us. And you can check out the latest gadgets too like e-readers, mobile phones and more.  If you need tickets and more details go to: http://bit.ly/yalsamw2010.
2. Urban Libraries Council (ULC) Member Reception – We’ve been a ULC member for years and we’re looking forward to chatting with colleagues and library directors at the reception on Saturday night.  So many challenges and opportunities for urban libraries this year and we want to hear all about them.
3. Celebrity Sightings -  We hope we’ll catch a glimpse of some famous politicians and famous authors including  Al Gore, Julie Powell  author of Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, or Elizabeth Gilbert author of Eat, Pray, Love to name a few.   At the ALA Annual 2009 Conference our own Julie Weintraub got her photo snapped with Neil Gaiman!
4. New Tutor.com Packages – We can’t wait to share new packages and pricing for libraries serving small to medium populations.   Stop by booth 1447 and we’ll show you how easy and affordable it is to bring one-to-one online tutoring and/or career help to your community.
5. Our Clients – We saved the best for last.  What we love most about these shows is catching up with our clients!  Stop by booth 1447, say hello and pick up a special gift.  Hint:  it will really help you “tote” around all those conference freebies!

We will be live-tweeting the event, so make sure you follow us @tutordotcom using the #alamw10 hashtag.

Gary is already there, setting up booth 1447!

]]> http://blog.tutor.com/2010/01/it%e2%80%99s-boston-or-bust/feed/ 0 http://blog.tutor.com/2009/11/a-spooky-successful-cla/ http://blog.tutor.com/2009/11/a-spooky-successful-cla/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:15:10 +0000 Julie Weintraub http://blog.tutor.com/?p=875 It’s not every day that you get to see zombies, ghosts, and vampires roaming the halls of the California Library Association conference, but as this year’s conference came over the Halloween weekend, at the beautiful Pasadena Convention Center it gave attendees a chance to really get in the spirit!

Gargoyles on watch from the State Library booth

At our Tutor.com booth we gave out treats and orange Gerber daisy boutonnieres to say, “We appreciate you!” to all our loyal libraries who offer our award-winning Tutor.com services – the Learning Suite and Ask a Librarian.

Mono County library stops by and gets the daisy treatment!

Our booth had many frightfully fun raving fans new and old stop by who wanted to share stories about their outreach, media attention, and tell us they love the service.

Camarena Memorial Public Library's Assistant Director dons our famed blue boa

A few conversations overheard  at the booth…

• “When are the next Resume Workshop webinars?   We had a full room for September’s webinar.”

Answer: February and April 2010 – look for details in our emailed newsletters,  and read our blog entry called 150+ Libraries Broadcast Tutor.com’s Resume Writing Webinar.

• “Wow, wow!  I love the new look of the new Learning Suite marketing materials.  Where can I find more of these?

Answer: Go to the Client Resource Center website at http://clients.tutor.com and look for Marketing Kits -  ask your Client Services Center manager for a passcode for access

• My patrons ask me to talk about who the tutors are.  Can you help?

Answer:  Yes.  First, please let patrons know our tutors are part of an exceptional award-winning service.   We’ve won the Parent’s Choice Gold Award, and Homeschooler Top 100 Educational Website awards, to name a few.   Our 2,000 tutors go through an extensive certification process, and each have a mentor who coaches them towards constant improvement.   Want to see profiles of some of our amazing tutors?   Meet our tutors.

We are also very honored that San Diego City Public Library’s Vanassa Goodman chose to present about their program in a talk called, “Got Homework?  We’ve Got Help: Pooling Community Resources to Deliver Quality Homework Service”.   Great job Vanassa!

Congrats L.A. Public Library on your successful program!

Thanks to all the organizers, especially to Ellen Fusco, for arranging a lovely Halloween meal on short notice, and to Cindy Mediavilla for stopping by to offer a chocolate eyeball.

Jennifer Hinton
Client Services Manager and the Tutor.com team

VP of Sales and Marketing, Sandi White with Southeast Sales Director, Krissie Smith at ALA2009

As VP of Sales at Tutor.com, ALA is often about long days at the booth talking about our great services and meeting with clients and prospective clients. It is wonderful and fun and always rewarding. ALA though for me is also about reconnecting with dear old friends. Former colleagues and clients from years ago……catching up on each other’s lives; getting updates about each other’s kids and discovering the good news (weddings, etc) and the not so good news (divorces, etc). For me, ALA is really about personal history, memories and cherished relationships. If it wasn’t for my days at the ALA annual, I would not have the opportunity to learn that Mary Ellen has remarried; that Don and his kids are coping as best as possible with the loss of his wife and their mom or that Dave has moved on to yet another new company. Each year, ALA is staged at a new locale but fortunately every year the same dear old friends are there whom I can catch up with…at least once a year. Thanks ALA for the memories!

Ready for our Community Pancake Breakfast

While many of you may have been hitting the snooze button this past Sunday morning, dozens of librarians were joining us for our ALA pancake breakfast.  Hot pancakes and fresh coffee was part of the appeal, but the real draw was listening to our guests and clients – David Belanger from Delaware County Library System and Lori Brezina, Judy Anghelescu, and Kay Scarpello from Omaha Public Library.

Our speakers focused on why they choose to bring Tutor.com services to their respective libraries, how they promoted the service and most importantly how they funded the program.  Here’s some highlights and tips from our presenters.

Identify Cheerleaders – When you bring a new, innovative service like Tutor.com to the community, local politicians take notice and want to get involved.  Let them!  Invite them into the library to see the program in action, get their name in the paper and you’ll have a well-placed community advocate.

Not all Earmarks are Bad – Omaha Public library was able to use a Federal earmark for a Homework Hot Spot program and to fund their Tutor.com one-to-one tutoring service.  A local foundation also contributed.   Want to find foundations in your area?  Check out the Foundation Directory.

Free Promotions are Good – David Belanger shared many fun promotional ideas including posting on Craig’s List (it’s free!),  adding signage to the library system’s book delivery trucks and adding a note to the receipts that patrons get when they take out library materials.

We Chose Tutor.com Because - it’s always one-to-one,  tutors don’t give answers,  lots of customizable promotional materials, tutors are available when our students need them, bilingual support.

If you would like a copy of the presentations, feel free to send me an email.   Thanks again to our wonderful presenters.

• However you feel about Windows Vista, give Bill Gates a hand—his charitable foundation donated $2 million to the ALA’s Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study, which measures public access to the internet and helps library directors advocate for more resources.  The study began in 1994 and will continue for another three years, thanks to this donation.
• David Lee King, Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, posted a helpful video on his blog for librarians using Facebook to connect with their patrons.  He’s at ALA too, so we look forward to hearing more about social media in the library world.
• We love gaming almost as much as we love libraries here at Tutor.com, so we’re excited to hear that the ALA exhibit floor will once again include a Gaming Pavilion.  Library Journal reports that Demco, Gen Con, Screenlife Games and Wizards of the Coast (the people behind Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering) will be there, among others.  Don’t forget your d20!

Entrance to ALA's Tradeshow Floor

Wow. There is A LOT that goes into getting ready for the ALA Annual Conference.  We’ve been exhibiting at the show for years, but I didn’t truly appreciate how much work went into setting up until this year as a member of the Tutor.com set-up crew. There’s lots to think about: Is the electricity working? Did all of the boxes arrive? Does the new furniture we bought look okay arranged this way? Where’s the closest Best  Buy to purchase a new computer monitor? (You never know what can happen during shipping.) Luckily, we have an in-house tradeshow ace, Gary Yip, who keeps everything organized and running smoothly.

Every exhibitor—from the smaller ones to the biggies like Scholastic—is working hard to transform a sparse-looking area of carpet into an impressive interactive area. I’m looking forward to the big unveil at the McCormick Place  in Chicago on Saturday morning when the tradeshow floor opens.

We’ll be throwing a Community Block Party at our booth—#1848—to celebrate the launch of our new Tutor.com Learning Suite. Stop by to check out what’s new, meet the Tutor.com team and enjoy a snack with us.