Last night, representatives from Element Fusion attended the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce's METRO 50 awards dinner. This is Element Fusion's fourth consecutive year to be listed on the METRO 50, a listing of the 50 fastest-growing, privately-held companies in the Oklahoma City metro area.

There's always suspense as the METRO 50 doesn't release their specific rankings until the company names are called out in decending order. Element Fusion was called at #33, at which point the crowd erupted into a 15 minute long standing ovation ... or, maybe that just happened in my head.

Anyway, we're not only excited to be a part of this great group of businesses, but we're also excited that so many of our clients made the list as well. Past or present clients of ours that showed up at the METRO 50 this year include: CoreVault, Enviro Clean, HSEarchitects, Paycom Payroll Services, RFIP, Inc., ShapardResearch, LLC., Sooner Network Solutions, Inc., Chaparral Energy, and H&H Gun Range and Shooting Sports Outlet.

Congratulations to these great companies and to all the METRO 50 winners. In case you're interested. I've included a few photos from last night's event below.

Owners Ryan Whitaker and Justin Cowan offer up the EF gang sign just after accepting their award on stage.

Vivian Hoang and Justin Boeckman, our Internet Marketing specialists, play with their iPhones when they should be paying attention.

When you're selling web-based products to customers around the world, you realize there are lots of people out there who don't yet recognize Oklahoma City as a hotbed of online innovation. We've encountered many customers who are surprised to learn where we make our company's home.

But from our perspective, Oklahoma City is a great place to be. And an article from Mike Koehler in the Oklahoman today gives some credence to what we've always believed to be true. Check out "Online innovation going strong in state" for a taste of all that's happening here. Kudos to all of our innovative Oklahoma City brethren and to Koehler for drawing attention to what's happening in our little neck of the woods.

This week, Inc. Magazine announced it's 2009 Inc. 5000, a listing of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in America. We're happy to report that Element Fusion has been named to this listing for our second straight year.

Our growth of 131% from 2005 to 2008 puts us at #2,341 nationally, and at #21 out of the 45 Oklahoma-based companies on the list.

As always, we want to thank you, our customers and supporters, for your continued business. It goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway -- without you, there would be no Element Fusion. So, thank you for everything and we look forward to many more years of continued growth together.

We've got some icy weather going on here in Oklahoma City today. Much of the city is shut down due to road conditions. Fortunately, at Element Fusion, when bad weather strikes, things keep moving right along. And good thing, too, since we know that many of you live in various places around the world where it is probably sunny and really pleasant right now. Lucky you! Rest assured, our team is still here if you need us, though we are likely huddled as close to a fireplace or space heater as possible.

Our team is working remotely today so that nobody has to drive on the ice. However, since our operations are almost entirely web-based, business carries on pretty much as normal. If you need us, you can contact us by email (support@publishpath.com), through the project portal, and through any other electronic channel as normal. If you do call us on the phone, you'll have to leave a voice mail message, which we will check regularly, but for faster service today, electronic communication is the best. Thank you for your understanding.

Also, rest assured that our hosting facilities are well-tested and ready to endure any storm. All of our online products as well as all websites hosted with us are housed in our Tier IV datacenter facility in Dallas which maintains multiple redundancies on all critical systems just in case things get bad.

We hope that you're staying warmer than we are today. Let us know if you need anything.