Online Communities are organic - they are constantly changing and evolving as they grow. For our technology, this means a constant pressure to adapt and enhance. Our development efforts are focused on building a better platform each and every day. Technology aside, it means that along with the changing dynamic of the communities, the practices, presentation, and involvement of our partners and clients has to constantly change as well. Because of this constant evolution, that only increases in pressure as the communities increase in size, there is an incredible need to create and maintain an active, collaborative relationship with our clients. The SAAS model lets us keep the technology constantly updated, but those relationships take real effort on both part to make these communities successful.

Obviously, coming to Oklahoma is not a simple trip across the street from one office building to the next. It doesn't quite require a passport, but it is certainly a different experience for most of our major clients. Every one of our major clients we have encouraged to come and visit our offices, meet the team face to face, get to know us, our technology, and our platform here where the work gets done. And it is remarkably successful. If you come see us, you'll want to partner with us. We see it as almost a necessity for building the collaborative foundation that is necessary for the successful launch of a new community.

We had a client team in this past week to go over the detailed goals - from the highest level down to the tactical features and functions - of an upcoming community. They brought some incredible ideas to the table, and it is a truly innovative concept they are looking to create - something that is surprisingly rare given the space. At lunch we took them to the lake (Oklahoma fact #287: We have the second most shoreline of any state - thanks to a slew of man-made lakes) and treated them to some oyster nachos and alligator. It was at lunch that we first told them about "The Great State Fair of Oklahoma."

And we encouraged them to go, half-jokingly. I don't know if the stories we told were enough to entice them to go out and sample the particular magic of Oklahoma's State Fair. Most of that magic comes from the incredibly culinary invention of frying. Everything that could conceivably be dropped in a vat of boiling oil and fried is served up at the fair. Fried snickers - of course. Fried coke - believe it or not, possible and delicious. Fried cattle testicle - well that is a delicacy and more for a restaurant like Cattlemen's than the fair. But that high per capita heart disease rate doesn't come out of thin air, far from it. Still, it is worth a yearly trek out to the fairgrounds to sample the giant turkey legs, funnel cake, and particular type of people that the fair attracts. Perhaps not for the out of towners, but it is a wild ride and a place where you can find anything and everything fried.