The Elf on the Shelf™ Interactive North Pole Website, created for CCA and B, LLC., of Kennesaw, Georgia, won a Stevie Award for Best Web Animation in the 2009 American Business Awards.

What book are you currently reading? 
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

What was the last movie you saw, and would you recommend it?
This weekend I saw The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. The acting is excellent—for that reason I would recommend it.

What is your favorite sport or hobby?
Football—I love it!  I’m passionate about both the NCAA and NFL.  Go Falcons.
           
Who is your favorite historical figure?
Eleanor Roosevelt.  She was a brilliant woman.

Who is your favorite living person?
My father, Bob Aebersold.

If you could choose another profession, what would it be?
I would be a college professor.

What quality or qualities do you most value in your business associates?
While there are many qualities I admire, the two I most value are integrity and wisdom.

What do you think is the worst bad habit to have at work?
Over-talking.  I always appreciate people who really take the time to listen.  Learning to listen is an art and when you speak people are more likely to hear you.

Is there anything you'd like to improve about your own work practices?
I would like to be more organized.

As someone at the top of your profession, what keeps you inspired or makes you hit the ground running in the morning?
Honestly, it’s fear.  Over the years I have come to realize I can’t stand the thought of not having the opportunity to be the best at what I do.  It doesn’t mean I have to be the best, but I do need to know I have the opportunity to be the best.

What do you consider has been your greatest achievement in business?
Watching our self-published title, The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition Elf on the Shelf Gift Set, reach #1 on the Barnes & Noble Bestsellers list was a huge achievement.  The book—which was rejected by all of the “traditional” publishers—found an audience outside of the traditional channels. 

What advice or useful tip would you give to someone who is just starting out in business? 
I used to be a program host on QVC, where admittedly you see every “widget” known to man.  One of the valuable lessons I learned by listening to the steady stream of entrepreneurs was to focus.  Don’t try to be everything to everyone.  The mindset of just “throwing something at the wall to see what sticks” is far too prevalent and it can destroy your fledgling company.  Do your research.  Identify the need for your product/business within the industry.  Know your market, your target audience, and your product/business—then focus on filling the industry’s need.  That focus will help you find success. 

About Christa Pitts:
A former journalist and graduate of the University of West Georgia, Christa has an extensive background in sales and marketing.  Her journalistic bent led her to major in Mass Communications and to work for SUWG 13, a cable access news station in Carrollton, Georgia.  She also worked as intern/reporter for WMBB, the ABC affiliate in Panama City, Florida.  After receiving an “offer she could not refuse," Christa changed career paths and accepted a job as Sales Account Manager for Aramark Uniform Services.  Christa thrived in sales and eventually her two passions merged when she landed a job as on-air program host for QVC, one of the world's largest television networks.  She was visible in over 80 million homes throughout the United States and spent five years learning from some of the industries brightest entrepreneurs, corporate minds, and Hollywood stars.  She calls her experience at QVC an "MBA in branding" and she has utilized her vast "widget knowledge" to build one of the most successful small businesses in the publishing industry. 

Christa is very active in her community and donates much of her time to developing other would-be entrepreneurs and their businesses.  Christa is married and has no children.

About CCA and B:
CCA and B began as a publishing company. The goal: to share an old family tradition by means of a children's book: The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition. As the brand grew, demands of business also grew. Now in all fifty states, the 100% female-owned publishing company is a "publishing/wholesale/non-store/retail-outlet distribution" company with sixteen employees.

About The Elf on the Shelf:  
Clearly, every child who has ever believed in the magic of Christmas has wanted
to see the North Pole for themselves. They wonder about the toy workshop, the
personal life of the elves, and flying reindeer. The creators of The Elf on the Shelf™, having once been children themselves, wondered the same things. So the website was designed to be a virtual, inter-active North Pole where children of all ages can observe everyday North Pole activities, play
Games, and register their own elves’ names. With the launch of the website, some 410,000 visitors have experienced the magic of Christmas!

To end the year, we look at a Stevie Award winner from 2009 likely to impact the environment in 2010.

Crossbow Technology of San Jose, California, won a Stevie Award for Best New Product in the 2009 International Business Awards.  With world leaders debating climate control in Copenhagen, their eKo™ Pro product is already providing a smart solution.

Crossbow Technology has been at the vanguard of smart sensor technology for more than a decade, having shipped hundreds of thousands of smart sensors to more than 5000 customers worldwide. A leading supplier of wireless sensor technology and inertial sensors for navigation and control, this dynamic Silicon Valley company is revolutionizing the connection between the physical world and the digital world through its wireless sensor networks.

Crossbow Technology recently launched the eKo™ Pro Series, an outdoor wireless sensing system. This miniaturized solar-powered platform brings the reality of the smart environment to farmers and environmentalists alike. eKo™ enables customers to deploy a wireless sensor network and collect vital real-time data.

eKo™ represents the next generation in crop monitoring and precision agriculture, employing a mesh network of wireless sensors that provide vital live data about crop health, vigor, and growth progress via a simple Internet browser. eKo™ Pro Series drives increased profits and competitive advantage by enabling lower input costs, mitigating crop-loss risks, increasing per-acre yields, and delivering higher quality crops with greater consistency.

Farmers and growers can view details about the health, vigor, and progress of their crops via a standard Internet browser from anywhere in the world. Environmentalists and conservationists can use eKo™ to create smart water grids, detect pollutants, and conserve natural resources. Used for precision
agriculture, microclimate studies, and environmental research, the eKo™ system has revolutionized the idea of outdoor wireless monitoring, enabling users to take
nature's pulse and gain a competitive advantage in a resource-constrained world.

New Monitoring System in Napa
The Porter Family vineyard in California—recently featured in Wine Spectator’s “Short List” for their Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2005—is currently using the eKo™ Pro Series wireless crop monitoring system to measure ambient temperature and humidity at various locations.

The 20-acre vineyard is very hilly, creating various microclimates that require close and constant monitoring to ensure that the proper amount of water and other inputs are provided for each area. eKo™ Pro’s solar-powered wireless mesh network is ideally suited for monitoring the different blocks because it does not require line-of-site connection or external wires for power or network connections.
 
“The eKo™ System is easy to use,” said Porter Family Chief Technology Officer, Steven Wolfe. “It has a number of very useful built-in applications, such as the ability to auto-calculate degree days.” Wolfe went on to describe the tremendous value in being able to assess the trends of environmental conditions and discussed plans to add monitoring to even more locations in the future, along with soil-moisture monitoring sensors.

How It Works
Able to support a wide range of external sensors from different manufacturers, the eKo™ Pro Series’ plug-and-play Environmental Sensor Bus (ESB) architecture provides the versatility to interface both smart and custom sensors, allowing users to enhance and customize the system to meet their individual needs. The eKo™ Node is solar-powered with rechargeable batteries to ensure that the sensors are continuously sampling for years without the need for a battery change. Nodes can run up to three months without sunlight and with reasonable solar hours, while the batteries will last for at least five years.

Deploying eKo™ Nodes at multiple locations within an environment with a suite of sensors provides a level of detail previously unavailable. The data can be viewed in real time over the Internet without relying on installed software packages or monthly services fees, making the system a truly unique product offering.

International Team Effort
“Crossbow is honored to receive this distinction for the eKo™ system. It is an innovative platform that has changed the face of environmental monitoring worldwide,” said Mike Horton, President and CEO of Crossbow Technology on winning the Stevie Award.  “eKo™ has introduced a new generation of sensor integration and wireless technology that is simple and efficient.” 

The eKo™ system was designed by a team of engineers at Crossbow Technology.  Working directly with growers, farmers, and environmentalists from California to New Zealand, the team created a solution that enables resource conservation and provides vital usage metrics. This simple, easy-to-use, and inexpensive system was pioneered by Dr. Alan Broad, Crossbow’s Director of Environmental Products. Dr. Broad used his background in high technology and his love for the outdoors and environmental conservation to create a solution that will not only save resources, but provide intelligent information for generations to come.

About Mike Horton:
Mike Horton co-founded Crossbow Technology in 1995 and has served as its President & CEO, and a Board Member, since inception. Horton has led Crossbow from its founding product line of digital MEMS accelerometers and tilt sensors to its current market-leading position in smart sensor technology. Horton has closed $25 million in venture financing for the company, including investments from Cisco Systems and Intel Corporation. He has co-authored four issued patents, and another four pending patents. Horton was named one of the Top 100 Innovators in the MIT Technology Review and was named one of The Top 50 Movers and Shakers in high technology by Electronic Business Magazine. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering.

About Crossbow Technology:
Crossbow Technology, Inc. is the leading end-to-end solutions supplier of wireless sensor networks and inertial sensor systems. Crossbow has shipped over 500,000 sensors to over 1000 customers, including select Fortune 100 companies, for diverse applications such as industrial automation, building monitoring, home automation, environmental control, defense, security, and asset tracking.
 
Crossbow is connecting the physical world with the digital world through wireless sensor networks. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Crossbow has offices in China, Japan, and Switzerland, and distributors in 24 countries worldwide. The company is privately held. Its major investors include the Cambria Group, Cisco Systems, Intel Capital, Morgenthaler Ventures, and Paladin Capital. For more information, visit www.xbow.com.

Blogs, or web logs, are all the rage these days. Each month in this space we'll point you to several blogs and web sites that we think might be of interest to you.

Gizmodo: A technology blog packed with useful info on consumer electronics.
Passive Aggressive Notes: Interesting and hilarious way to see what kind of notes are being posed in shared spaces around the world.
What Matters Now : Catch up on the latest info on next generation web (web 2.0) and social software.
In Pursuit of Elegance : Author Matthew E. May's blog about the search for creative ideas and innovative solutions that areelegant, because they have the elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power.