As mentioned on our podcast “Minnov8 Gang 104 – We Are All Virtual Now“, listeners who emailed in with the code word (it was ‘zap’) would be entered in a drawing to win a copy of Julio Ojeda Zapata’s new-hot-off-the-presses book “iPad Means Business“.

Our winner? Jim Roots (@jbroots) from St. Paul. Among other adventures, Jim and his wife Stephanie run AvaBava Designs, a business they started due to her passion for creating fun accessories including hair clips, headbands, super-hero masks and flower hats for children, and since Jim had business, marketing and his own creative passions that would nicely round out what a startup like theirs would require.

The business began and quickly evolved after a chance encounter when a children’s store owner spotted their daughter wearing a floral headband Stephanie had made.  The owner wanted to know if she would make more floral headbands for her to sell in her shop, so she did, and they now also sell her wares on the wildly successful “makers and buyers” site Etsy. Take a peek at their very fun, creative and beautiful products here.

After connecting with Jim to let him know he’d won—and asking if he’d send along his address so Julio could ship him the book—Jim sent along this very nice email to Tim, Graeme, Phil and I which I just had to share:

Steve and the Minnov8 crew,

Thank you! I’m excited about the book! As requested I shared a note with Julio with my address. You guys do a fantastic job with the show and thank you for bringing light to the wealth of creative digital talent in the Twin Cities.

BTW – I reconnected with Graeme at a Best Buy/STAR Collaborative event a few months ago to hear thoughts from Larry Lieberman on social media. Graeme – you are a hoot! I’m looking forward to talking with you again soon and welcome the chance to meet with the whole crew. After we met I went through your podcast archives and really enjoyed the tour. You guys are now the highlight of my commute.

Thanks again for the book and I’m also looking forward to hearing your 2011 tech predictions.

Merry Christmas and Joyous New Year!

Jim

Most importantly to me—and since I get so much teasing on my music selections that kick off and wrap up the podcast—I truly appreciated Jim adding a “P.S.” at the end of his note that said, “Steve, Keep picking out those killer blues tracks!” You bet I will, Jim.  😉

New Scientist magazine has an interesting article about Stubborn US cities rated in personality test (interactive map is here). Stating that, “Cities have ingrained characters that are stubbornly hard to change – and they’re not necessarily what you expect them to be. New York, for instance, is really quite average.

The findings come from a new way of ranking cities, based on one of the largest and most detailed sets of data on the world’s metropolitan areas.”

Seems that a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, Luis M.A. Bettencourt and colleagues “…have now recalculated the violent crime, personal income, GDP and patent rankings for more than 350 US metropolitan areas. The new results reveal that some supposedly exceptional cities, such as New York, are in fact quite ordinary. Other less-heralded places, like Minneapolis, emerge as unusually successful.”

Conjecture by the team is that factors like top-flight universities encouraging creative thinking makes these areas special and they ask the question, “So what is the magic ingredient that makes a city successful?” My gut tells me that Minneapolis has an overwhelming number of creatives, artists, graphic designers, and innovators in many disparate fields…

…or like my San Francisco buddy always says, “It’s so damn cold there you guys have to be creative!” What do you think the magic ingredients are?