Today is an exciting day for the Web Misison – we’ve published the list of participants. You can find them on the Web Misison site or see what Mike Butcher had to say at TechCrunch.

We’ve also updated our agenda (though it’s not finalized yet), with a good mix of exciting events and free time for participants to pursue their own individual contacts and activities.

For the selectors, choosing which companies to offer places was anything but easy – with over 100 applications of extraordinary quality, figuring out which ones would get most out of the Mission was far from obvious. The fact that this particular dichotomy definitely comes under the heading “Good Problems To Have” doesn’t make it any easier to have to turn down so many deserving hopefuls.

It may seem scant comfort, but we hope that very existence of the Web Mission will lead to more opportunities for everyone. Certainly it can only help raise the profile of UK entrepreneurs in the influential Valley ecosystem. Heller Ehrman, the UK/US law firm with a major office in Silicon Valley – and a Web Mission sponsor – says:

“The sheer volume of applicants provides convincing evidence of the depth and breadth of emerging growth technology companies in the UK. The shortlist of companies selected demonstrates that the UK is able to produce credible web businesses.”

Roll on April!

The Web Mission is taking 20 UK Web Entrepreneurs out to Silicon Valley at the end of April this year. The point is to enable the successful entrepreneurs to build relationships with great people in the US and to explore opportunities for their companies.

The Web Mission is supported by UKTI (UK Trade Invest), HSBC, TechCrunch UK and Make Your Mark (the National campaign for enterprise). It’s organised by Oli Barrett (and Dailynetworker.co.uk ) and by Polecat.  Other partners include Covered, YouNoodle and TEN.

The trip itself will be a blend of organised activities from drinks receptions to one-to-one meetings and opportunities to visit companies in Silicon Valley, from VCs to start ups to high growth success stories. It is designed to coincide with Web 2.0 Expo, so there will be time to drop into that if this is interesting to the companies. We’ll be working with Covered, YouNoodle in the US to help us populate a ‘local calendar’ of coffee shops events and informal drinks, the vibrant business scene for which San Francisco is rightly famous for. An outline agenda is on the web site.

Yesterday, we opened up the application process to companies all over the UK. The entries will be filtered by UKTI, and individuals who have agreed to feed into that process include Mike Butcher from TechCrunch UK and entrepreneur Doug Richard. They will be looking at the organisation’s market potential, technology, traction, go to market strategy, management team and commercial viability. Polecat will be assessing the applicants’ sustainability (People, Planet, Profit) impact. The successful companies will pay a nominal fee which will cover flights, accommodation and passes to Web Mission activities. This will come at a subsidised rate, thanks to the sponsors.

The registration site is here:

http://www.webmission08.com/

 The latest agenda is here:

http://webmission08.wordpress.com/webmission08-agenda/