I’m nearing the end of my San Francisco web 2.0 adventure and what a week it’s been. I’ve already reported on the first three days, so let’s begin on day four…

You’d think that after three full days and a transatlantic flight full of enterprise and technology chat we’d all be burned out, but the truth is, I’m feeling more inspired than ever. And that’s good news on day four as we’re set to spend our day experiencing the world of venture capital. We spent the morning at ‘Plug and Play’ – a business incubator based in Silicon Valley.

Most people probably don’t know what a business incubator is, but for those of us in the start up world – they’re gold dust, and with a bit of luck the fast track to success. Essentially a business incubator does what it says on the packet – supports and nurtures young nascent businesses and speeds their path to maturity. They offer all sorts of resources aimed at fast tracking development from helping start ups raise funds, make connections, get meetings and access the necessary support. I wish I’d known about it 9 years ago when I started FreshMinds! Plug and Play is particularly keen to reach out to European companies at the moment so if you’re keen for a few months in California, look them up.

Continuing our VC adventure the group headed to a meeting with a group of Silicon Valley investors. The premise of the meeting was to give each of us the chance to pitch our business - a bit like Dragons' Den. I actually enjoyed the experience and I think everyone else on the trip did as well – probably because the pitch wasn’t actually televised and the stakes were much lower. Most of the businesses on Web Mission 09 are already up and running and not necessarily in the fund-seeking stage so it was more of a practice run.

The next day we headed back to Silicon Valley for one of the hottest sessions of the week – a full day at Oracle getting a peek at their Enterprise2.0 developments and plans. I was particularly interested in finding out more about their new Collaborative Enterprise Platform, Beehive. It provides businesses with the full gamut of collaboration tools from blogs and wikis to instant chat and conferencing. They’re going up against a bunch of Microsoft products and they reckon Beehive is the clear winner. We also managed to get personal meetings with Oracle’s global head of M & A which was great.

I feel that a big thank you to UKTI for organising the trip is definitely in order – I can’t wait to get back to London and share all of my new ideas with the FreshNetworks team.

Read the first Web Mission blog here

Charlie Osmond is the CEO and co-founder of FreshNetworks , a social media company that builds, hosts and manages online communities for brands. The company helps brands leverage social media to connect and interact with customers, employees and stakeholders.