“As some of you will already know, alongside developing Trigga and becoming a father, I’ve spent the last year on an intensive endurance training programme in preparation for an unsupported attempt to reach the North Pole in May. When you receive this email I will be about 12 hours away (Wednesday 28 April) from departing for Resolute Bay, the most northerly Inuit settlement in Canada. From Resolute, I will dropped off on the ice to begin what will be a long journey to the Pole on foot. I hope to have reached it by mid-May.

I will be skiing and walking across the ice, pulling all of my kit on a pulk (sledge) in what is one of the harshest climates on earth. More people have climbed Everest than have successfully reached the North Pole.

The biggest challenges are going to be the physical endurance, the cold, polar bears – and missing my wife Dilek, and our baby daughter Thalia, who was born in February.

I will be skiing between 12-14 hours per day, in temperatures ranging from minus 20 to minus 60 degrees, depending on the wind chill. And the proposed route cuts across an area which is home to 80% of the world’s polar bears, including one stretch called “Polar Bear Alley”.

I want to use this expedition to raise money for two inspiring Global Angels projects to help children which, having just become a father, really inspired me – a special equipped holiday home in the UK for children with life threatening illnesses and an orphan home and school for street children in Sierra Leone. I have inserted details of these projects below.

100% of the money I raise will go directly to these two projects – I am paying for all of the costs of the expedition myself. If this email and these projects also inspire you then it’s easy to help make a donation via the “Support Ed Now” button on http://www.globalangels.org/pages/10120/Fundraising.htm.”

Briefly, HODR is an organization that’s created a workflow which allows them to quickly send volunteers to places in the world where they’re needed. I know what you’re thinking – oh boy, yet another NGO trying to change the world, right? I thought the same. But these guys do two things really, really differently:

1. They have no fixed costs – out of the 5,000 volunteers they work with, only 5 are paid. That means – 100% of what you donate goes directly to the response programs they’re running at that time

2. If you want to volunteer, you just pay for your flight to wherever you’re needed, and they take care of the rest. I think this is the reason why they’ve been so successful since they launched in 2004, ’cause it’s easier and safer to volunteer when you know someone will take good care of you.

Have a look at their site, maybe make a donation and, if you have the time, I encourage you to volunteer. I know I will.

“In the past couple of years, I’ve asked about a hundred 80-90 years old what they would do different in life if they’d have a chance to do it again. Most of them said they’d spend more time with their family, and less time <<in the factory>>. None of them said they’d focus on making more money.”

I’m gonna look for a 90 year old on my flight back to London .

Wonderful weather in Austin, Tx today.

I’ll be at South by South West Interactive in the next 6 days and it’s my first time here, so please feel free to take me to all the best parties and introduce me to the nicest people you know, ok?

And if you’ve just typed in emigal.com after getting my business card, feel free to check out my about page, linkedin profile, twitter stream, yada yada, you know the drill.

It was my third time in Prague, none of which was long enough to allow me to get the real feel of the city, unfortunately. What I could grasp each time though was the wonderful contrast between the beautiful, almost parisian buildings like the National Theatre and the terrible, terrible, matchbox style communist buildings like the University of Economics. One would argue you’d prefer not to have any matchbox buildings in such a beautiful city, but I think it’s what makes Prague so special.

Mini Seedcamp Prague was a real success, I think. Some of the companies have amazing technology & teams behind, so I’m sure we’ll see more of them in the near future. Czech Republic has a pretty interesting tech scene, and with people like Ondrej Bartos and Tom Newbold around, it’ll probably keep going up.

I enjoyed spending time with all the selected teams and I encourage every startup out there to apply to one of the Mini Seedcamps. As for me, I hope to be able to test my carry-on’s wheels again in Prague, soon. Na zdravi!

We started off in New York, which was fun and entertaining, especially the day we met Jonathan Klein, founder & CEO of Getty Images (I’m going to blog about that as well, soon ). We also met the wonderful people at Union Square Ventures and had fun with New York’s tech scene at the NY Tech Meet-up. If I’d have to summarize NY in 3 words, I’d say: the shops, the taxis and the girls .

We spent the second half of our trip in Silicon Valley, and I am still mesmerized at the amount of brain per square meter that I encountered there. Whenever I looked left, there was someone running an interesting startup. Whenever I looked right, there was a VC or an angel investor looking for new opportunities. Wherever I looked, there was someone that could help me or that I could help, one way or another. And if I were to summarize my experience in Silicon Valley in just three words, I’d say: Wow, just wow!

I can’t stress enough how valuable Seedcamp has been for Brainient. I am awed and astonished when I look back and see how much we’ve accomplished in the past four months. I’ve written about the Seedcamp Experience before, but if I were to summarize it in just three words, I’d say: YOU. NEED. IT.

And btw, Mini Seedcamp Zagreb is coming up and you still have a few days to apply .

Yesterday evening I had the opportunity and privilege to see the preview of Varekai, Cirque du Soleil‘s new show, debuting on the 5th of January at the Royal Albert Hall.

I don’t have words to express how amazing the show was. Everything – the live music, costumes, story, acrobats, set, even the actors’ humor made me feel like I was watching a 3D movie with really, really good special effects. Except it wasn’t a movie and there weren’t any special effects. Just really, really talented people and hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of very, very hard work.

It was the best show I’ve seen in my life, so far, and I strongly recommend you go ahead and get tickets while you can, I have a feeling they’re going to sell out really, really quickly.

If you’re not sure if Seedcamp is for you, go ahead and read about the seedcamp experience or find out how to put your startup on steroids.

Without further ado, here are the dates for the Mini Seedcamps in 2010.

>> Zagreb – 11th February
>> Prague – 2nd March
>> Barcelona – 23rd March
>> Paris – 15th April
>> Tel Aviv – 6th May
>> Copenhagen – 27th May
>> Berlin – 16th June
>> London – 20th July

Good luck.

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life.