Heading to the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this week? Make sure to check out the Launchpad event at the Summit, where Qik will be one of six presenting start-ups before a panel of expert judges. It’s a huge honor to have been selected from all of the companies that applied, and Bhaskar has authorized me to disclose that he’s very excited to show off Qik.

Bhaskar, Rishi and I hit the Web 2.0 Summit today for the Launchpad dress rehearsal – the Palace Hotel was absolutely buzzing. One of the hot topics was Microsoft’s announcement today of their Bizspark program for young companies. It’s a pretty cool global program which gives start-ups free access to Microsoft software. Microsoft is one of Qik’s partners, as we have Qik running on Windows Mobile devices, and I managed to get MSFT SVP Dan’l Lewin to tell me, live on Qik, what Bizspark is all about:

After many months of campaigning, debating, and Saturday Night Live sketches, we’re finally down to the wire on the US Presidential Election. No matter which candidate you support, and even if you don’t live in the US, I think it’s safe to say that most people are pretty relieved that the circus is about to end – or at least switch gears for the inauguration in January…

Over the last months of campaigning, we’ve been excited to see the coverage Qikkers have nabbed of rallies, debates, and other election-related events. Both Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama have been Qikked by our users, as have Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden. Qikkers have been behind the scenes at debates and in the front row for stump speeches.

Election Day (and Night) will be no different. We know that many of you will be Qikking from polling stations (where legal!), parties, and even the campaign HQs for the candidates themselves. For example, ABC News Radio’s Dan Patterson will be Qikking from behind the scenes in the newsroom, Talking Points Memo will be live from Obama HQ, and The Uptake‘s Vote Chasers project will be bringing in Qiks from around the US. So we’ve created a Qik Election Day event page where we will try to aggregate all of the coolest Qiks coming in tomorrow. You can add yourself to this event page with one click, and all of your election-related Qiks will appear there, too.

We’re not the only ones collecting great Qiks for the day, though! Our friends at the BBC have created an event of their own, which all Qikkers are invited to join. The best Qiks will be selected by the BBC to be featured on their website and also the BBC’s TV coverage of the US elections. So add yourself to the BBC event for Election Day, too, for a chance to get even greater exposure for your Qiks.

Doing something cool for Election Day that you think we should know about? Drop me an email – jackie@qik.com – and boast away!