– Connie Chang, SF Bay Community Manager

Start your iPhone engines: it’s time for the first-ever Loopt Q-off to celebrate National Hamburger Week in the SF Bay Area. Yes, Hamburger Week is for real, and so is this competition. We want you to spread your knowledge on Bay Area burgers all…week…long. Qs is a great way to do this! It’s a new feature in Loopt where you can answer short, common questions about a place. It’s super-simple, fun and social — and it’s the best way to get the bite-sized info on burgers, from fries to patty size.

We just officially launched Qs — it’s brand new in the Bay Area.

Here’s the competition rundown:

• In honor of National Hamburger Week, answer as many Qs as you can at burger joints in the Bay Area.
• The three lucky Loopt users who answer the most Qs this week (by Sunday, May 15) will get a big juicy gift certificate to one of the hottest Bay Area burger joints: Roam Artisan Burgers (SF), The Counter (Palo Alto/San Jose), or TrueBurger (Oakland). Mmm… burgers.
• You have until 11:59pm on May 15th to get your Qs in and we’ll contact the winners directly on May 16th.

Well, what are you waiting for? Fire up those Qs!

And what better way to celebrate than to get together with fellow Loopt members for burger bashes around the bay area! Come meet me, your SF Bay Area Community Manager, on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and we’ll chow down on some of the best burgers around and have fun getting to know one another. Stop by anytime between 6-8pm and your first drink is on me!

• Wednesday, May 11 @ St. John’s in Sunnyvale, CA: FACEBOOK EVENT
• Thursday, May 12 @ Urbun Burger in San Francisco, CA: FACEBOOK EVENT
• Friday, May 13 @ TrueBurger in Oakland, CA: FACEBOOK EVENT

If you have any questions or need clarification on Loopt Qs or anything in general, you can find me (Connie) on Twitter, @LooptSFbay, or on email: sf.bay@loopt.com.

Loopt’s CEO, Sam Altman, will be speaking at SocialLoco in San Francisco on May 5. Should be a great show — the organizers have quite the lineup prepared. Sam will be participating on a panel about the future of geo-location. What comes after the check-in?

Registration is still open – we hope to see you there.

The Loopt Rewards Wagon and reward alerts at SXSW Interactive were a hit. We’ve talked and talked…and talked about it on the blog (because $50,000 in prizes is somethin’ to talk about). Now we FINALLY have a video that shows the whole thing in action. The hunt for the Loopt Rewards Wagon, the joy of winning a high-value prize, and then the body-rocking, drama-filled last hurdle before ultimate triumph.

Man, that was a fun week. Congrats to all the winners — you deserved everything you got!

Today was fun for gadget lovers, book worms, art lovers, social media marketers and the reality-TV obsessed. It was fun for us, too. Our last Rewards Wagon day at SXSW – ahhh, did it have to end?

We started off by inspiring SXSW goers with some talent-seeking X-Factor swag, plus breakfast burritos. Then, we saw some very hurried movement when we gave away XBOX Kinects and taco plates. Seriously, people were sprinting through the streets. 100% tiger-blood passion.

Running for XBOX Kinect Loopt Reward

After they crossed the finish line, we had to decide who would get the FULL package. Not just a Kinect, but also an XBOX. The answer seemed simple, considering the most popular Kinect game (Dance Central)… a dance off. And dance off they did.

Dance off for an XBOX. Things got real.

The day progressed with two SXSWlebrities, Gary Vaynerchuk (The Thank You Economy) and Hugh Mcleod (Evil Plans). Conference goers were so pumped to meet these inspiring authors and industry figures.

The crowd gathering at Hugh McLeod's Gaping Void booth on the trade show floor

Our last prize of the whole show was across the street from the gdgt party with TiVo. Though the conclusion to our Rewards Wagon was bittersweet, our Loopt users were happy to have one last hunt. They scurried around the street corners. One of our runners dropped his bag as he turned the corner, but he didn’t care. He just kept. on. running. Go Pre. We had a lot of happy TiVo doll winners and FIVE thrilled TiVo Premiere (plus 1 year of service) winners. Our big winners literally jumped for joy.

One of our TiVo winners jumping for joy!

Our five BIG TiVo winners

We wish we could ALL get one of these beautiful JAMBOX wireless speakers, by Jawbone. Fortunately, a few lucky Loopt users did get one each. Happy faces all over at SXSW2011. Within a few minutes of sending out the reward alert, the JAMBOXES were GONE.

Twelve South, Gilt City, Guy Kawasaki, Southwest Airlines and OK Cupid rocked out today with some awesome giveaways on the Loopt Rewards Wagon. People salivated and celebrated over these prizes. The Loopt team is seriously starting to feel like a bunch of SXSW elves.

We piled some select pics from the flash rewards into this animoto video. Enjoy!

The smile that says it all!

We paraded the streets with rewards today. Saturday was the day of music and happiness. These were all AMAZING prizes, and size-wise, they got bigger and bigger. From Yurbuds to Jamboxes to Altec Lansing MIX Boomboxes to sweet musician-signed gear! Plus, signed books from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and cold-hard bar tab cash from TabbedOut.

The following haiku (remixes — 5 words,7 words, 5 words…instead of syllables) sum up the day’s events (in short) better than we could possibly say in longer form.

YURBUDS

Earbuds that won’t fall out!

Nod your head “yes” all you want,

Loopt Rewards give good love.

JAMBOX

Bluetooth beats around my neck,

I’m blasting tunes, balls to the wall,

(mmhmm) Loopt Rewards have it all.

ALTEC LANSING / TABBED OUT

Mix, ON. Dance contest: GO

My dance moves payed back in full.

Drink on TabbedOut. Night, complete.

SWEET SIGNED ARTIST GEAR

Dum, dum, da, dum, dum.

Got signed instruments from such awesome stars.

Jack Johnson, Anberlin, Hinder, woo hoo!