Speed Dating
 

Just looking through the forum for any topics on Speed Dating. And I found one topic posted over a year ago ==>
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...t=speed+dating

Anyway, a year has lasped by and I am sure more people have heard about the speed dating thing. I am going speed dating this Monday, for the first time. I'm a little nervous as I don't know what to expect. Has anyone been to one? Have you had any success? Any tips? Any interesting stories to tell?

:confused:

Nope, sorry. But don't come back here without a full report though.

I've never done it -- but from what I understand it's about 8 minutes to make an impression.

Dress nicely, but also dress comfortably. Your discomfort will show thru to a person.
Brush teeth, use mouth wash, but not overpowering... Minty fresh is good, medicine breath is bad.
Don't use too much cologne if you wear it.

Don't be nervous, think of this as a fun event, if you meet someone, great...

Not all the women there will be beauty queens, don't show your look of disappointment if she looks like Cruella de Ville, she paid her money just like you and deserves some respect. Be polite.

Introduce yourself with a genuine smile and a firm (but not overpowering handshake)

Make eyecontact - looking at boobies is bad form :) at least in the first few minutes, there's a woman attached to those booobies, show her some attention.

A speed-tip: don't worry about it that much. Just say: We'll see what happens, I am who I am.

And don't forget: you'll be great :)

I did it once...a buddy of mine and I signed up out of curiosity. We both got good responses but weren't really interested in many of the women--too many lied on the application (it was supposed to be for single professionals, 25-35, with no children and there were several 38 yr old single moms in there looking for dates).

It's a fun process actually...it's awkward for everyone at first but it becomes a bit of a "musical chairs" game and as long as you keep a smile on your face and just enjoy meeting new people (regardless of whether they're cute or 100lbs overweight) it will be a good time.

Note: Ask interesting questions about the other person (stay away from the "what do you do," "where are you from," questions and don't monopolize the conversation.

You're not going to hit it off with many of them...don't expect to. Just go in thinking of it as an bit of an experiment.

Thanks for your advice people. You have eased my thoughts. I guess we will see (this Monday!).

Hopefully this goes well. People have brought up this idea to me, but I'm very shy around folks when I first meet them; takes me awhile to warm up. So, I don't reallly think I would come across well it 8 minutes. I'm great after a couple of weeks!

My relationships end soon enough without me trying to speed through them. Good luck, though.

Sounds like fun. Hope you fare better with that than I am with online dating services.

I've never done it, don't worry about it, what happens, happens. :-)

So, how'd it go?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Well, is good to see I have a captive audience!

I was quite nervous to begin with. The venue was a bar on the outskirts of town. I sat in car, parked outside, looking to see if anyone was in there! Couldn't see in or anyone walking in. I eventually plucked up the courage and strolled in and ordered myself a drink. The barman announced that if you are here for speed dating go upstairs. To my relief I saw 2 women and 4 men head towards the stairs. I gingerly followed them!

I continued to sit upstairs for another half an hour whilst we waited for the rest of the speed daters.

After been issued with a badge (I was number "2"), we were given a list for us to write down the date and a YES/NO box to fill in as we went round.

There were 11 women and 13 men in total. The women sat at a table with their number on, and the men moved on one table after 3 minutes.

The speed dating began. I started talking to the first date. I thought "what have I got myself into?!". The first lady I did not find attractive and perhaps a little old!!

Let me take a step back. When I registered on-line the event said for people aged 23-34. When I think about it, that it is a wide age gap, particularly because I am 25! Anyway, back to the first lady, she was 34, divorced, two kids, eldest one was 13! Anyway the three minutes flew by... next... tick the "no" box....

The second women was 33... I am not being ageist but I was hoping to meet someone around my age.... next....

It was a similar story with the rest of the 10 women. I think the average age for the women was about 30. I recon I was the youngest person there, out of all the men and women.

Eventually date number 5, Karina, aged 28 was the first one I ticked "yes" after the date. The three minutes seemed very short. And at that point we all had a 30 minute break to grab drinks and generally socialise. So I carried on talking to Karina for another 10 minutes.

After the break we continued with the speed dating. Their were a couple of other ladies that took my fancy, in terms of age, looks and intellect (those were my criteria).

At the end of the evening I had ticked 5 "yes". Two were my type. The other three were cool, maybe a little old, but would be nice as friend criteria. I summited my form and made like a tree and leave (left). I did not feel I could hang around and mingle because everyone else came with a friend.

Overall, I realised I am actually quite fussy when it comes to picking women. I like women that are educated, well travelled and interesting. (That is one other thing that links all my ex-gf's together, the first being that they are all female!). And basically dispite most of them being older, none really fitted the bill, but I guess they saying the same about me! If everyone was the same the world would be a boring place.

Anyhow. Today is Tuesday and I got a text message today saying I had two matches. I was very relieved to see that Karina was one of them. Two out of five?? Well it is good to know I made a good impression with two of them. Now I guess I'll have to call them... :confused: and do this dating thing!

Overall, dispite the experience, I did enjoy it and I would do it again, probably not at the same location. I spoke to a friend at the weekend and he has done the speed dating thing, he did it in London, where there are more YOUNGER, educated, well travelled and interesting women. It is good fun. You get to see the results quite quickly, and I think it is dead true, that you can form an impression on someone within the first 1 minute of seeing them.

Anyway I have rambled on for too long.

hmm you know what you want, did the girls get what they want :)? Just kidding

That's great man I'm thinking about trying that now. Where did you find the info about this? I remember there was suppose to be an Atlanta one.

Sounds like you had an interesting experience.

If I was still single, I would have tried this. Just to say that I've done it. So do you just call your matches and set yourselves up on dates and go from there? I wouldn't worry about your standards. They sound like good ones and you actually end up getting what you want in a mate if you stick to them.

Good luck to you.

I have been thinking about trying this. know they do this in the Detroit area. they have a 5minute speed dating and an 8 minute speed dating.

I am wondering how you started the conversation? Did you ask the standard questions or did you try and come up with something different with each one? I guess I am worried about making a good first impression and could use ideas on what I would say or if I would just smile and hope that it goes well...

Looked it up on Google. I won't be able to recommend you one cos I live on the little Island called Britain!


Yeah, just called Karena today :) Made small talk for 10 minutes, which didn't seem to put her off too much, but have arranged to meet up for drinks next week...

Started off quite nervously and asked "Is this your first speed dating?". Probably the most asked question of the night! If you think about it, you are in competition with 13 other men to make an impression! So don't use that question.

I then tended to ask general small talk questions like "Did you travel far to get here?" "What do you go for a living?" and then the one's I hit it off with, started talking about travels to Australia (something I am and they are passiononate about). Then before I knew it my three minutes were up.