What is Speed Dating?

What is Speed Dating and how does it work?
After the online dating scandals highlighted last Monday by the BBC’s Panorama programme ‘Tainted Love’, we have been inundated with inquiries this week about Speed Dating and how it works, so we felt a few words of positioning and explanation might help. So if you have not tried Speed Dating before this could be for you?
Speed Dating was actually invented in the late 1990’s by Rabbi Yaacov Deyo of the Jewish Church in Florida, because not enough young Jewish were meeting and marrying, so it is an extremely wholesome activity and is definitely not anything sleazy or ‘adult’ in the internet sense of the word. The concept first came into the UK in 2003 and When the Music Stops were one of the first to run Speed Dating events during that year. The first independent Speed Dating event had taken place in Peet’s Cafe in Beverly Hills, California, in 1998.
The problem with online dating, is the truthfulness and sincerity of the profiles and accuracy of the photographs, plus as there are no background checks required whatsoever in the UK, anyone can be anything to anybody and sadly no one seems to care. But with Speed Dating that simply can’t happen and consequently it does make it an absolutely excellent way of meeting. With Speed Dating there is a requirement to book in advance and with When the Music Stops we insist on a home address and post code (which is physically checked for accuracy), email address and phone contact number with every booking, so we ARE confident that our attendees are who they say they are.
Also, very importantly, you can’t portray yourself at a Speed Dating event as 20 years younger, as everybody meets everybody else face to face rather than just seeing a photo, which is a huge advantage. It is the only form of dating we know where that vital chemistry is checked out right upfront and you can clearly see whether there is a spark or not, rather than messaging and emailing backwards and forwards for weeks or maybe months without getting anywhere.
You also typically get to meet and talk to 15 – 20 members of the opposite sex, which is more dates than you would normally expect in around 6 months online.
Tables of two are set up around the room, with each lady being allocated to her own table for the duration of the evening, with the men moving round and spending around 5 minutes with each lady, to give each couple the chance to chat and tell each other a little about themselves, before the organiser will move them on again. Feedback is recorded on a ‘match sheet’, so that you can remember everyone at the end of the evening and then you just choose ‘Date’ ‘Friend’ or ‘No thanks’ for each of the people you have met,
Our rules are also that people conduct themselves and interact politely, that they meet everyone during the evening and we then do all the rest by providing feedback and your results within 24 hours.
It’s absolutely brilliant fun and we guarantee that if you did take the plunge and try it, you’d probably be back time and time again.
Unless of course, you meet your special someone the very first time, which can happen.
Have a look at our range of events now and go on, give it a go!!
Or search for your own county or nearest large town from our homepage.