What is Speed Dating?

Speed Dating is an organised and semi-formal matchmaking event with just one objective and that is to encourage people to meet a large number of new people. Hopefully, the end result is that participants find people that they would like to meet again, whether this is just as friends going out for a meal or perhaps on a date.

Love Poland Dating will be running a series of Speed Dating events around Poland in the near future. During these events, women and men are rotated to meet each other over a series of short dates. Each short date lasts for just 5 minutes. At the end of each 5 minute interval, one of our organisers will clink a glass to indicate to the participants that they are to move on to the next date. During our events, the ladies are seated and it is the men who do the rotation.

At the end of the Speed Dating event, participants submit to the organisers, a list of who they would like to provide their contact information to. If there is a match, the contact information is forwarded to both parties by the event organisers.

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One of the Golden Rules of Speed Dating is that participants do not trade contact information during the initial meeting as this reduces any pressure to accept or reject a suitor to his or her face. The event organisers provide feedback to the participants by email within just 2 days so participants do not have to wait long to find out if they have any matches.

Speed Dating provides obvious advantages over other venues traditionally used for meeting people such as bars & clubs because everybody participating in the speed dating event is there to meet someone. Because the event is structured with each participant wearing a name badge, there is no need to waste time introducing yourself and unlike many other venues, the events are always quiet enough for people to talk comfortably.

Speed Dating is ideal for singles as you can come to the event alone without feeling out of place, its also great fun to attend these events in a group. It is also very popular with busy, professional people who have little time to meet someone in the more traditional venues such as in a bar or night club.

All of the usual pressures and hassles of meeting someone for the first time are removed by the Speed Dating process. Because the matching itself happens after the event, people do not feel pressured to select or reject each other in person. The time limit ensures that a participant will not be stuck with a boorish match for very long, and prevents participants from monopolising one another's time. On the other hand, a couple that decides they are incompatible early on will have to sit together for the duration of the round.

Is 5 minutes long enough?

Short dates of 5 minutes duration have been proven to be more than enough to decide whether or not the person you meet is a compaible match. A 2005 study at the University of Pennsylvania of multiple HurryDate speed dating events found that most people made their choices within the first three seconds of meeting. Furthermore, issues such as religion, previous marriages, and smoking habits were found to play much less of a role than expected. A 2006 study in Edinburgh, Scotland showed that 45% of the women participants in a speed-dating event and 22% of the men had come to a decision within the first 30 seconds. It also found that dialogue concerning travel resulted in more matches than dialogue about films.

The History of Speed Dating

Its origins of Speed Dating are credited to Rabbi Yaacov Deyo of Aish HaTorah, originally as a way to help Jewish singles meet and marry.

The first speed-dating event took place at Pete's Café in Beverly Hills in late 1998. Soon afterward, several commercial services began offering secular round-robin dating events across the United States. By 2000, speed dating had really taken off, perhaps boosted by its portrayal in shows such as Sex and the City as something that glamorous people did. Supporters argue that speed dating saves time, as most people quickly decide if they are romantically compatible, and first impressions are often permanent.

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