SPEED DATING!

Haven’t heard of it? Single, heard of it, but hesitant to attend? Fearful of airheads, confidence artists, dogs, kooks, players, and sex fiends in sleazy places? Excuses! Excuses!

Where’s your sense of adventure? Dating at high-pace is already raging throughout England, Canada, Australia, Japan. Yet, so far, it’s present in only 90 major locations in the USA. When it recently hit Las Vegas and didn’t burst into smithereens upon impact with our entertainment capital of the world, I knew it was no passing fad - it was here to stay.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

A simple type of round-robin dating was dreamed up by Rabbi Yaacov Deyo in 1998. He called it Speed Dating® and envisioned it as an excellent means of introducing eligible Jewish members of his community with a view to their meeting and selecting suitable marriage partners. It worked! Now the concept has been blatantly copied and packaged in more sophisticated forms, by national companies under their own trade names. I spoke to many attendees who considered it a cool way to replace scampering around at dances, church coffee hours and singles bars and it seemed to be favored by young professionals and business persons like Las Vegas publisher Mark Ross, divorced middle-aged executives, and widowed retirees. It guarantees from 8 to 25 face-to-face chats with opposite-sex persons (Dates) over the course of 1½ hours. These encounters become the forerunners to friendships or committed relationships that sometimes do and sometimes do not lead to the altar.

ENTERING A PARTY

To get the low-down on these intriguing goings-on, I descended on a party in progress at the trendy Ice House Lounge in the Downtown area. There I met Loni, the host, and what a bundle of vitality she was. She greeted each arrival and, as if she had four hands, niftily gave out a slick brochure with tips for having a blast, plus a name tag, number, and scorecard. The latter was for entering the first name of each Date and adding a Y for yes, I’d like to see this person again, or an N which, of course, means No. Guys had arrived early and were already around the bar shooting the breeze with newfound pals of the same sex. Gals were nowhere to be seen; then arrived in bunches. “It sounds like fun, so we’re here for the first time to give it a try,” they laughingly confessed when I approached them. It turned out they felt too shy to walk upstairs and venture in alone, so had waited for other females to appear so they could team up for united entry. The room was ooh! so romantic. Flattering lighting! Flowers everywhere! Seating for 2 was lounge style with upholstered chairs and glass coffee tables lettered A - Z. After giving a brief welcome, Loni blew a whistle, and the first round began. It involved spending 3-minutes with the first of 25 Dates. Thereafter guys moved up one table, upon each whistle call, to join gals who remained stationary for the entire evening. There was chatter and laughter every minute as if they were all members of a club where everybody knew everybody. In fact the activity was sparkling, exciting, and swift from start to finish. However, in case such rapidity freaks you out, I visited another venue where the mood and atmosphere were more relaxed because each Date lasted 6 minutes. This party was held at Chicago’s Cactus Club in Las Vegas with Linda as the amicable host. Everyone arrived singly but there was no need to look around furtively in semidarkness or risk being told “this stool is taken,” as happens in bars. Linda stood in bright light in full view of the street level door. She was smiling, friendly, glancing at names on her attendance sheet to make sure each had registered online, as required, and prepaid by credit card or online check. She provided a table number, and necklace bearing the person’s first name. Men were handed sheets headed “How it works,” “Notes,” and “Match Sheet,” plus a clipboard. Women received the same sheaf of papers and, additionally, a flash card with the word “READY” on one side and “NOT READY” on the reverse, and were shown to their tables. When the 6-minute bell sounded, men stood in readiness for moving up one table. They used the clipboard to support their scribbling while waiting for the next permanently seated woman to complete her match sheet, jot down notes to refresh her memory upon returning home, and flash the READY sign. These short intermissions emphasized the more leisurely nature of the occasion and allowed sufficient time for polite gestures such as shaking hands upon meeting and departing. Some women stood up to stretch and one man with courtly manners held the chair for his next Date and pushed it in for her.

LOCAL VENUES

To afford a variety of people and places and extend their territorial reach (and yours), parties move from one lounge-bar to another in both Las Vegas and Henderson. I have obtained limited time discounts especially for my readers. www.pre-dating.com  will take off $5 every time you register online and enter the code AVLV when prompted to do so; www.8minutedating.com will deduct $5 off your first party when you enter Letterbox8; and www.hurrydate.com  will take 15% off your first party when you tap in letter15. I hasten to add that I derive no financial or other gain from these companies or their offers. This impartial report relates to high-pace dating; not internet dating that I have not researched. Suffice it for me to say that speed-dating provides both parties with a reasonably safe environment, where they may judge character and interpret vibes while chatting face-to-face, in advance of choosing to meet in unguarded circumstances elsewhere.

As a writer, first, last, and foremost, my interest lies in investigating every new trend and providing sufficient info for you to make your own decision as to whether to pass it up - or go for it with gusto.

© Heather Latimer

Extracted from her handbook: How To Be A Whizzz At Dating Dozens (ISBN 0-943698-84-7).

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