Friendly Speed Dating: Finding Human Connection in Monthly Events
As soon as I exit the Taksim metro station and begin speed walk to the event location, I begin to panic. Click am I doing this? I could be home on my couch watching Breaking Bad. While speed dating seemed to me a great idea in theory when I pitched the idea for this article, I am not so sure now. When Istanbul enter the restaurant, I feel instantly more at ease. At the bar, drink in hand, I begin chatting with another speed dater the entire place has been rented out for the eventand we have a nice conversation.
Yasemen Aydin, owner and operator of First Speed, warmly greets me, and shortly after that, she gathers the daters and begins to dating instructions, in English and then Turkish. We have been assigned name tags and numbers. Women will sit at a table with their number and men will move clockwise from one table to the next at approximately 4 minute intervals. At the end of the night, we will hand our sheets back to Yasemen, who will notify us the next day by email of any potential matches.
We speed take our assigned seats and begin. After 4 minutes, Yasemen rings a little bell speed I have just enough time to scribble down some notes before my next prospect arrives. We continue like this for about 40 minutes and then have a much needed minute break.
We go here up again and 40 minutes later, it is finished. We are free speed hang out and mingle, dating I choose to leave. An introvert by nature, all of the talking has left me exhausted, yet socially stimulated and happy. After eight years of networking at speed dating events in the US, she returned to Istanbul where she began First Sight.
At first, she just invited friends dating friends of friends, soon expanding to a more istanbul audience. Every person selected must meet her strict criteria and usually comes referenced from a former dater.
Since February3 couples have married after meeting at her speed dating events and including her work in the US, she has seen over 30 marriages and 17 engagements. So, I guess it works. Although she says speed dating has been hard to catch on in Istanbul, she has seen it progress a lot in a short time.
Honestly, I agree with istanbul. We all rely so heavily on the internet to meet our social needs. Speed dating is a crash course in dating You get a pretty good shot at meeting at least one person you like, or even making a good business connection. Just think how many hours it would take you to meet 20 pre-screened candidates personally in Istanbul, how many metro rides and traffic-jammed busses you would avoid, how much you would save on wine, dinners and coffee! I say go for it. Details here.
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