Sometimes people need a little convincing about the benefits of speed dating over online dating. We asked John Davis, London's most experienced dating events host to reveal his top ten reason why you should be speed dating if you're serious about meeting somebody.
10) To avoid hours of wasted effort, embarrassing knockbacks and offending other halves - Downing drink after drink before finally plucking up the courage to speak to your intended paramour before being bluntly told they're not interested, being publicly humiliated by their friends, your friends, or both, or chatting happily for ten minutes until their other half turns up is no ones idea of a fun night out.
9) Practice - First impressions are essential. Speed dating is basically a series of first impression sessions. I guarantee that should you go out in London after a speed dating event, you will find it significantly easier to approach people and your first five minutes have been honed to, if not perfection, a point of significant improvement over what came before.
8) London is notoriously cliquey - I don't mean snobbish but people in London tend to go out in groups. Group dynamics are very difficult to assess - it requires a particular type of personality to front up to a group of strangers as a complete outsider. Try going into a bar on your own for an entire evening and tell me you don't think people consider you a bit of a weirdo.
7) To avoid the sad, lonely and desperate - This may sound counter-intuitive but those who make the effort to go speed dating in London tend to be those who are confident, friendly and ready to meet people. The socially dysfunctional are highly unlikely to give a thumbs up to walking into a room of 30 strangers before being 'forced' to talk to each for four minutes. Even if you do find someone who really isn't your type, it's only four minutes.
10) To avoid hours of wasted effort, embarrassing knockbacks and offending other halves - Downing drink after drink before finally plucking up the courage to speak to your intended paramour before being bluntly told they're not interested, being publicly humiliated by their friends, your friends, or both, or chatting happily for ten minutes until their other half turns up is no ones idea of a fun night out.
9) Practice - First impressions are essential. Speed dating is basically a series of first impression sessions. I guarantee that should you go out in London after a speed dating event, you will find it significantly easier to approach people and your first five minutes have been honed to, if not perfection, a point of significant improvement over what came before.
8) London is notoriously cliquey - I don't mean snobbish but people in London tend to go out in groups. Group dynamics are very difficult to assess - it requires a particular type of personality to front up to a group of strangers as a complete outsider. Try going into a bar on your own for an entire evening and tell me you don't think people consider you a bit of a weirdo.
7) To avoid the sad, lonely and desperate - This may sound counter-intuitive but those who make the effort to go speed dating in London tend to be those who are confident, friendly and ready to meet people. The socially dysfunctional are highly unlikely to give a thumbs up to walking into a room of 30 strangers before being 'forced' to talk to each for four minutes. Even if you do find someone who really isn't your type, it's only four minutes.
6) You'll expand your horizons - It's amazing the number of people attending speed dating events in London who tell me how attracted they were to someone they would never normally consider. Speed dating is the perfect antidote to our own inbuilt prejudices that may just be preventing us from being, dare I say, happy?
5) Because you're a social pioneer - It's amazing the number of people who, after attending a speed-dating event, will turn up a few weeks or months later with a bunch of friends who had previously mocked their decision to go speed dating. When you've been once it's easy to persuade others.
4) It's safer than online dating - Meeting up with a stranger who you only know by their online profile has its obvious risks. Speed dating allows you to meet people face to face and assess their suitability before committing to anything more serious. And the post-event online matching service allows you to politely defer the most ardent of admirers. In other words, you meet a whole bunch of people and can then sleep on it without the risk of wasting an evening.
3) You may actually meet the one - Despite the general atmosphere being one of relaxed fun, people really do go on to form relationships from Speed Dating, whether it's short term dating or something more substantial.
2) It's a really fun night out - Seriously. Get a few friends together and have a laugh. It beats sitting in the same pub or bar talking about the same things you did last week, drinking the same drinks and waking up with the same hangover. And if you do come speed dating on your own - guys in particular will often attend their first event alone - you're chatting to a whole bunch of people, and not just for four minutes.
Almost every event sees people stick around after the event to get to know each other better.
1) Um… You know everyone is single? It sounds obvious but where else in London is this guaranteed?
Why not check out our forthcoming events to find a speed dating event near you?