The Dating Experience

The Dating Experience is a blog on my experiences in the dating scene that I recently launched. But, I don’t want this to be just about me. I want to hear your stories and I am interested in getting your comments.

I know it can be hard to get some of you to write so here is what I am going to do: For the next month or so, anyone that shares their story (or stories) or enters a comment will be entered in a drawing for $100.

Don’t have a story to share? Hmm … how did you end up with such a perfect match? If your significant other has a single sister, have her contact me! In the meantime, if you still want a chance to win, write in your blog about thedatingexperience.com and I will enter you in the drawing. Just make sure you let me know … I want you to be sure to get your entry.

Rules:

• Each story you submit equals one more chance to win.
• These have to be your personal stories – no stories about your buddy, your girlfriend or anyone else.
• Want to comment instead? That’s worth an entry, too. But, be sure it is a comment with substance, no spam and be nice with each other!
• I reserve the right to publish your story. (Don’t worry, you may use an alias if you prefer - I wouldn’t want your ex coming after you!)
• Since I know we have readers from all over the world, I am going to have to make payment via PayPal.
• Send your story or stories to james@thedatingexerpience.com or comment on any story.
• The contest ends on May 15th. The winner will be notified by email and also announced on thedatingexperience.com.

Speed dating or pre-dating sounded like a good idea: you go to a restaurant or club and you meet with others that are single and looking for a relationship. You are not as worried about striking up a conversation with someone that is already in a relationship. If they are there it is because they are available and looking.

How it works
Usually, they have different pre-dating events based on age groups or other demographics (I have seen some based on ethnicity and religion). This is good since I might feel out of place in a room with a crowd that was much younger than me or older, for that matter (unless I was looking for a sugar mama!).

There are too many candidates for you to meet them all in one night. Instead, the organizer has already selected a number of people for you to meet. There is time before and after the “dating” period for you to meet anyone that you may be interested in. The two pre-dating events I was at, the women would remain at the table and the men would move from table to table (based on where they were assigned to go).

You may think that 5 minutes or 8 minutes may be too short and it can be. In these cases, I tried to meet up with the person after the dating period finished. Sometimes, 8 minutes can be an eternity if there is no chemistry or if the other person is the quiet type – this happened on to me on numerous occasions.

Before the start of the dating period you were given a paper on which you were supposed to put down your impressions. If you found someone you were interested in pursing, you would then put pass this on to the organizer. After the event, you were informed if there was a mutual attraction or if there was someone that was interested in you. (You find this out via email or the website.)

I did meet several people that I thought were interesting but not necessarily someone that I wanted to date. Just because there is a room full of available people does not mean there will be an attraction or chemistry between any of them.

Most of the people I talked to at the pre-dating event had tried this before and were happy with the process. I liked it because it gave me a chance to meet people in person from the start. But, it did feel like an interview. A more accurate comparison would be an elevator pitch in that you have a predetermined (short) amount of time to say why you would be a good catch.

It’s been a while since I have done one of these speed-dating events but that has more to do with scheduling. Given the chance, I would not mind doing it again.