If you haven't done it before, you are in a room (usually a rented out restaurant so its just for this event) with lots of tables. At each table is a woman. As a man, you are directed to sit at a specific numbered table where there is a woman seated (all the other men do the same to the individual table they are directed to). A bell rings. You have 5 minutes to talk to each other and learn as much as you can about each other. After 5 minutes, the bell rings, and the woman stay seated, and the man moves to the next higher numbered table. You have a card with the woman's name on it and you should REALLY make notes, because you won't remember which things you thought with each person. The women do the same with their cards.

In under 2 hours each person now talked to 14-18 potential mates. At the end of the night you go online and mark which of the women you're interested in hearing more from. If any of the women you mark also mark you on their side, you're given an in-app communications channel and you can choose to share personal contact information from there.

When you're sitting at the table talking with a woman sometimes it seems like that bell rings as soon as you sit down and you wish you had more time. Those are the ones you mark on your card to talk more with. Sometimes, you're 1 minute in and you're dreading waiting though the next 4 min. Those you do not mark.

I'd recommend you give Speed Dating a try.

[–] Thatuserguy@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Curious where you find something like this. Did you just Google "Local Speed Dating" or something?

[–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 18 points 2 weeks ago

I just searched for hot singles in my area. Works everytime.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

Did you just Google “Local Speed Dating” or something?

Yep. There are usually companies that put these on, and as its their business, it will be the same companies doing many sessions throughout the year.

I wasn't sure if Speed Dating was still a thing (since I did it years ago), and I find it is still a thing!

There's one tonight in Los Angeles:

But also midwest towns. Here's one in Des Moines Iowa 2 days from now:

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Well that was depressing. Google does indeed list regular speed dating events near me, by age range and preference.

However I’m really not happy where my age lands. I can’t be that old. Just a few years ago I would be hanging out in the rec room playing video games on my Atari ….

[–] burgersc12@mander.xyz 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

This sounds horrible, like an interview but multiple back to back and lasting for hours. No thanks, I'd rather be thrown back into the hell of online swiping.

[–] dditty@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago

I have not had much luck with dating apps, so a friend and I attended a local speed dating event when we turned 30. Apparently it was advertised on a dating app and is run by a company that does events for singles.

Anyway it was exactly like you described - a series of awkward interviews with strangers I didn't click with, some of whom tuned out after a couple of minutes and you could tell they were just waiting for the next person. Many were people who had just moved to the state/country.

Any other option for meeting people would probably be better than attending a speed dating event imo

[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How do you even find stuff like that? Because I've definitely thought of giving that a try ngl.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Just Googling "speed dating [city name]". Here are some examples from my other comment

[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Amazing I didn't know it was a real thing I thought it was a joke

Edit: cool beans found out one happened in 2019

But nothing else