When trying to find someone with whom to share the dating experience, there is a certain amount of dread attached to approaching someone who may or may not be “available”. They may be in a relationship, they may be taking a voluntary break from dating altogether, or they may be interested in a different sort of person. However valid and inoffensive their reason for passing on the opportunity, it still hurts to be rejected. At a speed dating event, it is clear that everyone is there for the purposes of meeting a potential dating partner. If they then do not want to date you, it is just a matter of taste. Hard to accept, maybe, but at least there is clarity.

As well as this, speed dating allows you to meet the person face to face and see if you feel a connection before embarking on a “real date”. Sometimes a first date, especially a “blind date” can be a harrowing and embarrassing experience for both people because they simply do not “hit it off”. Speed dating gives you the chance to see if the spark is there before investing unrealistic expectations.

In the course of a speed dating evening, depending on the turnout, a person can meet anything from a few to around twenty people in whom they might be interested. In theory, for a mixed-gender speed dating event, there should be an equal number of men and women, and the attendees of a particular gender will all be sat at fixed tables. They will then be visited in turn by possible dating partners, and have a short amount of time to chat about whatever interests them. At the close of each “visit”, an individual will either put a tick or a cross next to the name of their “date”. The following day they will feed their responses into the speed-dating website, and any coupling that gave each other a tick will then be able to arrange another date. From that point, it is all up to them.