Press & Media
A Current Affair
Fast Love
While speed dating may not be a new concept, its increasing popularity among young, attractive and professional singles is surprising many. The concept has given rise to degustation dating, combining fine foods, and hopefully, a fine liaison too.
Australian and New Zealand dating agency Fast Impressions says 90 percent of people who use its services are single professionals aged 25-45 with busy lifestyles.
To cater for their time-poor lifestyles, the agency introduced “Degustation Dating”, or speed dating with the added new dimension of a Degustation menu. The events see singles enjoying 12 courses with 12 dinner dates for 12 minutes each during one evening. While this may seem barely enough time to get to know someone, Degustation Dating actually tacks an extra four minutes onto each ‘date’ compared to their normal speed dating events.
Each participant is given a folder at the start of the evening and they write down the names of the people they meet, then putting a yes or no next to each name depending on whether or not they’d like to see that person again. At the end of the night the agency calculates the matches and they can then arrange to meet again.
Fast Impressions claims more than 90 percent of guests get at least one mutual match and most people get two or three. Many of the participants say the days of meeting someone at the pub are long gone, and speed dating provides an excellent and safe alternative.
The growing popularity of speed dating seems to reflect their success. Fast Impressions now hosts about 70 events every month in 15 cities across Australia and NZ, with up to four events in Sydney each week.
