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Speed dating entices
Tired of hapless blind dates? Sick of the bar scene? Don't have time to date?
Fast Dater claims to have the perfect solution. In one evening, dozens of young single people can meet and go on 3-minute dates.
Fast Dater will make its St. Cloud premiere Tuesday, Jan. 14. It will host a party for 21 to 38 year-old singles at O'Hara's Brew Pub and Restaurant.
Fast Dater provides a forum for people to meet other young professionals who don't have time for traditional dating or would just like to meet more people of the opposite sex.
"The whole premise is that it's a comfortable, low-pressure, organized event," Fast Dater founder, Lisa Lombardi told the suburban Chicago Daily Herald. "It doesn't have the stigma of a dating service. This is a bash and while most people hope to meet someone, they don't necessarily expect to find a spouse at a Fast Dater party."
After registering on www.Fastdater.com, singles go to a predetermined restaurant, bar or club. There, they check in by paying $35 and taking a number. Tables or booths with numbers are set up. Men sit on one side of the table and women on the other. They have three minutes to ask each other questions. They then decide if they would like to go on a date with the other person and mark 'yes' or 'no' accordingly on their scorecards. After that, they rotate to the next person.
At the end of the night, Fast Dater staff review the scorecards. If a man and a woman both mark 'yes' for each other, they are given each other's e-mail addresses. They can then set up their own date at their leisure. The average person comes out of Fast Dater with 2-5 dates.
In the three-minute interviews people generally ask about occupations, hobbies and hometowns. However, after a couple hours of asking different people the same questions, some may choose to spice it up with questions like, "What are three things about yourself that you wouldn't want me to know?" Conversations can move in any direction from income tax to matchbook collecting. Either way, the intention is to meet new people and have a good time.
Jim Sarlo, 28, told the suburban Chicago Daily Herald that the rapid fire questions don't create serious conversation.
"(But,) you can tell whether you click," he said. "It's a good way to meet new people. If nothing else, you have a nice time. Everyone's here to have fun."
Other times the three minutes can feel way too long. Lombardi, who occasionally participates, has experienced such 'dates.'
"I said I wanted kids. He said he had a vasectomy. The date was over," she told The Economist.
Lombardi created Fast Dater Inc. in Chicago in May of 2001. Since then, Fast Dater has spread to 13 different cities in 10 different states, including Minneapolis and Duluth.
So far, Fast Dater has matched one marriage and dozens of happy couples.
For more information go to www.Fastdater.com
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