Speed dating comes to Conway [07/08/2006]

By Dena Libner

A national trend is hitting North Conway later this month: The Up Country Restaurant & Tavern will be hosting the first ever Carroll County speed-dating event."Speed dating" is becoming increasingly popular as a way for singles, nationwide, to meet and date. In a single location, a man or woman can go on more than a dozen "dates" ranging in length from two to six minutes. "Up until March, Cupid.com was only hosting events in larger areas like New York, California and Florida," explained Lori Lombardo, spokesperson for Cupid.com. "Now, we're trying to reach every part of the state so that our participants can meet others that are local to them."Besides North Conway, Cupid.com has scheduled speed-dating events in Laconia, Rochester, Keene, Salem and Nashua."Events are booked according to customer demand. That's how we ended up booking in Conway," Lombardo said. "Our regular online members were notified that we were coming to New Hampshire, and asked us to have an event in Conway. "We have lots of Cupid.com members in that neck of the woods," she added.The North Conway speed-dating event is for single professionals between the ages of 32 and 59. Twenty-four men and 24 women will meet at The Up Country on Route 16 in North Conway. They'll be seated, interview-style, across from one another at a table. For the next six minutes, they can chit-chat, introduce themselves to the other, and discover whether or not they feel any initial spark or interest or attraction. Then a bell rings. Each man and woman "discreetly" indicates, on a piece of paper, whether they'd like to see their "date" again. Then the men stand, move to the next table, and go on another six-minute date. In the end, each person at the event will have gone on at least one dozen dates in less than 90 minutes. Exhausting? Maybe. But it could also be exhilarating.At the July 26 event, participants will be divided into two age brackets: 32-45, and 46-59. No 32-year-old, for example, will go on a "date" with anyone 46 or older; no 45-year-old will either, for that matter. There will be at least six men and six women in each age bracket."The age brackets are a general guideline," said Lombardo. "We have found that most people are comfortable meeting people within a 10- to 12-year age difference."We occasionally have a few people that request to attend a session out of their age group, and we try to accomodate their requests, but we have found that most of the participants don't like to meet others beyond a 12-year age difference," she added. North Country residents younger than 32 or older than 59 are out of luck, at least until this fall. On Sept. 27, another speed-dating event will be held at The Up Country, and a younger age bracket will be organized; single professionals between the ages of 21 and 32 years old will have a chance to PreDate."We booked according to customer demand for the first Conway session," Lombardo said. "We simply had no requests from the under-30 crowd, so we booked for our two upper age brackets. "We have a hard time filling events for the under-30 crowd," she continued. "We have found that those under age 30 are still willing to hang out at bars and nightclubs to meet people. We are geared toward the busy, single professional who is tired of the bar scene, and doesn't know where else to meet quality dates."PreDating has been embraced nationwide, perhaps because it takes an intimidating aspect of dating out of the equation: rejection. After the event, participants have five days to tell Cupid.com which people they're interested in meeting again. Cupid.com e-mails each participant a list of men or women who are interested in a second date. It's up to each individual to accept and organize a second date. The nearest Cupid.com speed dating events, until now, have been hosted in Portland, Maine and Manchester. The Mount Washington Valley is tiny compared to those cities what are the chances that the predating event would draw enough people?According to the Cupid.com Web site, almost all of the seats for the older age bracket 46 to 59 are filled. There remain only three open seats for men; interested women will have to sign up to be on a waiting list.A significant number of open seats remain for the 32- to 45-year-old age bracket. Speed dating, according to the Cupid.com Web site, is a true dating facilitator. Normally, when two people meet each other, the situation is uncertain. What is he looking for, or ready for? a woman might wonder. Or, for example, a man might not know whether a woman is available; he may avoid asking her directly, for fear of rejection. But at speed dating, a few basic rules ease any awkwardness. Everyone must be single, for example. And it can be assumed that everyone's reason for attending the PreDating event is the same: they're all interested in meeting someone new. "We invite people to come and mingle before the event starts, so that they can start to break the ice with the other participants. Most people are very nervous if they have never been to an event before but, once we get things started, everyone loosens up and has a great time. "We have a high success rate at matching couples," Lombardo finished. "Most particpants meet more than one person at the event that they have interest in."If interested in signing up for or receiving more information on Cupid.com PreDating events, go to www.Cupid.com/PreDating. Online registration is required.