Speed dating presents singles with buffet of potential partners By David Benda
Shasta County singles, Ron Chambers feels your pain.
Chambers says meeting single men and women here is more than a challenge. It's a social problem.
So the 26-year-old Redding native has come home to help singles find their love connection.
Chambers has started Connections, a business that will host speed dating events. Speed dating is like going on several first dates in the span of about 90 minutes.
While the concept is new to Redding, it's been around for years and is popular in larger cities. Companies like 8minuteDating, Five-Minute Affair, Pre-Dating, Couple Minutes and MyBeatingHeart host events around the country, enticing customers with promises of a fast, fun and affordable evening.
"I think people who are focused a lot on their careers realize they don't have as many friends as they did in college," said Chambers, a Chico State University graduate who recently left San Diego. "They
may have tried Internet dating, but there was really no chemistry. You might
spend a lot of time talking on the phone, but once you meet them you can decide
in a couple of minutes whether you have chemistry."
That's why Chambers believes speed dating will ring true for single men and women in Shasta County, many of whom don't have the time or the energy to take the traditional path to dating.
A Connections-hosted event will cost $35, which includes two drinks, appetizers and up to 10 seven-minute dates without dealing with the cacophony of one-liners at a bar or hopping from chat room to chat room on the Internet.
Most speed dates take place at a restaurant or bar. At the sound of a bell, you start talking to the person seated across from you. When the time is up, you move onto the next person, or date.
Each person wears a name tag and has a card that's used to keep score. At the
end of the night, the event host collects the cards, which also have contact
information. Results are tabulated and e-mailed to each participant. Contact
information is only given if both parties marked "yes" on their scorecard.
Chambers said he has a database of about 60 people, the majority of whom are women between the ages of 40 and 50. Most men who've contacted Chambers are between 30 and 40. Connections has been advertising its services for about a month.
Lorry Livingston called Connections at the behest of her 21-year-old daughter, Christy. Christy became smitten with the idea of speed dating after she heard the advertisement for Connections.
Livingston, who turns 41 today, is nervous but willing to give it a try. The Redding resident has been divorced for 11 years. She figures she's gone on eight dates over the past year.
"It's hard to be 40 almost 41 and have to go back to the dating scene," Livingston said. "What
are you going to get by going to a bar? Probably somebody who drinks, and if
you don't drink, that's something you don't want."
Chambers became a disciple of speed dating after attending an event in San Diego.
"Speed dating is awesome. I actually got to sit down and talk to a bunch of girls and tell them about why I think I am cool," he
said.
Chambers, who is single, met nine women that evening and said he found three
matches. "The last girl I talked to I 'fell in love' with. She was
gorgeous and an engineer too," he reported. Each date lasted nine
minutes.
But not every date was positive. "The second girl I talked to, she was 29, I
was 26," he
recalled. "The
first thing she said was 'how old are you?' I said 'does it matter?' She said
'yes.' At that point we could have just stopped talking."
Chambers said you're guaranteed to get at least one match or the next Connections
event is free. This is a "no-risk" perk that most speed dating companies promise.
Meeting your match:
The first Connections speed-dating event will be for 25- to 35-year-olds and
will take place 7 p.m. Feb. 26 at Nello's Place in Redding. For more information
about Connections or to sign up for an event, call 1-888-247-4468 or go to www.reddingconnections.com
David Benda can be reached at 225-8219 or dbenda@redding.com.
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