Author Topic: Speed Dating: Need Imput (Read 9307 times)

Deviant Spider · « **on:** December 16, 2008, 03:30:09 pm »

Ok, so last year we tried to do speed dating and it did not run as smoothly as I would have liked.

We made it 18+ so that 16 year olds wouldnt be hooked up with 30 year olds, and cause issues. But I have heard from MANY that want an 17 and under speed dating panel. I think this is a good Idea, but I may or may not be able to activly run both.

Other conserns I have regard non hetrosexual people. At last year I had "people interested in females" (male or female) on one side, and "People interested in Males" (Male or female) on the other. That failed miserably. I am beginning to feel that I have to seperate the interest into a het area and a non het area. I really want to include people of various orientation but Im not sure how to do this.

Also, people tend to leave durring the panel. (They try it out and get bored, etc) And to keep numbers even we had to keep getting people from the halls outside the doors. Our biggest drop were straight females, All the straight males seemed to stay, and the only people in our line outside the door, were straight males. I felt bad. We couldnt keep up.

Anyone have thoughts or Ideas? Or wants to help me? lol

oslapedo · « **Reply #1 on:** December 16, 2008, 03:40:53 pm »

I think that it would be good to have one for people under 18. Being hooked up with a 30 year old would indeed be odd

Seperating the groups based on orientation might be a good idea, but I know personally I wouldn't care either way. It's all for fun, right? I've never been in any of this before but I assume it's purpose isn't to actually date people.

I wouldn't mind helping you out with this, I'm just a bit clueless on it xD

Deviant Spider · « **Reply #2 on:** December 16, 2008, 03:47:28 pm »

Pretty much we paired up people and they got 3 min to talk, then we made them rotate. We used the examples "What is your favorite anime...etc" as ice breakers. I think most people go to just meet new people. I didnt observe tons on individual conversations and if people exchanged numbers I didnt see it. But we did have LOTS of people questioning orientation equality. I had a few bisexual individuals ask "can I switch half way through?" I was a bit stumped. I toyed with changing the name to Speed Friending or something different, I just cant come up with a better name that people would recognise. If I could get out of the "Dating" feel I wouldnt have to worry about orientation.

oslapedo · « **Reply #3 on:** December 16, 2008, 03:52:48 pm »

Speed friending sounds sweet~

Maybe at the half way point there could be an option to switch? And the people who were fine with how things were could stay and the discontent ones could change :3

Deviant Spider · « **Reply #4 on:** December 16, 2008, 03:56:01 pm »

then we would have to pull more people from outside the door, It kills the balance. Its hard to go outside and shout "I need a gay girl/guy or straight guy/girl" without raising a few eyebrows. lol

nikkiolie · « **Reply #5 on:** December 16, 2008, 09:33:59 pm »

I don't know.....I am very cautious about meeting anyone for the first time and some guys that are interested in anime and that would be at a con tend to come off a little strong and almost creepy like. Though some are just fine. If you can work the kinks out that would be great but I don't think it is anything I will ever participate in =/

bloodrock · « **Reply #6 on:** December 16, 2008, 10:30:21 pm »

I would just split it into the different sections, because it's not inherently offensive and would make things run much more smoothly.

Perhaps you could leave cards, printouts, etc. around with blanks for contact info. Tell people to offer their contact info if they're interested, not ask for their partner's...

Did you have a line on the wall for the surplus people of whatever genders? Rotate everyone through the tables and the lines, maybe?

BangBangNeko · « **Reply #7 on:** January 04, 2009, 04:01:25 am »

If you need help just let me know. I have a 16 -17 yr old daughter so me and my wife could help run one for that age group.
Call it speed chit chat! Speed dating sounds like its for "players" or for single peeps my age. Give me time and I can come up with a better title. Ghost in the Shell is on the telly gotta go.

melchizedek · « **Reply #8 on:** January 12, 2009, 10:34:39 am »

Yeah, I guess speed dating sounds kinda sketch

nikkiolie · « **Reply #9 on:** January 12, 2009, 11:04:03 am »

I mean if it is done properly I don't think it would be too bad, but there needs to be two groups 17- and 18+

SageBell · « **Reply #10 on:** January 12, 2009, 09:08:37 pm »

so said ppl have a name tag or number??
they should have color coated ones.. like if interested in boys they wear blue.. If interested in girls they wear pink
and if fine either way maybe both colors or like a yellow.

venightmare · « **Reply #11 on:** February 02, 2009, 08:13:26 pm »

SageBell has a novel idea. and if two groups is too complicated we could have the tags have two colors, one to devide minors from adults

suppose the color coding for age could be black (adults) and white (minors)

this way, when the person you are pairing steps up, if they are black or white, only the same shade can be paired up

example
______________
| | |
|pink | black |
|_____|______|

sounds good?

Deviant Spider · « **Reply #12 on:** February 02, 2009, 09:24:04 pm »

All ideas worth looking into. Im seriously thinking of having 2 different panels. A 18+ speed dating panel and a 17- speed "meet up".

I would only have to deal with orientation on the 18+ panel but I fear we will have the same issue as last year. Last year we had Tons of people interested in males (mostly females) leave throughout the panel. And a line of people only interested in girls (mostly guys). I feel bad for all the guys in line that never got in cause none of the straight guys left the panel. And we just couldnt keep the room stocked with straight girls. lol.

venightmare · « **Reply #13 on:** February 02, 2009, 09:46:51 pm »

did you say locked? hmmm... that gives me ideas... (no horned smily... damn..)

always happes i suppose... maybe if the ladies get their picks they might stay... you know how capricious women can be

Hentai Cupcake · « **Reply #14 on:** April 15, 2009, 07:26:20 pm »

lol sadly the male side of otakudom tends to be a bit akward and clumsy when paired with a cute female otaku hehe, maybe before it starts go over topics to discuss and ways to talk and act? I'd be happy to help with that

I think a 18+ and a 17 and under are a good idea, was kinda odd the few times a 16 year old would give me their number with me being 25 hah, puts ya in a akward position lol.

Keeping women in the panel is probly the hardest thing casue not alot ya can do about that, just got to hope there are people there that will enjoy themseleves and just have fun and relax. letting women pick probly wont work thou because most women will all crowd around the most popular guys and the other guys wont have anyone to talk to and will be a mess.

venightmare · « **Reply #15 on:** April 15, 2009, 09:55:44 pm »

you are telling me, it seems like jailbait is the only thing interested in me XP

Serika · « **Reply #16 on:** April 17, 2009, 04:25:32 pm »

Quote from: Deviant Spider on February 02, 2009, 09:24:04 pm

I would only have to deal with orientation on the 18+ panel but I fear we will have the same issue as last year.

Why? There are people who are gay who are under 18. It's not like we have to vote to "be gay" at a certain age...

I'd be interested in doing this, but as I'm only interested in girls and I'm not 18 that may not be doable.

To be honest, a speed "meet-up" doesn't sound like you'll get a lot of people that excited about it. Sure, doing a dating game for 17 year olds and under sounds a little creepy and you don't want things to get illegal... But if we want to go meet people and hang out, it's really easy to just waltz into whatever park is nearby, join the glomp circle, and introduce yourself. There's a speed meet-up right there, and there weren't any panel forms necessary plus it's open basically the entire time (until curfew of course). It's different with the intention of meeting someone to possibly date. A speed meet-up for 17- year olds is going to be a little unpopular I think, and whoever does go is going to be a little bit on the shyer side. Like, a formal meeting up as opposed to just introducing themselves to someone. Having an actual dating panel would be a little more interesting and appealing, and I have a feeling that spontaneous teens would have no problem circulating in and out as the event wore on.
Anyways, that's just my input and I'm not speaking for everyone my age...

Cassiopeia · « **Reply #17 on:** April 18, 2009, 02:36:54 am »

Quote from: Serika on April 17, 2009, 04:25:32 pm

To be honest, a speed "meet-up" doesn't sound like you'll get a lot of people that excited about it. Sure, doing a dating game for 17 year olds and under sounds a little creepy and you don't want things to get illegal... But if we want to go meet people and hang out, it's really easy to just waltz into whatever park is nearby, join the glomp circle, and introduce yourself. There's a speed meet-up right there, and there weren't any panel forms necessary plus it's open basically the entire time (until curfew of course). It's different with the intention of meeting someone to possibly date. A speed meet-up for 17- year olds is going to be a little unpopular I think, and whoever does go is going to be a little bit on the shyer side. Like, a formal meeting up as opposed to just introducing themselves to someone. Having an actual dating panel would be a little more interesting and appealing, and I have a feeling that spontaneous teens would have no problem circulating in and out as the event wore on.
Anyways, that's just my input and I'm not speaking for everyone my age...

On the flip side, I'd be interested in just a meet-up. I have made it a new goal to make friends at the con, but it's hard to just start a conversation with someone randomly imo. The people who go to this would be interested in meeting others. That being said, the speed dating panels usually just end up being speed meet-ups in that no one actually gets together that way in the end. And you've got a point about the circulation.

Deviant Spider · « **Reply #18 on:** April 18, 2009, 03:10:06 pm »

Quote from: Serika on April 17, 2009, 04:25:32 pm

Quote from: Deviant Spider on February 02, 2009, 09:24:04 pm
I would only have to deal with orientation on the 18+ panel but I fear we will have the same issue as last year.

Why? There are people who are gay who are under 18. It's not like we have to vote to "be gay" at a certain age...

I'd be interested in doing this, but as I'm only interested in girls and I'm not 18 that may not be doable.

I meant absoulotly no disrespect to orientation under 18. That was only in responce to the idea of a under 18 speed meet up. If we put more emphasis on meeting new people (any new people) and not on the dating aspect than we wouldnt need to focus on orientation at all. That would be the same if we had an over 18 meet up as opposed to a speed dating panel.

If we did do an under 18 speed dating panel than we would have to take things like orientation into consideration of course but I still feel that we wouldnt get as much attention by our shyer cosplayers.

Great Ideas everyone! They are really helpful in trying to understand what people want. Nothing is set in stone yet so keep those opinions comming.

Hentai Cupcake · « **Reply #19 on:** April 23, 2009, 11:24:54 am »

maybe make a few polls? that way people could vote on what they would like, be another way to get some feedback.

PaperShredderchan · « **Reply #20 on:** July 10, 2009, 12:41:20 am »

^{I like this idea ! Haha, I'm 13, and this just sounds like way too much fun! XD
Easy, simple way to make friends :3}

leonmasteries · « **Reply #21 on:** July 30, 2009, 09:55:12 am »

it does sound interesting, I'll try it out, why not. But if you do try and make a 17- speed thing, it should be just a meet up, but definitely make one, it's a lot more fair on those who can't quite participate in the adult activities, but do put a limit on how young it can be, id say the cut off should be 13 as the youngest that can enter, because their at least old enough to wander around (even tho that's still a bit young, I figure it would be easier, because of the fact they have a separate type of badge) But the reason I bring up the cut off for the younger one is because I don't think a lot of parents would approve of their 12 year old doing a speed meet up thing, but I could be wrong on that.

Jarnan · « **Reply #22 on:** September 01, 2009, 11:54:23 am »

Seems to me you want a speed-mingling, not a speed-dating. The goal is to get people to meet new folks without being awkward about it. Make it a mingling session, dont bring the word date into it at all, so you dont have to worry about orientation, and you probably wont even have to worry about age if there is no romantic/pairing theme to the event, since there are plenty of 16-17 year olds who can be mature enough to engage in simple conversations.

Meganekko · « **Reply #23 on:** September 08, 2009, 09:15:45 pm »

haha, "Speed Friending" I like that!

That sounds less sketch and then you don't have to worry about orientations and ages so much. You could divide it up by looking for Male or looking for Female friends.

camname21 · « **Reply #24 on:** September 10, 2009, 01:36:41 am »

Did we have a speed dating/friending this year?

Slash5150 · « **Reply #25 on:** September 10, 2009, 02:53:41 am »

I wouldn't mind something like this..wouldn't object to finding a lady that has an interest in a photographer and gamer ^_^

Meganekko · « **Reply #26 on:** September 10, 2009, 12:41:08 pm »

Quote from: Slash5150 on September 10, 2009, 02:53:41 am

I wouldn't mind something like this..wouldn't object to finding a lady that has an interest in a photographer and gamer ^_^

<---- Hi!

Actually I'm really interested in doing this, be it friending or dating. It sounds fun.

tsukiyume1209 · « **Reply #27 on:** September 10, 2009, 10:10:07 pm »

I think a speed dating thing would be cool.

Perhaps those that are hooked up from it could go to a restaurant near by or something?

camname21 · « **Reply #28 on:** September 10, 2009, 10:41:14 pm »

Would be cool to meet people this way, more on the friendly side. But if it was a dating thing, I could always act real goofy just for kicks. ^.^

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Author Topic: Speed Dating: Need Imput (Read 9307 times)

oslapedo

oslapedo