Love in the air at first-ever Humber speed-dating event
Romantic music, fresh pizza and pink punch welcomed a crowd of over 70 students– more than double the expected number – all lined up to get into Humber College and Guelph-Humber’s first speed dating event Oct. 18.
Humber’s Student Federation held the event to give students the chance to mingle with peers and make new friends on campus. Many diverse young men and women shuffled into the small room, some in suits and dresses; some casual in jeans and tees, all ready to put themselves out there for a chance to find love, friendship or experience something new.
Reasons for attending the speed-dating event varied for each individual. First year Humber student Hailey Tucker came with some fellow floor-mates and thought it would be a great way to get to know people on campus. She said, “I’m just here for fun. If I get something out of it then I do but if I don’t that’s OK too.” While others, like John Ferris, a first year journalism student came looking for something more, “I’m here to find a girlfriend, and of course eat some free food.”
With all the digital dating tools romantic hopefuls now have, like Match.com, eHarmony and the always-classic Tinder dating app, the connection gets lost in between. Bars have become a place of “pick-ups” rather than a place to find a future partner.
But the stigma of speed-dating is obviously fading: event organizers had to cut off the amount of students at the door after the first 30 sets of couples signed in.
Host Laura Billota is the owner of Single in the City, a professional matchmaking company that holds speed-dating events all over the Greater Toronto Area. Billota said “Speed-dating is great because people who normally go speed-dating are serious about meeting someone.”
This is how it works; when you arrive at the event you are given a nametag and a piece of paper with a space for each person’s first name and a tick box next to it. Each date is timed for eight minutes. There is no personal exchange of phone numbers or emails. After each individual speed date, you write down the name of the person’s that you just met. If you’d like to go on a longer, private date with them outside of the speed-dating event, tick the checkbox, if you aren’t interested in getting to know them better, no checkmark. At the end of the night you’ll be asked to hand in this paper. If someone else showed interest that you were also interested in, the speed dating company will then provide the two of you with some form of contact information (usually by email) to initiate another date.
Speed-dating tends to have a stereotyped stigma attached to it including the blind-date nightmares and subjecting yourself to a bad partner or worse, rejection. But Adrian Robinson, a third year kinesiology student disagrees, “People go to the club to meet a girl what’s the difference this is just a little more organized. People don’t think it’s a bad thing to go to the bar and meet a girl but when they come to a sober setting they try to meet somebody they think all the sudden it’s awkward or weird. At the end of the day it’s just another way to meet a girl.”
Billota said the perception of events such as this is changing, “It’s definitely changed from the past. It’s becoming more of a conventional way to meet people. Just like online dating has become conventional so has speed dating because it’s harder to meet people these days.”
About the Author
Laura Breiter is a third year journalism student at Guelph-Humber. After she graduates she plans on pursuing a career in magazine writing.
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