Singles invited to mass speed dating event

Singles invited to mass speed dating event

** Valentine's Day looking promising for singles this year **

4 February 2003, Auckland -- Cupid is preparing to stage one of the biggest matchmaking events in New Zealand: a mass speed dating party to help singles find a date for Valentine's Day.

Fast Impressions, New Zealand's newest and Australia's most established speed dating service, is hosting a special mass 'Find--a--Valentine' event on Thursday 12 February, where more than 60 singles will search for a perfect suitor while enjoying champagne and canapés.

Held at Coast Bar & Lounge in Auckland, 'Find-a-Valentine' will operate similarly to regular Fast Impressions events, where ten men, seated at individual tables, will date ten women for exactly eight minutes. When a gong is sounded, the women move onto the next table, and at the end of the evening, all guests note the names of people they want to see again. If the feeling is mutual, a match is generated and an email containing the contact details of each match is emailed the following day.

Founder of Fast Impressions Justin Parfitt says he's excited about introducing Kiwis to the speed dating concept, which is a firmly established and hugely popular way for busy single professionals to meet each other in London, New York and Australia.

"There's been a paradigm shift in dating and it's now more difficult than ever to meet compatible people to date. Fast Impressions was created so that single people who led busier and more transient lifestyles could meet other like--minded people in a fun, safe and sophisticated environment," says Parfitt.

Fast Impressions' events have a 90 percent match rate -- almost double that of other speed dating services. Its knack for getting it right was demonstrated at the first New Zealand event, held at Soul Bar in Auckland last November, where 18 of the 20 guests found a compatible match.

Parfitt attributes the high rate to its proprietary online matching software, which measures age and personality traits during the registration process to identify compatible groups of people.

"Rather than posting regular events, we wait for people to register, then our software places them into a group where their chances of gaining a match is the highest, and we create an event once enough compatible people have registered for a particular group," he says.

Launched in Sydney in October 2002, Fast Impressions is firmly established as Australia's leading speed dating service with over 700 singles attending events in eight different cities across the country.

Parfitt hopes to emulate the success in New Zealand and recently cemented a marketing relationship with New Zealand's number one online dating website NZDating.com.

"I'm delighted with the alliance as it enables us to collaborate and build upon our existing offers to deliver a unique dating service to the market," says Parfitt. "As the most established online dating site, NZDating.com also offers a wealth of experience and an acute understanding of the online dating market, which I'm thrilled to be privy to."

'Find-a-Valentine' and regular Fast Impressions' events cost approximately NZ$89 (AD$79) to attend and include complimentary champagne and canapés, as well as a $50 hair salon voucher.

As an incentive, NZDating.com customers will receive a discount of approximately NZ$11.50 (AD$10) to attend any Fast Impressions event

Registrations for Fast Impressions' events are conducted online. For more information or to register for an event, please visit: www.fastimpressions.com.au.