Every day we get emails from customers requesting that we run a speed-dating event with a theme that fits with their interests, lifestyle or ethnic background.  Obviously, we would love to run events that has the perfect theme, age range and location for everyone, but we have to be sure we can fill the event - this blog it intended to give some background detailing what we think about when posting events.

Firstly, the advantage of themed events is that the participants at least know that they have a foundation of common interests (in the case of events not themed on an ethnic basis).  For example, at our "Creative and Artistic Singles" events, everyone attending knows that they are more likely to meet right-brained creative types than bankers, IT professionals and lawyers (though of course, this is a generalization).  The six minutes of conversation perhaps have a focus not present at a generic "Single Professionals" event, as the pair chat about their respective hobbies or careers.

The disadvantage is that we are narrowing the range of people who are willing to attend, meaning there is a danger that the event is smaller, or can not be filled.  This is only really a problem if the theme is little obscure - we have, for example, not problem filling our "Active and Athletic Singles" event, as New Yorkers are such a fit bunch.  But other requests are not as easy to accommodate.

Take, for example, an e-mail today from a customer:
"I would be interested in events on the Upper West Side [no problem!], for healthy eaters [a good suggestion, perhaps we could do that], and for people who are interested in Chinese Zodiac signs [um, sorry, no]".

Unfortunately we had to write back to this customer and concede that we would unlikely fill an event for singles interested in Chinese Zodiac signs.  For us to consider a theme, we would need to have had customers ask for it at least a dozen times across the years.  In addition, we would need to feel that both men and women would like to come to it, so we would hope that the customers requesting the event are a mix of both genders.