When the country was forced into Lockdown back in March 2020, we had to quickly adapt our business model to adjust to the new normal.

We were proud to be the first Speed Dating company in the UK to launch ‘Virtual Speed Dating’ and the initial response we had from our customers was positive. Throughout the first lockdown period we held 57 online events with over 1,000 people taking part. To date, we have organized over 150 Virtual Speed Dating events and more than 3,000 people have logged in.

The height of the first lockdown saw our busiest events taking place with some attracting over 40 people but as restrictions were eased in summer and people could finally meet friends in the park or enjoy a takeaway pint there was an obvious decline in interest for our service.

As we entered the second lockdown in November, we saw a brief uptick in demand which tailed off in December. We were very hopeful that our business would be able to open at full capacity in January but unfortunately with the discovery of the new variant this was not to be. Fortunately, the lead up to Valentines Day is always the busiest period for singles events and this year it was no different.

On February 14th we organized the ‘World’s Largest Virtual Speed Dating’ event which saw over 200 singles login and connect through our online platform. Unfortunately for us since then there has been a significant decrease in popularity for our online events. We can only put this down to the good weather and continued relaxation of social restrictions. We also know many of you are still working from home and no doubt sick and tired of staring at a screen all day long!

With Boris Johnson announcing the roadmap out of lockdown we now know when we can resume our live events (hooray!), and this gives hope for our business but is there a future for Virtual Speed Dating? The short answer is, we are not sure.

We think Virtual Speed Dating has its place in the market (because we think it is a great way to meet people!) but it is never going to replace our live events because it cannot replicate the live experience.

From April we have decided to scale back our online operation and will only be hosting these events on Sunday nights which is typically the only day of the week when we would not organize an in-person Speed Dating event.

We are also looking at ways in which we can utilize our online platform in conjunction with face-to-face Speed Dating to create a hybrid event but stay tuned for more on that.

If you’ve not had a chance to check out our Virtual Speed Dating events, then there is still time! Tickets cost only £5-10 and you can expect to meet around 10-12 people each for 5 minutes. Our events take place using Zoom and all you need is a smartphone or laptop to take part. For more information, please see our FAQ.