Speed Date

Mandhata Speed Date

How Speed Dating Works - The event is aimed at the youth of the Mandhata Koli Patel Community, aged between 23 to 35.  The hosts will formally welcome the participants and always be available to ensure that everyone feels relaxed and has a good time.  

Depending upon the total number of participants, each participant will have 3 minutes of face-to-face time, giving them the opportunity to talk to other like-minded people. There will be plenty of breaks for the participants to grab refreshments and mingle further with the other participants.

During the Speed Dating Event - Participants would be greeted on arrival by our Hosts and registered. Armed with their Information Pack, Speed Daters would then be escorted to the refreshment area where they would be welcomed by our Icebreaker hosts with a complimentary drink. After a short time in the refreshment area, the fun really begins when the speed dating starts!

Each participant will be issued with a badge with the participant’s number. The female participants will remain seated at their table throughout the speed dating, whilst the male participants will move clockwise between tables every 3 minutes.

At the end of each date, Speed Daters can mark on their scorecard whether or not they would like to see that person again, together with any comments they feel appropriate, to help jog their memory.

After the speed dating sessions have finished, there will be time to mingle with all the participants to get to know each other better and enjoy the rest of the evening in an the company of DJ Music and buffet. In addition, two hosts will approach individuals discretely to advise participants of matches.

After the Speed Dating Event -The scorecards will be collected to enable only two of the host organisers to see who you are matched with.

If someone you have "ticked" has also ticked you, then you both have a "match"!  Email addresses will then be exchanged. No other information will be given.  You can then contact your “match” via email and arrange to meet up again etc. etc.  The rest is up to you!

Note for Parents - Although this will be a supervised event, participants will be given the freedom to meet like minded people, within the same age category and Koli Patel community.   The event will be professionally organised by responsible adults.  We hope parents will support this event and encourage their children to attend this event, which we feel the participants will find appealing and ‘youth’ friendly.

Confidentially of all the participants will be maintained by the organisers at all times.  If you have any further questions or concerns regarding the event, please do not hesitate to contact the hosts via e-mail below.

Registration - Registration will be on a first come, first served basis.  

Hosts -  Your hosts,  Manisha H Patel (Dudley) and Hamel D Patel (Walsall)

Feedback

On the 1^st December 2007, Manisha and I hosted the first Mandhata Speed Date event in Wolverhampton for the youth of our society. 

The speed date event was held due to the feedback that we had both received from youths who were looking to get married in our community.   Many of them had attended the Mandhata Matrimonial that has been running for the past 13 years but felt that they needed another method of meeting potential partners.  Even though the Matrimonial events have been very successful, some of the youths felt that due to the large number of participants and the fact that parents are also present, the atmosphere was too tense and stressful.   It was set up to compliment the Matrimonial event and not replace it as both events appeal to different people.

We took it upon ourselves, with the support of AMUSK to organise the Speed Date event. As a pilot event, numbers were restricted to 52 participants (26 boys and 26 girls) and with and age group of 23-35.  This specific age category was decided upon due to feedback from talking to the youth of our community. The venue that we chose was a Bar/ restaurant, this was so that we could provide a venue which was comfortable and relaxing. 

We advertised the event at the National AMSUK AGM and also at the Matrimonial Event which was held two weeks prior.  Also, e-mails were sent to all Town youth leaders for them to pass on the details. 

As spaces were limited, we had to operate on a first come fists serve basis.   Also, we had set up an e-mail account whereby participants could inform us of their interest.  Following this, we would send details where they could register.

On the day we had the required numbers of participants, unfortunately we had to also turn away several people as we were not accepting participants who turned up on the day.  We had participants who had travelled from all over the U.K, even from as far as Essex 

The participants were greeted with a complimentary drink on arrival and once everyone had arrived and before the 1^st session started a quick 'ice breaker' was done.  This proved useful as it helped people relax and get talking.  The 2^nd session consisted the speed date, whereby each participant had 3 minutes to talk to the opposite sex and then move onto the next table. 

After the 2^nd session, a finger buffet was held whereby it gave an opportunity for the participants to mingle over dinner. 

The next session started with a Team event, the participants were split into 5 groups of 10.  Each team were given tasks to perform.  This proved a great success as it ensured that everyone had to mingle and work together to complete the tasks.     

Finally, participants were given the opportunity to mingle with each other and enjoy the evening entertainment and music.  In addition participants were advised to speak to the hosts if they required further information with reference to participants they were interested in.  Evaluation forms were also given out to gain feedback about the event.

After the event participant forms were analysed and only participants who had a match were contacted via email, providing email address’s from their prospective matches.  Due to data protection and confidentiality no other information was given.  In total 11 matches were observed.

Please refer to some of the positive comments and targets we observed from analysing our evaluation forms.

Evaluation Comments:

'Great structure, I would definitely come again and recommend it other family members.'

'Overall a good night to meet people within the community.  I personally found the environment more comfortable then the 'formal' matrimonial.'

'The activities were definitely a good way to break the ice.'

'I definitely would attend other events.'

Evaluation Targets:

‘I think more activities to get people involved and talking to one another.  Other than that it was a nice relaxed event.’

'A couple of minutes longer for each date.'

‘Time given for guys to write down names/members between tables.’

'Have it later, more central England / London.'

Overall this was a highly successful event and very much appreciated from participants and parents from our community. 

Hamel D. Patel (Walsall)
Manisha H. Patel (Dudley)