Happy 1st Birthday Solo Connects

Wow, it's a year since Sam and I set up Solo Connects as we were sick of swiping! We had a fairly modest ambition, to get 20 people down the pub once a month. We are pretty well connected in Milton Keynes, so figured it'd be pretty easy to set up a monthly singles dating event in Milton Keynes.

Armed with a simple name, an EventBrite link and a ghost-town of a Facebook group, we set about event number one. Everybody who came along to that first event took a punt on two busy single mums who were set on doing dating differently and bringing back in person dating events in Milton Keynes.

You know when they say 'if you want something doing, give it to the busiest people?' Well...I'm not sure you'd find two busier people than Sam and I - Sam runs AskGoTo - a hugely successful advertising and networking business in Milton Keynes and beyond, plus Mum2Mum MK, a huge Facebook Group with 26,000 local members. I am a marketing consultant and have my own marketing business, Stop Random Acts of Marketing.

We knew that our combined skill and passion to create a different experience for daters in the city of Milton Keynes would be a successful combination, but OH MY GOD, we weren't expecting such a successful year 1.

Once we'd had such excellent feedback on event no1 (20 people down the pub), we quickly set about setting up event no2 (50 people down the pub). That was on Christmas Jumper Day and we sold out of the ladies tickets within 24 hours! The vibes were high...the singles of Milton Keynes wanted more! What was coming next!!

We quickly rolled up our sleeves and set about trademarking Solo Connects UK and working with a graphic designer to create our beautiful logo. With a few quick assets in place to safeguard us for future, we set about what we do best - creating fun and vibrant events for single people in Milton Keynes.

On a cold and frosty night in January, we managed to sell 150 tickets to our singles mixer at Warbler on the Wharf - in just seven weeks, we'd taken a corner of the bar (and they thought we were mad, but I was persistent when I booked it) and then we FILLED the whole of the top floor of the bar with single people from Milton Keynes. Honestly, it was minus ten outside, but everyone came out for a brilliant night - our Warbler events are one of our most popular and it's great to see everyone having a brilliant time.

That's a quick run down of our first three months (and the model we use to build the business) - since we started in November 2024, we've hosted over 50 events and sold approaching 5,000 tickets to single people looking for dating and friendship in Milton Keynes.

Our events range from party nights - our Valentine's RED Party, Solo Fest and Halloween Disco - all the way to coffee and cake for more casual meet ups and our membership events (always guaranteed for a laugh). You can check out our range of events on www.soloconnects.co.uk/events.

We are exceptionally proud of what we've created - from absolutely nothing. We love the community we have built and we'd like to thank each and every one of you for your time, commitment in our Facebook group and the support you all give each other. Whether that's celebrating a new love match, a dating disaster or something else in your life, we are all there for help and support.

We can't thank our supporters enough - and we are excited to see where year two is going to take us!