What to expect from an award-winning dating events company?

Solo Connects was founded in 2024, the brain child of two single mum's from Milton Keynes (Samantha Poole and Rachel Allen), who were disillusioned with dating apps and thought it would be a lovely idea to 'get 20 single people down the pub once a month.'

That happened in November 2024, followed by 50 people in December - that's when the real fun and games started.

We've made a number of changes to our events in that time...find out more about how a Solo Connects event runs (sorry - a multi-award winning Solo Connects event).

Events are structured and age specific!

Back in the early days, our events used to be causal pub meet ups open to all ages. That was kinda cool, but we listened to the market and what people really wanted.

“Love the concept, but everyone is too old for me.”

We heard this A LOT and this is why we now split our Singles Mixer events into two groups - Over 40s and 25-45s.

This has been really successful and we are pleased with how both have grown.

We’ve got an overlap of five years either side on our age groups, and this feels really sensible to us. We are very strict on the upper limit of 45 and this is because we’ve had feedback from the ladies especially, that they don’t want to be in rooms with men twenty plus years older than them.

The guys feel the same - they are looking for women the same age as them; many are looking to find life-long partners.

When we do our 25-45 events, we split the group into two and the ice breaker games allow the 25-35 year olds to mix and then the 36-45 year olds to mix.

There is still plenty of time to chat to both groups at the bar, but we run the games in this way to help you see who you want to chat more to within a similar age bracket to you.

We run ice-breaker games (don't worry, they aren't cringey)!

On the subject of games, we do run an ice breaker game at about 8.15/8.30 every night once everyone is in and settled.

We noticed that when people come into our events, they do a few things:

• Chat with their mates

• Ladies will join a group of ladies and make some lovely friends

• Gents will join a group of gents and have a nice chat at the bar

• Some people stand on their own (and we pop over to make sure they’re ok)

If we didn’t run an ice breaker game, this is exactly what would happen ALL NIGHT.

And I’m pretty sure you are all coming along to meet other single people in your area.

Our games are literally designed to help you see who else is in the room and (depending on the numbers) have a very brief chat to find out a tiny detail about them.

It’s not speed dating, it’s designed to be quick so that you get to see who is in the room.

We also have name badges on because most people forget the names of everyone they meet - so trust us, this helps.

Music at comfortable levels

At most of our events, people are there to chat to singles and get to know them. They don't want their ears blasting off with loud music. Unless it's a party night, we make sure there is some comfortable background music and we turn it down when the games are on.

Accessible for all

Making sure our events are accessible for everyone (where possible) is really important for us. We try, wherever possible, to make sure that there is a lift if the space isn't on the ground floor, disabled toilets and that the venue and booking instructions are neurodiversity friendly.

We are always open to making sure that our guests needs are met as far as is possible.

Events with 100+ people in are noisy and can be overwhelming. But equally, some people love the buzz and opportunity to meet lots of single people.

If you have any specific requirements or questions about the event experience, then we'd love to hear from you via email ([email protected]).

We hope this helps you to understand how we run our events and why we set them up this way.

It’s not about excluding anybody, it’s about creating the right spaces so that you’ve all got the best chance of finding the right people for dating and friendship.

Ready to book your next event? Or event take that brave first step?
Here's the details to check out what's coming up in your area.