Solo Connects on Tour

After 18 incredible months of hosting over 150 award winning events for single people in Milton Keynes and surrounding areas, Sam & Rachel, the co-founders of Solo Connects decided to get on the road and experience life on the other side - as singles attending their first dating event.

Hoping to experience life from a first time dater's perspective (and maybe picking up a couple of hints and tips along the way), they thought it would be a great way to find out how their followers feel about coming along to dating events!

Here goes...

Rachel says: "I was really excited when I saw the opportunity to go to one of my favourite parts of the world and to experience a dating event. I booked a ticket for Sam and I and didn't actually check any of the finer details such as the ticket types or even what age group the event was for!

On the actual day, I looked it all up and saw the event was for 30's and 40's, but we did meet a number of people there who were younger than 30 and well into their 50's!"

Sam adds: "I was shocked when Rachel looked up the tickets and saw that there was just general admission and the tickets weren't split by men and women. As event organisers ourselves, we know how carefully we manage the ticket sales across each gender and often put ticket sales on hold so that another group (the over 40's men and the under 45's women) can catch up."

When the ladies got to the event, it was clear from the email communications where they had to go and they saw the host stood at the bottom of the stairs with a clipboard. They grabbed a drink first and then headed over, chatting to a few nervous looking ladies along the way.

Rachel had the tickets and the host ticked their names off. She said: "I asked the host if there was anything else we needed to know other than to head upstairs onto the terrace after collecting our free drink token. He said no, he'd never met us before and just let us pop upstairs. We didn't find out his name, he didn't give us any advice about the event or the venue or what to expect. It's lucky that we are pretty confident, but if you weren't, you may have struggled with what was set up upstairs.

Sam continues: "The setting was perfect - the sun was shining and we had great views of the sea. The other singles for the dating event were all pretty much sat down on the L shaped seating, so there wasn't much space to mix and mingle or to break into any conversations as people were already sat in fixed positions with little opportunity to break away from the person they were sat next to.

"We chatted to some lovely ladies and eventually invited a few guys (who were much younger than us) to come over for a chat, but once we went downstairs to grab a drink, we got chatting to two locals who were just in the bar (and not part of the event) and we ended up going for a dance as there was a DJ in the opposite side of the bar."

In summary, Rachel and Sam were disappointed. Having hoped to perhaps pick up a few ideas of how other hosts run their events, this attempt recieved Nil Points. There was no structure, just three hours of people sat awkwardly in their seats. No attempt from the host to engage the singles and get them moving around - they were all left to our own devices while he stood at the bottom of the stairs.

Rachel said: "We know it can be very difficult to go along to a dating event on your own - it takes a lot of courage to book the ticket and turn up for the first time. We pride ourselves on giving people a friendly welcome when they come in - we always ask if they are here for the first time (we can tell) and if they have come alone, we find other people for them to go and stand with and say hi, so that you don't have to break into a conversation (or just wait and sit on your own)."

Sam added: "We put name badges on so that you can remember people's names and for our 25 - 45's event, have a colour sticker so you can see who is in your age group (as that may be important information for you). We run games for about 30 minutes to help you mix and mingle and to break up the groups that everyone stands in at the start.

"We also go round the room several times to make sure that people aren't left alone and it's a brilliant way for us to connect with our customers to find out what they're experiencing when it comes to dating events. To be stood downstairs the entire time seems silly - it's a missed opportunity to get to know your customers."

Would Sam and Rachel go back to try another dating event - yes, absolutely. Regardless of the set up with the host (and we hear a lot of horror stories about bad hosts at dating events - not Solo Connects - just scrolling on their phones all night), they had brilliant fun simply because they made the best of the night, got out of their comfort zones and got chatting to loads of brilliant people.

If you'd like to check out the latest Solo Connects events, you can do that here!