The speed dating format was invented in 1998 by a rabbi Jacob Devo from Los Angeles to help people wanting to get married and just to find a friend. The first party of mini-dating took place in Beverly Hills at the end of 1998 in Pete’s Café. Speed dating spread through the whole world very quickly as a revolutionary method of dating for successful, but loaded with work lonely professionals. In London parties take place full house, it’s practically impossible to get to the speed-dating zone without preliminary registration. In the USA parties with mini dating turned to a fashionable trend. Famous personalities visit them, they appear in movies: from ‘Sex and the City’, ‘Hitch’ to ‘The Simpsons.’ Such a manner of getting acquainted became very popular now in Russia. At the age of high tech people spend much time in front of computer screens. Methods of getting acquainted which were popular before are gradually pushed out. People communicate in the net more and more but it seldom leads to close relations. One can communicate online for a long time without having ever seen one’s partner’s face. The problem of live communication with the aim of acquaintance for making a family becomes more and more actual. Speed dating lets lonely men communicate with 10-15 lonely girls in one evening, know more about their hobbies, way of life, job.



Such events gained popularity in other cities of Russia because of their popularity. The first speed dating party which took place in Moscow in February 2009 gave a start to a new form of acquaintances in St. Petersburg, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Sochi, Orenburg, Vladivostok and Murmansk.

What is the secret of popularity of such dates in Russia?
- It’s an effective way of getting acquainted. Here you see a partner at once, can talk and understand him, and speak at once to the second and the third one. Several minutes are quite enough to understand much.
- It’s the best method of getting acquainted for busy people, for those who want to have a choice while getting acquainted and at the same time not to feel oneself in debt after a 5-minute talk.
- It’s an ideal opportunity not to waste time on endless search for love and happiness through the internet! It’s a real, live communication that doesn’t oblige to anything.
- It’s an economy of time. Just in an hour speed dating lets one get acquainted with a dozen of people of an opposite sex in a relaxed atmosphere and also just to have a good evening.
- It’s a good organization of dates. Organizers do their best to make the best choice of a group having collected participants according to their interests and age. All evenings of acquaintances are held to a light and pleasant music in a romantic atmosphere, every participant gets a glass of champagne. And all this helps one feel at ease and communicate easily with a partner.

Beginning with 2012 parties are held not in big cities of Russia only, but in provincial cities as well. Initiative groups in such cities as Stavropol, Cheboksari, Volgograd, Kaliningrad, Novgorod, Omsk, and Tula are involved in the whole Russia’s glut of speed dates.