Ari
05-31-2010, 08:56 AM
Last monday I helped at the 6th ever poly speed dating event in the whole entire world. It was another success and we managed to pack a club full of all kinds of poly people, a number of tipsy poly people.
Polyamory is a type of nonmonagamy where people choose to have more than one relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved. These relationships can span from just messing around to married/partner and anywhere in between, generally lacking the end goal of 'choosing just one'.
This means that the current concept of speed dating, with all the women sitting down and the men rotating to each table after 4-6 minute rounds just isn't going to work for poly people of assorted gender orientations. Things would need to be different and computated, thus came along a statistics Grad who had a dream. What if he wrote an algorithm that matched and sorted multiple preferences of people and then assigned them on 5 minute dates with each other? Unfortunately for this already saturated man he is friends with multiple organizers and programmers and they jumped on this idea. We call him 'the man in the hat.' He pulls the strings behind the computer. Often our jobs are just to keep people away from him so he can get it all working right... again.
The entire concept is based on technology, if we didn't have the program or a laser printer to quickly print out people's date lists it wouldn't happen with any sort of accuracy. Since it's based on technology we always screw at least one person over with a funky set of dates or the wrong gender, etc. But don't worry, The man in the hat will get them drunk or free food, which at 12 bucks to get into the event, that's a decent deal.
The event is very front heavy, lots of planning, organization, setup, check-in and hoping that nothing crashes and burns while any of the number crunching is going on and then a bunch of people go on dates and you can sit back, relax and watch the daters go crazy.
Straight Men are occasionally a pain. Mostly those that complain about cutting off registration. If we didn't need the space I think all straight men that complain should be assigned dates only with other straight men who complained as an example of why we cut off straight male registration so quickly. It's not because we hate them but because there are too many of them for the size of the event. Oh and don't be a dick and trick a women to the event just so you can get in. That will get you baninated from the event so fast. Luckily most people we get are nice people and you can tell that The Man in the Hat gets a thrill out of seeing them smile and enjoy in the overall sillyness that has gotten them to a poly speed dating event.
It's an enjoyable event and it always tries to improve on itself which makes it worth charging my steep price of an icecream from the local gelato place to help out. It's also fun to convince people to go to it.
The man in the Hat. Pepper, organizer. and DangerKitty, Registration desk and Anger Dpt.
http://www.photographerari.com/psd/Luke_photo.jpghttp://www.photographerari.com/psd/pep_photo.jpghttp://www.photographerari.com/psd/jen_photo.jpg
-Ari
Polyamory is a type of nonmonagamy where people choose to have more than one relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved. These relationships can span from just messing around to married/partner and anywhere in between, generally lacking the end goal of 'choosing just one'.
This means that the current concept of speed dating, with all the women sitting down and the men rotating to each table after 4-6 minute rounds just isn't going to work for poly people of assorted gender orientations. Things would need to be different and computated, thus came along a statistics Grad who had a dream. What if he wrote an algorithm that matched and sorted multiple preferences of people and then assigned them on 5 minute dates with each other? Unfortunately for this already saturated man he is friends with multiple organizers and programmers and they jumped on this idea. We call him 'the man in the hat.' He pulls the strings behind the computer. Often our jobs are just to keep people away from him so he can get it all working right... again.
The entire concept is based on technology, if we didn't have the program or a laser printer to quickly print out people's date lists it wouldn't happen with any sort of accuracy. Since it's based on technology we always screw at least one person over with a funky set of dates or the wrong gender, etc. But don't worry, The man in the hat will get them drunk or free food, which at 12 bucks to get into the event, that's a decent deal.
The event is very front heavy, lots of planning, organization, setup, check-in and hoping that nothing crashes and burns while any of the number crunching is going on and then a bunch of people go on dates and you can sit back, relax and watch the daters go crazy.
Straight Men are occasionally a pain. Mostly those that complain about cutting off registration. If we didn't need the space I think all straight men that complain should be assigned dates only with other straight men who complained as an example of why we cut off straight male registration so quickly. It's not because we hate them but because there are too many of them for the size of the event. Oh and don't be a dick and trick a women to the event just so you can get in. That will get you baninated from the event so fast. Luckily most people we get are nice people and you can tell that The Man in the Hat gets a thrill out of seeing them smile and enjoy in the overall sillyness that has gotten them to a poly speed dating event.
It's an enjoyable event and it always tries to improve on itself which makes it worth charging my steep price of an icecream from the local gelato place to help out. It's also fun to convince people to go to it.
The man in the Hat. Pepper, organizer. and DangerKitty, Registration desk and Anger Dpt.
http://www.photographerari.com/psd/Luke_photo.jpghttp://www.photographerari.com/psd/pep_photo.jpghttp://www.photographerari.com/psd/jen_photo.jpg
-Ari