So, it’s the event that’s been on everybody’s lips: Date Escapes. Yes people – it happened! Last Wednesday (7th March 2018), CLiKD held their very first ultra speed dating event with the ULTIMATE twist…at the end of the night, 4 of the newly met matches were sent on a holiday together to a mystery destination in partnership with ATO-Tours! I know what you must be thinking: “SERIOUSLY?!’ I also know that you must have a lot of questions. So, fear not, I’m here to explain all.

Typically, it was rainy London evening, 32 lucky daters filtered into Broadgate’s Theatre Delicatessen hoping for one thing (or maybe two): the anticipation of meeting the love of their life (and the potential of a free holiday too and escaping the London gloom). It was match making fast forwarded, for the adventurous and spontaneous daters out there.

The Prep

We knew that this would be an unmissable event, but I don’t think the CLiKD team ever expected to be so inundated with entries – our inbox was on fire! After 32 lucky daters were shortlisted, they were asked to send in their three questions from the app. Those sent in included some of CLiKD’s favourites such as ‘Go with the flow or plan before you go?’. The beauty of our app was coming alive and it was pretty wonderful to see that everyone looks for something different when it comes to meeting their match.

Arrivals

The night had come. The venue was set up and it’s pretty safe to say, we were buzzing! Prosecco was flowing and candles were lit in the hope of igniting a flame between the daters (sorry). Anyway, upon arrival, the jittery daters were first asked to answer the CLiKD questions for those who would be sitting across the table from them. Simple – armed with a quiz, a pen and three questions for each prospective date, they got down to quiz-ness (no..? anyway…)

Dating Time

Ok, it was now time to start chatting. The attendees were ushered to their seats by our host – CLiKD CEO, Michael Blakeley. The couples had an intense 3 minutes to get the low down on each other. They asked all the important questions to ascertain whether they could see themselves sight-seeing and sipping sangrias in the coolest bar whilst holiday-ing it up together in an unknown destination. When the buzzer went, the daters had to circle ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to going away with the person sitting opposite them.

Our daters getting to know each other

Meanwhile…

We had some pretty exciting guests on the night, including Madeleine Mason Roantree – a dating and Relationship Psychologist, and Director of PassionSmiths.com. We spoke to Madeleine to get her take on the night. She told us “Date Escapes is a fantastic idea and really encapsulates the fun side of CLiKD! Trying something novel such as speed dating will excite the senses, and can increase the feel-good hormone dopamine.  Studies have also shown you are more likely to meet a partner at a speed dating event than hanging around cafe!” Awesome, thanks Madeleine!

The Results

Now came the most teeth-chattering, and nail-biting bit for our daters. It was time to find out who was jetting off with someone they’d just met – 8 of the attendees were in for a shock. The CLiKD team had some work to do and after some very advanced statistical analysis of the results which I won’t bore you with…but lets just say, it involved a lot of data input and speedy calculations by our Business Development Manager, we had our winners.

It was a great night, and we saw that our personality test actually worked really well when compared with discussions in real life. Need proof? Well, 70% of those who said ‘Yes’ to each other after their 3 minute date had passed each others CLiKD test, and of those who said no to each other after 3 mins, 72% had failed each others CLiKD test. So there we have it! Date Escapes was a mighty success and now we’ve got 4 couples who are going on holiday together in just a couple of days! Don’t worry – we’ll keep you up to date with all the juicy gossip, stay tuned!

One of our winning couples!

THERE’S MORE! If you think you’ve got the guts to do it, why not apply for Date Escapes 2.0 now!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPB0_sZEPq8&feature=youtu.be