We had a fantastic party last Saturday which took place at the Abbey in Victoria.   With over 200 guests in attendance it was very busy and it was nice to see some old faces as well as lots of new ones.

One of these new faces was our new magician Graeme who proved very popular during the evening.  His close up magic proved to be a great icebreaker and you’ll be pleased to hear he’ll be back to entertain you again soon.

The Abbey always proves to be one our most popular venues and we’ll be returning there in May.  In the meantime we have lots of other parties that you’ll love including our 40s plus social night at the Punch Tavern and our next 30s to mid 40s event at the Slug and Lettuce.

Here are some photos from the night:

See you soon,
James Preece

www.singlesolution.com

On Saturday night we celebrated our 5th successful Halloween party in a row.

A big thank you to all 195 people who attended and made it such a great night. We had lots of lovely comments on the night and some by email. Here are some of the best ones. After that we address some of the other feedback given about the party.

“I had a really good time on sat night and met some nice people”
“I really like the Abbey, it is the best venue you use, but then I do live nearby!”
“I’m really enjoying this event, its probably the best one for a while.”
“Yes, I enjoyed it, very good atmosphere too.”
“There were some lovely men around.”

Although we mostly get positive feedback here are some of the issues raised along with our responses.

Q1. Were there more women than men?
A. Not really. There were 108 women and 95 men on the confirmed list. We always get a close 50:50 ratio although this cannot be guaranteed. Our product is our guests and therefore we are subject to outside influences, but we make loads of effort to balance all these factors to get an even ratio.

Q2. We only had one free drink.
A. If we were to include lots of drinks in the ticket price, it would simply mean a higher ticket price, and therefore probably less people. We can negotiate deals for a limited number of drinks but the venue is entitled and needs to make a profit. On Saturday night we had drinks left over.

Q3. The eyeball ice breaker was good but I found another woman with the same number as me?
A. We created a simple ice breaking game with plastic eyeballs with matching numbers. We had lots of duplicates to make it really easy so everyone who made an effort could get their drink. You would therefore find same people with the same number in both sexes.

Q4. Why was the tarot reader fully booked?
A. She was very popular but there was only one Haley, and 200 guests. We always state on the site and in the reminder email sent out the day prior, that activities will get booked up. We advise early arrival. In the future we may offer a pre-booking service for this with a small additional charge. Please let us know your thoughts on this.

Q5. Why was speed dating fully booked?
A. It’s popular. Again with 200 guests its not possible for everyone to take part and we make it clear that its available on a first come first served basis in the reminder email. Generally our speed dating runs very smoothly but with large crowds and alcohol flowing there are going to be some disappointments but these are rare. The general rule is arrive early to be sure of a place.

Q6. I didn’t like the music the band played.
A. The band always play a variety of music, and we get lots of good feedback about them. Sorry, but you just can’t please everyone. We thought they were great.

Q7. It offered no benefit to being in a bar.
A. We offer a relaxed format where singles, who are typically past clubbing age, can come in groups or alone, and know that there will be a very welcoming friendly atmosphere. Everyone is single, there is an even or close to even ratio of men to women, carefully controlled music volume, several mechanisms to help you interact with other guests, events tailored to fairly narrow age bands of around 10-15 years, live music, magician, tarot reader – and that was just this one event! We would not be in our 8th year if our events did not offer benefits over just being in a bar.

Q8. The ‘hosts’ seemed more interested in standing by the bar in the far right corner than mingling with the guests
A. The hosts stood at the bar were managing and handing out the free drinks. We had 7 other hosts who were mingling and coordinating activities. It’s our hosts that make our events different. If you want introductions please ask, as its not always obvious.

We have lots more events coming up. Over the past 8 years we have found that people enjoy the events more the 2nd and subsequent times they attend. We also continually innovate with new ideas to keep things fresh and to attract new people. So we hope to see you again soon. Although, giving you a fun night out is our key objective lots of couples have met through our parties. Keep coming and it could be you.

Read about Hindu Dating

Many people do bring their friends along to the events, but plenty of people do come on their own.

Remember that we have hosts at the events who will make sure you are introduced to the other guests and not left on your own.  If you are a bit nervous then do ask them for help as they might not be aware of this.

If you do come with friends, try and split up as some people find it hard to approach groups.

If you have having problems logging in, firstly make sure you are entering the correct password. If you’ve forgotten you can request a new one using the “password reminder” option. 

If that still doesn’t work, try these in order:

1. Please click on page refresh before logging in.

2. Try another page to log in from eg

http://www.singlesolution.com/events/3. Clear temp internet files. You can do this in Internet Explorer by clicking on TOOLS, then INTERNET OPTIONS, then BROWSING HISTORY.

www.mozilla.com/firefox/

If you’ve only bought 10 credits then we expect you will use them up well before the month is up.

The standing charge is stated in many different places on the site, eg on the dating home page, in the accounts section, and in help under “how much does it cost”.

If you have Premium Membership as well as credits then there will be bo standing charge as long as you are a member.

Please do not analyse the pricing. You have to trust us to do what is necessary to populate the event despite what you think might be fair or otherwise. It’s not just about maximising profits. Most of our real stress is to do with getting an even ratio of men to women.

Yes, it’s another Single Solution Triumph

So, we are better than all the big dating sites out there. We are not as big but our users are real and genuine.

Here’s a comment we got today.

“I have met someone through your website, ….  Good website, I’ve never met anyone on any of the others I had tried – Dating direct and Match!”

Good luck with the relationship Kirsty.

Two New Weddings

Congratulations to Sophie and Alex who met at one of our events. They are getting married in Barbados this month.

Also, to Kate and John who got married in August this year, after meeting at a Single Solution event in 2006.

Paul

We’ve had some great feedback about our recent events but we’ve also has some requests for extra activities:

“I like the format. I would also like events with some kind of focus / entertainment.”

The good news is that we do often have extra entertainment at our larger events as we have larger crowds. For our coming Autumn party we have Ceroc dancing which makes a fantastic icebreaker.   It’s like a dancing version of speed dating, where you are taught easy dance steps and change partners regularly.    Our big Halloween party has our hugely popular live covers band  – Itchy and Scratchy and our much loved magician Ravi Mayar.  We are even including free tarot readings with our expert reader Hayley Blake.

We try and vary our entertainment and other parties might include chocolate fountains, classical duos, comedy nights or wine tastings.

If you have any suggestion for other activities/entertainment that would work well then we’d love to hear them. We’re always looking to try fun new things!

After analysing 6000 recent messages, we have worked out that on average 4 out of 10 new people contacted on the site WILL reply.

We are really pleased that it’s so high. What that means in simple terms is send 10 messages to new people, on our dating site and on average you can expect 4 to reply. Note the stats, exclude post event messaging, so this is purely for the online dating site.

Of course those who send messages “reply paid” can expect a much higher response rate. Its like sending a SAE with your message. All users can read and reply regardless of their membership status.

With our Premium Plus packages, you get unlimted reply paid credits. You can also notify the recipient by text if they have selected this feature.

The best way to get good replies, is always to have a good photo. A clear, smiley photo showing your face clearly is essential.

Why not upgrade now and see what all the fuss is about?

Paul Ergatoudis

Director

www.singlesolution.com