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

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Events Feedback. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.