Anne de Goede is the founder of “Blik en Blooz”, a Dutch company that organizes events for singles to meet and mingle. We asked her some questions about her work.
How and when did you come up with the idea to organize these events?
For my graduate research in 2005, I organized several speed dating events to research mirroring. I tried to discover if people find someone they talk to more attractive if that person is imitating them. Scientifically there wasn’t a significant result. There was a more important result though, a couple. They are still sending me annual emails for 12 years now after their first meeting to tell me how grateful they are.
I always liked to bring people together who would normally never meet each other. The most important thing, much more important than the birth of relationships, is the fact that people meet each other in an exciting and easy accessible way.
The emails of the couple motivated me to organize another dating event for friends of friends and that’s how it slowly evolved into my own company.
Nowadays there are dating apps for singles. Why do some people still prefer a dating event?
Singles prefer a dating event because they can meet other singles live. People can look nice, interesting and funny through an app, but when you don’t have a connection, it will never work out. You need to meet somebody in person to know if it’s going to work out. It’s a combination of looks, mannerisms, speaking, moving, smiling: everything together. I facilitate the “clicking increasing” setting, where participants get a good impression of each other in a short time. Also, the events are always fun, either you’ll find the love of your life or not.
What do you as an organizer of dating events think of dating apps?
It’s easier to find dates using apps like Tinder and Happn. I prefer a live meeting, but of course you can use the dating-apps as a tool to meet in person. I don’t see any problem there.
Your events are very original, like a “wine evening” and “dropping”. Is the composition of your participants different per event?
I believe that every event attracts different types of people, but it’s hard to give examples of differences. During an event I don’t interact a lot with the participants. I just briefly talk to them. I think that people who participate “dating in the wild” are unique. I think that they are more adventurous. The event takes place 24 hours outdoors and they even sleep outside.
Does it happen often that brand new couples thank you after an event?
Yes, once in a while I receive a message from couples. Last week there were two couples who were celebrating their first year anniversary.
Does it ever happen that people hit on you during the event?
Haha, not really. But sometimes I receive a subtle message afterwards, but I won’t go into those.
Website (Dutch): http://blikenblooz.nl
