The Singles Lock & Key Party

We recently held our first non-speed dating event, at Laverys, Belfast – our ‘Singles Lock & Key party’.

The concept is that each female will be given a small padlock on arrival and each male will get a key which will be chosen from a tray of keys. The key may or may not open one of the padlocks in circulation.

Participants would then mingle and use the lock or key as an ‘icebreaker’ – a way to initiate conversation.

We really enjoyed hosting a different event and trying something different in Belfast. As far as we know these events haven’t happened too often, if at all, in Belfast in the past.

The night itself went well – we welcomed guests and gave them their lock or key. It was a pretty open venue and allowed for people to either sit in groups or move around freely. This meant that participants could spend as long as you wanted talking to someone or as short as they wanted. If a matching lock and key were found then the couple would return to us to claim their raffle ticket (this would give them an entry into the raffle where they could win prizes later that evening.

At the start there was an issue with the provided microphone …and this caused a few issues when speaking to the participants but we managed to do what we could. The mic and sound system was provided by the venue and completely out of our control – it was agreed that this would be working as part of the venue hire but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

We sold a very even split of tickets however as can be the case we had some no shows and late cancelations. If you’ve been to one of our events you will know that we always send out a reminder email and are active on our socials regarding cancellations ahead of the events – but it happens.

It was great to see so many people mingling after mingling has pretty much been ruled out 18 months during covid and everyone managed to find somebody to speak to. Some people formed little groups and sat together for a while whilst others preferred to move around and work the room looking for that matching lock and key.

The feedback we got during the night was great. Most people loved the idea and the concept and we got lots of good suggestions on little tweaks we could make to ensure our next Lock & Key party is even better.

Some people who had tried both Speed Dating and the Lock & Key party actually realised they preferred the more structured approach of Speed Dating – which allows each participant to spend time with each person and meet everyone in a more organised way.

After the event was over and we’d done the magic behind the scenes working our who matched with who we sent out the match emails. Of course we only ever exchange emails and in order for that to be done both parties must choose each other. We never share participants details with somebody who has just chosen them – both people must choose each other in order for any emails to be shared. Heres some of the great feedback from the night:

‘Good to get talking to people and have an entertaining midweek night’

‘Liked everything about it.’

‘Key and lock good idea worked well’

‘Love how smoothly everything was run, it was so professional to have the little packs all made up.’

‘Great value! Complimentary drink nice touch.’

‘Super venue and super night’s fun! Loved the concept and more natural, fun filled approach! Congratulations guys!’

‘Very well organised, friendly hosts’

‘Hosts as always a pleasure and happy to help and chat to all’

‘Went well very professional’

‘It was such a good laugh and I had some great conversations a good mix of all types of people of myself and 4 friends we all had good conversations & connected with at least one person….Ten out of ten for a great night and feeling like I have grown in dating confidence.’

‘Hosts were lovely! Great job’

We’re looking forward to hosting more Lock & Key parties as well as many other types of new events we’re working on in the future…. in the meantime we have 3 great Speed Dating nights coming up and you can find details and the link to the tickets below.

Hope to see you there.

Team RMD.

Upcoming events with Ratemydateni Belfast:

Age 30 – 40 : October 27th (Speed Dating)
Age 22 – 32 : November 14th (Speed Dating)
Age 45 – 60 : November 22nd (Speed Dating)
More events to be announced soon

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