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[TheMaKaKi]

Greetings FanimeCon Fans! 

FanimeCon 2013 is looming close and the Staff at Speed Dating are excited to prepare for this year's events.

For more detailed information about Speed Dating, please visit this link: http://www.fanime.com/events-and-exhibits/events/#speed-dating

As we promised, we will implement improvements and suggestions that will better Speed Dating this year! We hear you all- more speed dating events, better pre-registration, comforting atmosphere, and more!

As of now, we are still in the planning stages but please expect that Speed Dating will happen this year. We will continue LGBT speed dating as well due to its preliminary success and interest.

**New 5/31/2013**
Thank you all for attending our Speed Dating Event! We would love your feedback. Please click the following url link to access our feedback form.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HjR6M-7G952gV9LMo5buNmUQEZLD-ScUVG1hliyFzYQ/viewform

**New 4/1/2013**
There is NO Pre-Registration for Speed Dating Events this year! Spots are available first-come, first-served in line.
ALL Attendees must come AT LEAST 10 minutes prior to desired Speed Dating Session WITH Proper Photo ID (proof of 18+YO)-- No Exceptions!

Speed Dating Sessions
Friday 5/24: 8PM-10PM
Saturday 5/25: 12PM-2PM; 4PM-6PM
Sunday 5/26: 12PM-2PM; 4PM-6PM

LGBT Sessions: Sat and Sun 2PM-4PM

Location: San Carlos Room, Hilton Hotel

In the mean time, please post any questions or comments you may have here! Any suggestions are appreciated as well. Check back here often as FanimeCon comes closer!

[echoshadow]

Sounds great... will this year have the same 2 confrimed  spot emails, then the surprise 3th email that no one that pre-registerd early got? Or will all entries be picked at random in a lucky hat?

I'll try for my 4th year to try to get in. Maybe the fouth time the charm right?

[princesskitty18]

sounds interesting again as usual
dont think ill have time to actually participate, but if you need help facilitating anything, then i'm down
i cant remember if my friends from before are helping out again this year

i cant be full staff cuz im already staff somewhere else
but id be down to volunteer some time
lemme know how that works out

[codemaster]

Hmm, sure why not! Sounds fun (well, whenever reg opens up for it, that is )

[TheMaKaKi]

Hello princesskitty18,

If you want to volunteer, you're more than welcome to come by our Speed Dating sessions. When we come out with the schedule, just email us a heads up if you're stopping by to facilitate. Thanks

sounds interesting again as usual
dont think ill have time to actually participate, but if you need help facilitating anything, then i'm down
i cant remember if my friends from before are helping out again this year

i cant be full staff cuz im already staff somewhere else
but id be down to volunteer some time
lemme know how that works out

[Lordsnow]

Great. Last year my friend delayed us so I arrived so late that I was still in badge line during my time. Hopefully this year though

[princesskitty18]

hey y'all
66 days until the first day of fanime

any ideas when y'alls schedule is gonna come out?
jw

[Tattoosonic]

I would say this year. A bigger room, this will help get more people a board. Better system on people signing up and get an email back. Maybe a facebook page to spread the word on this. Hell put some music in there too!

[TheMaKaKi]

Hello princesskitty18,

Our Speed Dating Sessions for 2013 are

Friday 5/24: 8-10PM
Saturday 5/25: 12-2PM, 4-6PM
Sunday 5/26: 12-2PM, 4-6PM

LGBT Sessions: Sat and Sun 2-4PM

We hope that the website and other subsequent media will be updated soon to reflect this as well Thank you all for your patience!

hey y'all
66 days until the first day of fanime

any ideas when y'alls schedule is gonna come out?
jw

[princesskitty18]

Hello princesskitty18,

Our Speed Dating Sessions for 2013 are

Friday 5/24: 8-10PM
Saturday 5/25: 12-2PM, 4-6PM
Sunday 5/26: 12-2PM, 4-6PM

LGBT Sessions: Sat and Sun 2-4PM

We hope that the website and other subsequent media will be updated soon to reflect this as well Thank you all for your patience!

hey y'all
66 days until the first day of fanime

any ideas when y'alls schedule is gonna come out?
jw

cool
ill see if i can come help out sometime

[DangerHeart]

Have sign ups happened already?

[Ecchi ja Nai]

Wait, are you asking about signups for staff?  Because if you're asking about signing up to participate in speed dating, then...

[codemaster]

Have sign ups happened already?

Wait, are you asking about signups for staff?  Because if you're asking about signing up to participate in speed dating, then...

Nope, looks like sign-ups are only for staff/volunteering and instead of signing up for the event, it's first-come, first-serve. I guess we'll all have to just line up a few minutes before it starts

[DangerHeart]

Have sign ups happened already?

Wait, are you asking about signups for staff?  Because if you're asking about signing up to participate in speed dating, then...

Nope, looks like sign-ups are only for staff/volunteering and instead of signing up for the event, it's first-come, first-serve. I guess we'll all have to just line up a few minutes before it starts

Yeah thats what I was asking about, thanks!

[O_O]

How many seats will there be this year? I'm there won't be people waiting 2 hours before the event like last year if there's not that many seats.

[CongoER]

As far as suggestions go for the LGBT sessions, I would strongly recommend doing an overhaul on how the daters are organized and paired up.

Last year's LGBT sessions weren't "LGBT" so much as they were just "LG". Simply put, there was a table for gay men and a table for lesbians - and that was it. Any bisexuals (male or female) and transgendered people in attendance weren't taken into account, which really works against the inclusiveness of these kinds of events.

I think the best way to solve this problem would be to have participants fill out a chart outlining who they'd be interested in dating.

So if a lesbian is comfortable with dating a bisexual woman, or a bisexual man is comfortable with dating a transgender woman, or a transgender man is only comfortable dating women; they would need to fill out their charts accordingly to be paired up with suitable candidates. This would present a challenge with organizing each demographic efficiently, but I think it's necessary if the LGBT sessions are going to be as inclusive as they should be.

---

The only method of organization I can think of off the top of my head would be to first have 2 main areas set up; a men's table and a women's table. Initially, the groups would just be divided into men and women (bisexuals included) and the dating would start. Once everyone's made a full circle, the gay and lesbian-only participants would turn in their dating cards and leave (since they'd have essentially completed their rounds at that point), and the remaining bisexuals would regroup to begin their sessions with the opposite sex.

The big problem I have trouble figuring out is how to accommodate transgender participants. Since being transgender doesn't really involve the person's sexuality, a trans dater could essentially fit into any group. That's perfectly fine, but a problem arises when you consider that other daters may not be interested in dating trans people. So in order to accommodate them, you would need to have the trans participants state themselves as being transgender so as not to mismatch anyone. But that could put trans daters in an uncomfortable position since not all transgender people are willing to do that (for good reason).
If anyone has any input on how to solve this one, I'd be interested to hear it.

Anyways, that's my 3 cents. Sorry for the long post, I just want to help make this event better so that everyone gets their fair chance at romance.

[renalcul]

As far as suggestions go for the LGBT sessions, I would strongly recommend doing an overhaul on how the daters are organized and paired up.

Last year's LGBT sessions weren't "LGBT" so much as they were just "LG". Simply put, there was a table for gay men and a table for lesbians - and that was it. Any bisexuals (male or female) and transgendered people in attendance weren't taken into account, which really works against the inclusiveness of these kinds of events.

I think the best way to solve this problem would be to have participants fill out a chart outlining who they'd be interested in dating.

So if a lesbian is comfortable with dating a bisexual woman, or a bisexual man is comfortable with dating a transgender woman, or a transgender man is only comfortable dating women; they would need to fill out their charts accordingly to be paired up with suitable candidates. This would present a challenge with organizing each demographic efficiently, but I think it's necessary if the LGBT sessions are going to be as inclusive as they should be.

---

The only method of organization I can think of off the top of my head would be to first have 2 main areas set up; a men's table and a women's table. Initially, the groups would just be divided into men and women (bisexuals included) and the dating would start. Once everyone's made a full circle, the gay and lesbian-only participants would turn in their dating cards and leave (since they'd have essentially completed their rounds at that point), and the remaining bisexuals would regroup to begin their sessions with the opposite sex.

The big problem I have trouble figuring out is how to accommodate transgender participants. Since being transgender doesn't really involve the person's sexuality, a trans dater could essentially fit into any group. That's perfectly fine, but a problem arises when you consider that other daters may not be interested in dating trans people. So in order to accommodate them, you would need to have the trans participants state themselves as being transgender so as not to mismatch anyone. But that could put trans daters in an uncomfortable position since not all transgender people are willing to do that (for good reason).
If anyone has any input on how to solve this one, I'd be interested to hear it.

Anyways, that's my 3 cents. Sorry for the long post, I just want to help make this event better so that everyone gets their fair chance at romance.

Transgenders participated last year, although they identified as Gay and Lesbian.

All things considered, i'd be surprised if two full LGBT groups showed up.

And while you in theory could run a full bisexual/asexual group, it would be incredibly limited by both size and time, which is why the LGBT groups last time were done as two half tables rather than one full table, considering that having everybody meet everybody adds a lot more to the time requirements than people would be willing to commit to.  Unless you ran like two smaller groups side by side, it gets really complicated, honestly.

[CongoER]

As far as suggestions go for the LGBT sessions, I would strongly recommend doing an overhaul on how the daters are organized and paired up.

Last year's LGBT sessions weren't "LGBT" so much as they were just "LG". Simply put, there was a table for gay men and a table for lesbians - and that was it. Any bisexuals (male or female) and transgendered people in attendance weren't taken into account, which really works against the inclusiveness of these kinds of events.

I think the best way to solve this problem would be to have participants fill out a chart outlining who they'd be interested in dating.

So if a lesbian is comfortable with dating a bisexual woman, or a bisexual man is comfortable with dating a transgender woman, or a transgender man is only comfortable dating women; they would need to fill out their charts accordingly to be paired up with suitable candidates. This would present a challenge with organizing each demographic efficiently, but I think it's necessary if the LGBT sessions are going to be as inclusive as they should be.

---

The only method of organization I can think of off the top of my head would be to first have 2 main areas set up; a men's table and a women's table. Initially, the groups would just be divided into men and women (bisexuals included) and the dating would start. Once everyone's made a full circle, the gay and lesbian-only participants would turn in their dating cards and leave (since they'd have essentially completed their rounds at that point), and the remaining bisexuals would regroup to begin their sessions with the opposite sex.

The big problem I have trouble figuring out is how to accommodate transgender participants. Since being transgender doesn't really involve the person's sexuality, a trans dater could essentially fit into any group. That's perfectly fine, but a problem arises when you consider that other daters may not be interested in dating trans people. So in order to accommodate them, you would need to have the trans participants state themselves as being transgender so as not to mismatch anyone. But that could put trans daters in an uncomfortable position since not all transgender people are willing to do that (for good reason).
If anyone has any input on how to solve this one, I'd be interested to hear it.

Anyways, that's my 3 cents. Sorry for the long post, I just want to help make this event better so that everyone gets their fair chance at romance.

Transgenders participated last year, although they identified as Gay and Lesbian.

All things considered, i'd be surprised if two full LGBT groups showed up.

And while you in theory could run a full bisexual/asexual group, it would be incredibly limited by both size and time, which is why the LGBT groups last time were done as two half tables rather than one full table, considering that having everybody meet everybody adds a lot more to the time requirements than people would be willing to commit to.  Unless you ran like two smaller groups side by side, it gets really complicated, honestly.

True, last year's LGBT group was very small. But because it was so small I don't think it was a very accurate representation of the amount of variance in the LGBT community. I still think more effort should be put into matching daters in these groups properly; and if there's more participants this year, there will be a greater need to make things work better than last year.

If all the transgender participants end up falling into the other groups like last year, then that's excellent. But if not, it would be smart to have a plan on how to organize transgender daters with the others so that nobody feels left out.

As for the bisexual group, I don't think 'everybody should meet everybody'. I made the suggestion that after having the gay/lesbian-only tables make their rounds, anyone who was not bisexual could turn in their match sheets and leave. Which would then leave the bisexual participants from each table to join at a single table and continue. I don't think that would be terribly difficult or complicated.

The entire LGBT group deserves to be taken into account, and just having a gay-only table and a lesbian-only table doesn't cut it. (IMHO)

[renalcul]

As for the bisexual group, I don't think 'everybody should meet everybody'. I made the suggestion that after having the gay/lesbian-only tables make their rounds, anyone who was not bisexual could turn in their match sheets and leave. Which would then leave the bisexual participants from each table to join at a single table and continue. I don't think that would be terribly difficult or complicated.

The entire LGBT group deserves to be taken into account, and that just having a gay-only table and a lesbian-only table doesn't cut it. (IMHO)

Now i'm speaking as someone who previously ran speed dating but isn't affiliated with it any longer. But the amount of preferences and matching and coordination and required would be overwhelmingly chaotic, so much that it doesn't even become speed-dating, and it just becomes a chaotic mess.

Personally (i am a straight male, so i could be gloriously out of my element), but wouldn't simply having a bisexual or transgender straight group be more functional if it was all inclusive? Not to discourage Lesbians or Gays, but there wouldn't be anything in theory stopping bisexual individuals to showing up to the lesbian and gay speed datings as well, or even the lesbians or gays going to the bisexual one. I know plenty of people who have gone to hetero speed dating while in a relationship or gay/lesbian just to make friends, and logistically just having an all inclusive bisexual group would function well and those who aren't interested in the gender, just wouldn't match with the gender.

[TheMaKaKi]

Thanks to everyone who has been posting their suggestions and questions thus far. I am impressed about the helpfulness the forum community offers, thank you!

As Speed Dating Co-Head this year, I would like to address the concerns about waiting for the Speed Dating event and the LGBT sessions. I also strongly encourage for Fanime fans to post freely here about their suggestions and comments! However unless you are getting an answer from a Speed Dating Co-Head (me or yaki-ika), it is NOT an official statement or representation from Speed Dating department. So please keep that in mind. Also if your concerns are personal or private, we are able by email as well speeddating@fanime.com; email correspondence is moreso reserved for serious inquiries and concerns and we appreciate your awareness of that.

This year to accommodate more people, we are having more rounds- in total 7 (with 2 for LGBT). We can only take in a certain amount of people, BUT I would still strongly recommend waiting in line regardless! Why you ask?

• We propose to come at least 10 minutes before, but it is probable that there are people who will come before 10 minutes and hence before you.
• Not everyone will have read the requirements thoroughly and thus not eligible for the events (need to be 18+YO with proper photo ID)
• Not everyone will participate although they waited due to friends not getting in or last minute changes
• Lastly, we have a new surprise for our fans this year that will reward some of the fans waiting in line but just didn't quite make the cut to participate in that one session. Nothing further will be said about this from me for now, so any inquiries, pleas, bribery, etc. will be futile.

As for the LGBT, thank you everyone for your insight and suggestions. As mentioned before, we did have a small pool last year so to simplify the sessions, we did our best at the time. We are well-aware of the variety challenges that impose on us to be all inclusive. Although fans do not see our background work, we try to have plans to accommodate everyone but during the con, things may not always work out. We ask for your patience and understanding as the LGBT sessions take flight and hopefully, we can work out the best system to accommodate everyone's needs. We are proud to say that we are of the very few cons offering Speed Dating, let alone LGBT Speed Dating Lastly to address, individuals may choose to participate in any of the heterosexual or LGBT sessions. We do not restrict anyone from participating regardless of their preferences. HOWEVER, we are very strict on emphasizing that Speed Dating is for 18YO+ SINGLES. We strongly discourage couples or fans wanting to make friends ("Speed Friending") to participate. There are other appropriate events for fans to participate in to make friends, like other con events. Will it happen in the future? Perhaps with enough interest and support from the fan community. However, Speed Dating will like to take our time and perfect our current services before jumping into other projects and diluting the quality of our events.