Fast forward in the mating game

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

Choice-chasing singles can sign up over the internet for a new dating service - Fast Impressions - that lets them hunt down a like-minded mate from psychologically profiled individuals.

Justin Parfitt, the smooth-talking founder of Sydney-based Fast Impressions, was in Auckland this week outlining his plans for a Valentine's Day event for mouse-made matches.

Singles who make both the financial and psychological cull will be invited to a select party at Auckland's trendy Coast Bar and Lounge - a kind of fast table for 60 - and given the chance to strut their stuff to their "peers" in eight-minute intervals.

This event, called "Find-a-Valentine", will see groups of 10 men and 10 women seated at tables for "dates" that last eight minutes. When a gong is hit, the women move to the next table.

At the end of the evening everyone notes people they want to see again.

"If the feeling is mutual, it is deemed a match and an email containing the names of both parties is sent the next day," Parfitt said.

A recent event to test the Auckland market held at the Soul Bar, in the Viaduct precinct where lots of single people go on the prowl, produced a 90 per cent match rate, he said.

"Whether or not those people go on to have long-term relationships is not our concern, but we know they have fun and that is part of what it is about."

The service was pitched at "professionals", he said, because they were likely to be articulate, could pay for the service and often were time-poor.

However, anyone who can pay the $89 fee is eligible, although Parfitt believes other socio-economic groups are likely to use different ways of meeting people.

His firm has formed a relationship with online hook-up service www.nzdating.co.nz. The New Zealand service has more than 120,000 hopefuls registered at its site in a range of categories. The categories allow them to show many aspects of themselves, including explicit pictures, as part of the marketing mix.

Parfitt said Fast Impressions differed from other internet-based dating and matching services - its specially developed software profiles prospective daters using the temperament or personality-type theories of the late German psychologist Hans Esysenck.

Those theories defined the rules in the software, which looks to see if people are extroverted or anxious, Parfitt said, a process which ensured a good mix could be drawn up for an event.

The software's intellectual property rights are owned by his company and there are plans to eventually take it to the United States, Britain and China.

Potential partiers must answer 12 questions on the site (for example, "Do you like plenty of excitement and bustle around you?" and "Can you put your thoughts into words quickly?") which, Parfitt said, were able to filter people quickly. The questions are all personality directed; physical and financial attributes are not included.

This means technically that someone who has a "great personality" but falls outside the expected look category could land an invite.

The service's primary target is heterosexuals, he said, but evenings for gays and lesbians had been held and there might be events for disabled people as well.

Parfitt said a recent speed-dating event in Australia for 40 gays and 40 lesbians was a lot of fun and had spurred the company into creating other events such as Elite dating, a service for people who after many matches still had not found the right person, and Dating in the Dark, an event held in a dark room where the activity was monitored by hosts with night-vision glasses.

"Forcing people to talk in the dark without visual aids will extend their communication skills," Parfitt said.

"The trend emerging in the database shows that people do fall into a number of categories," he said. "As the numbers increase we are getting better at predicting the number of matches we can get from an event."

Fast Impressions has learned that men and women who work in Sydney's CBD and live in either Rozelle or Piermont will be most likely to "match" at an event.

Parfitt said a match did not necessarily mean romance, but signalled that busy people could meet like-minded individuals without doing the whole pub/club/bar thing.

That could be a lonely way for people to meet "the one", he said.

Ironically Parfitt is not single.

After many years of being a bachelor, but getting his share of sex and fun, he met his fiancee just as he was setting up this venture.

"I had my fair share of fun while I was working in the model and music industries in London, but wanted more.

"I guess I saw the gap in the market for providing a service to people like me who are busy, successful and looking.

"While we find it easy to meet lots of beautiful girls and get sex, we ultimately want a lot more."

Do his clients get more?

Parfitt is coy.

He said it was logical to expect that since the clients are all consenting adults more than conversation happened if there was a match, but people did keep coming back so it was safe to assume they were still looking.

Louse Chapman, clinical leader at Relationship Services, said dating sites in some ways fulfilled the role of the aunts and uncles who used to match-make in many cultures.

As the stigma of internet dating lessened, people would find it more acceptable to use this form of meeting people, but they needed to be clear about they wanted, she said.

The excitement speed dating might generate was not for everyone and the site asked closed questions, but it was a starting point.

People yearned for intimacy as much as they sometimes were just out for sex, which was fine, Chapman said, as long as all parties knew what they were looking for and were honest.

Mouse-matcher

Looking for a date, a mate or more:

* Log on to www.fastimpressions.com.au

* Register and pay a fee of $89

* Complete the questionnaire

* Wait and hope you make the grade.