Girls In Tech

***Update!  You didn’t miss this event – it’s been moved to Monday, October 19th and is being hosted at the lovely E&O Trading Co., near Union Square in downtown San Francisco.  We’ve also just added Zoosk Co-founder and Co-CEO, Alex Mehr, to our panel of experts.  Zoosk boasts being the largest social dating community and allows it’s users to connect to all members regardless of which social network one uses, meaning Facebookers can meet MySpacers, Hi5ers and others from their own Facebook page, and vice versa.***

 

Since 1995, when the first major online dating site began offering the ability to meet dates over the internet by way of user generated profiles, the online dating industry has grown and changed by leaps and bounds.  Starting as a service people rarely admitted to using yet becoming part of everyday conversation, “We met online”, is a common phrase many of us have uttered – or at least know someone who’s uttered it.  How did this industry overcome such stigma to become one of the most competitive online businesses? 

One online dating provider claims that from their service alone there were 33,000 marriages that occurred in a one year period.  The same article in Online Dating Magazineestimates that the inclusive number for marriages resulting from all online dating sites is over 100,000 annually!  Daters are flocking to online providers; Match and eHarmony saw 16% and 20% growth when compared to the same time frame the previous year with Match boasting over 15 million current members.

At Girls in Tech: Virtual Dating 101, we’ll explore the evolution on the online dating industry guided by our expert panelist from Perfect Search, Thread (formerly Frintro), Single Mom Seeking and SpeedDate.  We’ll consider how as a society on the whole the ways we work, live and love have all changed in ways to allow the online medium to overcome major stigma and become the dating norm in a short 14 year span.  This event will also be discussing the different approaches to fee structures (paid/free/SNS) used by providers and looking ahead to see what’s next to keep us engaged and anxiously awaiting that You’ve got mail! alert.

Alternatives to the classic user-created profile model are being offered by both Thread and SpeedDate.  Thread has created an alternative to the classic online dating model by allowing friends to introduce their friends to one another online, to see if sparks fly.  No more meeting complete strangers!  SpeedDate on the other hand believes that two people know if there’s a connection within the first 3 minutes of meeting one another – and havecreated a platform to give you that 3 minutes instantly.  In less time than it takes you to get ready for a coffee date, SpeedDate allows you to test that spark factor!

Leading our discussion as moderating panelist is Melinda Maximova, Relationship Expert and Founder and Matchmaker at Perfect Search, a VIP matchmaking service which combines old-world, face-to-face matchmaking consultations with the added convenience and speed of the internet.  Melinda holds a higher degree in Sociology and Human Sexuality and has authored an e-book, Power Shift: Rescue Dating For Women.  Additionally, she is a writer for Examiner.com, offers classes on how to become a matchmaker and teaches with the Learning Annex.  We are excited to have such an expert in the field of relationships and matchmaking to guide Virtual Dating 101.

We’re not ones for all work and no play, so once we’ve covered the business side of the industry we’ll move toward user tips from Rachel Sarah, online dating expert, author of Single Mom Seeking and founder of one the largest blogs for single parents, who will address the most common missteps people make when dating online.  Also a contributor for Match.com, Rachel claims there is a science to successful online dating and she’ll be on hand to share with us what she’s garnered first hand from her experiences in the field.

Online dating services have come a long way since inception and there’s certainly something for everyone.  Even if you’re not looking to find a match, you’ll gain valuable insight into the profitable online business from Virtual Dating 101 and you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t to share with your friends who are navigating the world of online amour!

Visit Eventbrite to reserve your space: http://girlsintechvirtualdating101.eventbrite.com/

Girls in Tech is live at Berkeley’s Caltopia, meeting the bright ladies and gents who are sure to become our future CEOs and entrepreneurs!  Below you’ll find the details for our Caltopia Contest, ensuring that at least a few Cal Bear-GITers are well dressed for back to school.  Find our Facebook Group here:  http://bit.ly/1lgL3y

The intersection of technology and etiquette leaves many things to question.  Where is the line where technology and convenience cross over to become inappropriate and rude?  Not proudly, but many of us now have very private conversations in public places and even allow our face-to-face time with friends and loved ones to be interrupted by errant text messages or obsessive email checking.  In an era where we’re accustomed to being constantly connected, and most of us near freak-out mode when we’re inadvertently disconnected (like when the guide function on the t.v. is ‘temporarily unavailable’), we need to come to a consensus on when it’s mandatory to unplug.  Yeah, I went there – you just saw mandatory and unplug in one sentence.

Much like the eejit who puts their feet up on the seat next to you, a mere eight inches from your head, when you’re in the movie theatre, there are those who don’t realize (or sadly, some that don’t care) that their phone usage in the movie theatre can affect your movie-going experience.  I’m apparently not alone in feeling bothered by these folks, who somehow imagine that because their phone is on silent that the glaringly bright screen of their blackberry in the quiet darkness of the theatre won’t catch my eye or distract me from the film, because on my last voyage to the movies the Please remember to turn off your cell phone notice had been changed to Please remember to turn off your cell phone and as a courtesy to others – no texting during the film. 

Sort of like the old Be Kind, Rewind stickers on VHS tapes, the gentle reminder about being courteous to your fellow movie-goers will most likely not be heeded by the ones it’s intended for, however, for the rest of us – the avid rewinders – the attempt to persuade folks into being courteous is appreciated. 

We’ve all experienced the technojerk whether it was the rude movie-texter, or the loud-talker on the bus broadcasting TMI for all the passengers to hear (seriously dude, it might not be poison oak) or worse yet – the dangerous technojerk who thinks that texting while driving is a good idea.  And while our tolerance levels may vary, or our perceptions of what constitutes an inappropriate convo in the public arena (seriously dude, good luck with the calamine lotion), having an accepted standard of when to use, and more importantly when not to use, our fabulously convenient techie-toys is necessary if we value living in a civil society.  Dramatic?  Perhaps, but a defensible position nonetheless.

If we forget how to unplug in order to enjoy the act of getting lost in a fictitious, fantastical story for a fraction of our night, and we forget that some conversations are meant to be kept private – for the sake of modesty at least – then we may as well forget to say please and thank you when speaking to people, and we may as well forget to hold the door for a few seconds longer so that it doesn’t hit someone in the face, and we may as well not cover our mouths when we cough, and…oh, this is our modern day civil society, isn’t it?  Well in that case, in an effort to keep us from becoming any less civil than we already are, and to keep us from alienating our bus-mates or getting tossed out of the movie theatre for being the technojerk – let’s agree to act like ladies (and gentlemen) and operate with some techniquette.