Dating in the fast lane

Ola Zdzarska tries to engage single people with speed-dating events

Ola Zdzarska is busy preparing for her monthly speed-dating event in a bar located in Beijing's entertainment hotspot of Sanlitun.

Twenty people from different countries and regions turn up to participate in 10 rounds of one-on-one conversations that last seven minutes. When time is up, the men exchange seats until each person has 10 mini-dates.

"I can tell whether there are sparks between the two talking people, and also who is bored," says Zdzarska, looking at the 10 couples involved in intimate conversations.

Originally from Poland, the Beijing resident considers organizing speed-dating events over the past five years more as a hobby.

"I do speed-dating events once a month, and each time, more than 100 people sign up for this event," she says. She reads through the applications and handpicks 20 or 30 people who she thinks will pair well together.

Zdzarska's Fishbowl Events has become well-known not only among foreigners and Chinese twentysomethings in Beijing, but it has also attracted a Chinese online dating company.

Zdzarska, who is also a freelance journalist, reveals that one of China's largest matchmaking websites, refusing to reveal which one, has approached her to talk about working together on a future project.

The company wants her to take charge of a speed-dating platform, using their Chinese clients and her expatriate sources under the Fishbowl name. But Zdzarska says she is still thinking about the opportunity because she doesn't plan on expanding any time soon.

"I am glad that my work has been recognized by them, but Fishbowl Events is much more like my personal hobby, and I am not making money out of it anyway," she says.

Her best friend, Allison Johnson, is also her business partner. But with Johnson away in the United States, all the event planning has been left to Zdzarska. She picks venues, selects the drinks and food, and personally answers e-mails from every candidate.

"Normally, there is first come, first serve rule. But I exchange e-mails with them (candidates) and get the basic information first to decide which ones should be selected," she says.

She says a Chinese man once signed up for a speed-dating event, and through e-mail he expressed his desire to find an American girlfriend.

"American girl is a very broad range, and there could be Chinese-Americans, African-Americans, Korean-Americans and so on. So I asked him for specific criteria, and he answered that any American girl will do. Then I started to doubt whether he was really looking for an American girl or merely an American visa. I put him on the blacklist," she says.

Zdzarska says apart from intention and English fluency, nationality and age are the two major concerns for her when choosing the right participants.

"I always try to balance the nationalities of the participants, so that there won't be too many people with the same background that will bore others. And I always like to surprise the participants. When people are in a foreign country, it is exciting to meet others from the same motherland," she says.

For one event, she included one Polish man in the event, and deliberately chose a Polish girl.