Talk about a great publicity stunt. Speeddate.com, an online video speed dating site, pitted two women, coast to coast, to see who could go on the most 3-minute dates in a 24-hour period. Sarah Clark dated from New York City and Francesca Salcido dated from San Francisco. Francesca set 2008’s record with 302 dates, and beat her personal best this year with 316 dates.
But Sarah Clark came out triumphant setting the online speed dating world record with 390 3-minute dates in a 24 hours period. Together, the two of them went on 706 dates in one day.
What I want Speeddate.com to show are some videos of those dates. Show them in increments of 50 and then date 389 and 390 when Sarah realized she was about to be done. This marathon dating is like those marathon dances from the 50s. Nobody can stay that chipper for an entire 24 hours. I’m sure at hour 20 neither woman were making any sense. Or possibly they were smart and let the guy do all the talking. You have to conserve your energy.
The guys I’m sure were all excited and wanted to get more reaction out of them, but I’m sure there were many times Sarah and Francesca said, “Oh, I’m sorry, I’d love to chat with you more. It’s just I’ve been on X hundreds of dates already…TODAY.”
Personal video communications takes a lot of energy. I know from personal experience. For the past two years I’ve sent out hundreds of personalized video holiday greeting cards. While it can be exhausting, the response from it is overwhelming.
Read the tales:
From 2007: I just sent 325 personal video holiday greetings-How I did it and I just sent 325 personal video holiday greetings-The Response.
From 2008: I just sent 555 personalized video holiday greeting cards-How I did it.”
In honor of Sarah and Francesca’s accomplishments, SpeedDate will be making a donation to the American Heart Association.
This news item is for the Spark Minute week of 2/16/09 which can be heard daily on Green 960 and 910 KNEW in San Francisco, CA.
