Wow!! What a night! So, I thought I’d write up all the ins and outs of the big event we had on Saturday (February 9th) at Cindy’s Rooftop at the Chicago Athletic Club.
M&M Singles – We’ve Got Something Here
As you may have read in my Meet the Old Fashioned Way post – http://wegspool.com/2019/01/18/dating-by-wegs-who-needs-the-apps-anyway/ , we got here in a very interesting way. In dating a lot and talking to a lot of single people, it became clear that the need to go Old Fashioned made sense. Were we right?
Well, in working with our sponsor, Beam Suntory, and specifically the Maker’s Mark brand, Jessica Lambert, she was able to secure Cindy’s for us. More on the venue later, but we had a space for 75 people and we filled it with ease. Angela Irwin (my partner in M&M Singles) and I hit our contacts for some good pre-marketing, we hit the 80 person original cap for the event in 36 hours. So, we pleaded with the sponsor to open more space. That took us to 125 registered, and we still had a wait list. A lot of people were friends of friends, which is great word of mouth, and we think there are even more people out there we can reach with more time.
There were some issues communicating how people move from the waitlist to full attendee. However, we did have 100 people actually attend the event. So, beyond the actual turnout, from talking to a ton of people, they LOVED the event!!
We did conduct a brief survey with our attendees (we had 61, which may not have been enough). However, we did hear from you, and we will get better. The majority of people were sick of the apps and wanted to try something new on meeting people. So, whew!! The concept is solid.
Cindy’s – Super Classy
The venue was so nice. I was lucky enough to walk the venue and have a cocktail with Jess on Thursday. Cindy’s is a very upscale location that if you haven’t gone there, you should. Great date spot for a cocktail in any season. The view is great of Millennium Park. Our room was tight, but we will learn from it. The fireplace room was very nice with its own interior room patio area and fire pit outside. We did pack the room to capacity and had a few moments where we almost had to turn people away. However, I think our guests adjusted well and definitely mixed it up. The staff was great, and shout out to David, the Manager, who worked the room’s bar all 3 hours. We hope to be back at Cindy’s later this year for a Rooftop Summer Party.
Marker Mark – Great Sponsor
Jess and her team were great. They provided giveaways for the guests including these awesome custom cookies that looked like a Maker’s Mark bottle. Jess worked with Cindy’s on a custom cocktail list with 4 bourbon drinks – Old Fashioned and several other tasty offerings. They make a great cocktail there, but the bourbon made the cocktail. Plus, their brand Diplomat, Greg, was doing a whisky tasting for those who wanted to learn more about whisky and the brand. We are excited to partner again with Maker’s and Jess’s team in future events.
Mixing and Mingling
So, the point of the event was for people to meet the Ole Fashioned Way, and they did!! We did struggle a bit early on in registration to get enough men to match the women in the room. With a late push on gents, I feel we got to about 40/60 men to women. We will try to do even better next time. However, from talking to attendees and reading surveys, most of our guest really enjoyed the event. We did a few fun things like having people wear heart stickers if they were actually single. We provided old school valentine cards for which you could exchange numbers with. Angela wrote out conversation starts in the starter bucket.
I did hear from a few guys I know, and they made connections that night!! I’m not going to share one person’s story, however I will say that their participation and success in that night made me feel so happy and really proves that Meeting the Old Fashioned Way can still work!!
What’s Next
Well, we have a lot to digest after the event. We will do another one. We will use the feedback we received about pricing and future events and suggestions to do an even better event next time. We feel that on all levels – promotion, sponsorship and venue – we really found something here. So, stay tuned for future events and information on M&M Singles. I anticipate us putting together a database and way to communicate with our attendees.
Did You Miss the Event?
No worries, if you registered and didn’t make it or got waitlisted, then we have your email account. If not, either send me a comment here or email us at mandmsingles@gmail.com. We will get you on the list for future events and activities.
Ok, back to actual work, which has been really busy, too. I’ll do a normal Dating by Wegs post this Friday.
Wegs