Last night, I attended an event which required me to step outside of my comfort zone.    I heard about it that morning and on a whim decided to sign up.  It was a Speed Friending event hosted by GirlFriendCircles.  What is Speed Friending?  It’s is an organized evening where women will participate in a guided process of fun and meaningful sharing in multiple small groups to introduce women to potential new friends.   I hadn’t heard of this before but it intrigued me.   As I drove to the event, I had my doubts about it.  I consider myself an introvert & wasn't sure how I would do in a crowd of strangers. But I realized that anyone that I met there would be there for the same reason which was to meet new friends.        

There were about 40 women from all walks of life such as students, stay at home moms and some that had recently relocated to the area.  I have been living in San Francisco for 6 months and haven’t really had the opportunity to meet new people.  The basis of the event is as follows – you fill out a profile which asks your age & location.   Based on that, you are set up at different tables made up of 4 to 5 women.  You are at each table for about 15 minutes and they were 4 rotations.  At each table, there was a question that you had to answer.  Each of us had two minutes to answer the question.  After that, we had a few minutes to chit chat and write down any notes.  Talking about myself to complete strangers for 2 minutes was not as hard as it sounds.  The questions are general but at the same time they reveal a lot about you.   After the first rotation, I was more comfortable with the process.  At the end of the evening, you could write down the name of the women who you would like to make a connection with and perhaps get to know one another through email and maybe meet for coffee.   If anyone wrote down my name, on Monday I will be receiving an email to let me know that someone wanted to get to know me better.  Out of the 12 ladies that I met that night, I wrote down 6 names. 

There was also an opportunity to sign up with GirlFriendCircles and join the community.  They host events for women to connect in a fun & safe environment throughout different cities across the US (currently in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Jose, Portland, Seattle, Chicago & New York City).  At the end of the evening, I was happy that I had made the choice to attend.  I may or may not have made a friendship connection last night but I did step out of my comfort zone which for me was a big step.  Now that I feel more at ease, I will probably attend the next ConnectingCircle in my area and try it again. Here is an article posted on the Huffington Post about Speed Friending which I found very interesting. 

Picture courtesy of Yahoo TV