If you’ve ever wished making new friends as an adult were a little bit easier – or simply less awkward – the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department has something just right for you.
The department is hosting a ‘Speed Friending’ event Friday, July 18, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at LoFi Park at 500 N. Eugene St. in Greensboro.
The idea is very simple: Pair up with someone you don’t know, answer a few icebreaker questions – and hopefully walk away with some new friends.
So, it’s basically speed dating – minus the dating part. But who knows? Maybe you’ll meet your soulmate there.
Participants can register for one of four 30-minute sessions, each geared toward a different age group.
During each session, attendees will be paired for one-on-one conversations with prompts provided to keep things flowing. After the event, everyone is encouraged to stick around to socialize at Joymongers next door to the park, where there’ll be live music, food and drinks.
Here’s the schedule:
5:30 p.m. – ages 21–35
6:00 p.m. – ages 40–55+
6:30 p.m. – ages 30–45
7:00 p.m. – ages 21–35
Pre-registration is encouraged, but drop-ins will be welcome if there’s room.
The practice of speed friending has been catching on nationally over the last few years, especially in urban areas where adults say it’s harder than ever to make genuine, in-person friendships.
Versions of the concept have popped up in libraries, breweries, bookstores and even churches around the country – usually with a laid-back format designed to break down social awkwardness and replace it with simple, structured conversations.
Some events cater to newcomers to a city, while others bring together longtime local residents who just want to branch out and meet new people.
Greensboro’s version is somewhere in the middle: It’s a chance for anyone who’s tired of making small talk at the dog park and would rather meet new people on purpose.
You can preregister for the event at the Greensboro Parks and Recreation website.
i don’t want to meet other old people on purpose because i hate funerals.
Oh Markl, you have a great sense of humour !
“We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.”
i would like to have larger ‘junk’ & i want tax/insurance payers to finance it or my happiness is < . life, liberty, pursuit of happiness ?
* The men at the tennis club are wondering why the hottest girl there won’t date anyone, so one of the new guys decides to hit on her. She shoots him down, saying “Any guy who wants to go with me has to have two things: a brand new Ferrari, and a ten inch dick”.
This guy happens to work at an exotic car dealership, so the next day he pulls up at her house in a shiny new Ferrari, and knocks on her door. As she’s staring at the car in wide eyed shock, he says ” I’ve spoken to my doctor about the other thing. He says he can cut it down to any size you like”.
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Would you want to meet anyone who would attend?
make it compulsory.
Good one!
And they do it with the idea that pulling away their neighborhood identity would be a good start. Say the neighborhoods of High Point Rd. and Lee St. who now find themselves on Gate City Blvd since the name change is more politically correct. Or those homeowners on Friendly Ave. at Hobbs who were bought out and had to give up their relations with neighbors/friends so the area could be rezoned to commercial for a Traders Joe which never materialized. Or those in Starmount at W. Avondale and Friendly who have to give up the quiet, peaceful area for the increase in traffic, congestion, and noise with the building of townhouses on the corner. The same will be true on Dolley Madison between Tower Rd. and Dobson Rd. Or what of the change in the roads near Guilford Battleground Park where the connecting road is now a loop and no longer connects, cutting neighbor off from neighbor. You`ll pardon me if I find this suggestion by the city to meet other people to be less about being sacrosanct and more about being self-serving. What the city REALLY wants from its citizens is for them to be more influenced by neighbors to vote for them and these ideas which do nothing to really service the community.
if the project makes the hundreds of people who vote with their dollars to use it happy then this resembles ‘imminent domain’ ? how many ‘residents’ are ‘aggrieved’ ?