FAQs

For speed dating related FAQs, click here

What makes Professionals in the City events unique?

First, we plan events that we know people would enjoy attending with their friends, colleagues, and significant others if they had the means to organize them on their own. Second, by monitoring what's hot in and around the city, we hold our events at only the best venues and locations. Third, our experienced and professional staff members are always present as hosts, ensuring the success of each gathering. We are sure to surpass your expectations by providing high quality events that enable you to meet a variety of new people and explore the city and surrounding areas.

How do I become a member?

Just sign up for free on the top of our homepage or click here to sign up for our email list. Once you sign up, you automatically become a member.

How much does it cost to join?

Nothing. Membership is free once you sign up for our weekly emails.

What are the advantages of becoming a member?

Besides keeping you up-to-date through our weekly emails with exciting events to participate in with old friends, new friends and significant others, we save your contact information to speed up future ordering and make it easy for you to stay involved.

I signed up to join your list but never received an email. What now?

Contact us via email to let us know. Also, please add this email address to your Address Book to prevent our messages from being blocked by Spam filters.

What are the members like?

Ours is a diverse group of individuals from an array of backgrounds, experiences, and professions. All of them share the desire to have a good time and meet other professionals in the area. Just go to events that you enjoy, and you will meet people that share your interests.

What is the age range of your members?

We have different groups covering different age ranges. Our core group is comprised of individuals primarily between the ages of 25 and 45, but we also hold separate events for people ages 21 to 29 and for people ages 35 and up. Here is the breakdown of our three age groups:

Young Professionals in the City (Mostly Ages 21 - 29)

Professionals in the City (Mostly Ages 25 - 45)

Seasoned Professionals in the City (Mostly Ages 35 Plus)

Do I have to attend events for my age range?

No. The age ranges are simply suggested parameters to help you find the group most suitable for you and the events that you will feel most comfortable attending. You are welcome to attend any event. We also sometimes offer events that overlap two suggested age ranges or that cover only part of a suggested age range.

Do I have to be single?

Many of our members are single, but it is certainly not a requirement. Couples and groups of friends are welcome to attend our events together. Approximately 70 percent of our members are single and 30 percent are in relationships.

Do I have to live or work in the city to join your organization?

Of course not! If you know that you will be traveling and want to have some fun and meet people in a city you are visiting, we encourage you to check our website in advance to find events that interest you.

I don't know anyone in Professionals in the City. Can I attend events alone?

Absolutely! In fact, the majority of our members do so, which is why it is our aim to create a comfortable and enjoyable environment for all you professionals to meet and get to know each other. In fact, if you let us know when you check in that you would like to be introduced around, we will introduce you to other people who have made a similar request.

How do I sign up for an event I want to attend?

Just click on the event description and then click on "Buy Tickets". We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover through our secure server. You will receive a confirmation email shortly after your information is processed. If you do not receive a confirmation, it could be that your ISP is blocking our emails from getting through to you. You can always log on to our website to confirm which events you are signed up for. You can also purchase tickets by calling 202-686-5990 to find out where you can send a check made out to Professionals in the City. We do accept cash at the door for some of our events, but if you decide not to purchase tickets in advance we cannot guarantee that space will be available. Also, the price is frequently higher at the door than it is for advance purchases.

If I reach a voicemail message when I call the PNC line, when can I expect my call to be returned?

If you reach our voicemail, please leave a message. We check our voicemail regularly, and someone will promptly return your call. You can usually expect a call back from us within two hours of leaving your message.

What happens if I am late or miss an event that I already paid for?

We apologize, but we cannot give you a refund or credit if you sign up for an event and are unable to attend at the last minute. This is true even if you are ill, hit traffic, have a personal emergency, or otherwise are unable to attend the event. The reason for this is that we are normally required to pay for your presence in advance.

Since we do not offer refunds or credits, please allocate enough time so that you do not miss out on the fun. If you cannot attend an event, you are welcome to transfer your ticket for that event to somebody else. Just let us know in advance the name of the person you want to transfer your ticket to. The only time we cannot permit ticket transfers is when we are prohibited from doing so, which happens sometimes with airline tickets, certain embassies that require advance security checks on all names, and similar activities.

Do you mail tickets?

No. We put your name on a list that our representatives use to check you in at the door. We also email you a confirmation when you place your order, and we request that you bring a printout of your confirmation to the event. We suggest adding us to your Address Book so that confirmations do not end up in your Junk Folder as a result of SPAM filters.

What do I do if I have a great idea for an event?

We would love to hear your ideas. If your recommended event is something that we think most of our members would enjoy, we will try our best to make it happen.

How do I know if an event is cancelled due to rain or other poor weather?

If you are in doubt about the weather for an event, please check our website or check our voicemail at 202-686-5990. If this event is postponed due to adverse weather, the website and our outgoing recording will both state that this event has been postponed due to adverse weather. If the website and our outgoing recording do not both explicitly state that the event has been postponed due to adverse weather, it means that this event is still going on as scheduled.

Why do speed dating events start late?

In our description for each of our events we note that check in begins at the advertised start time (usually 7:00 or 7:30) and that we will begin the dating portion of the evening 20-30 minutes later. This gives everyone a chance to check in and mix and mingle before the actual dating begins.

We are ready to start each event right on time. But we have to wait until most people arrive. Unlike a seminar, where late people hurt only themselves by being late, if we start a speed dating before many people have arrived, then you will not get to meet many of the people at the event.

Why do so many events say "More Men Needed"?

We try our best to keep the gender ratios even for our dating events, but a common problem is that most men tend to sign up very late, whereas most women sign up sooner than the men. We put "More Men Needed" for our events so we can get the men's attention to sign up for the specific events that need men. By the time of the event, the gender ratio evens out for most events.

Why not just let in women as men sign up, or keep a running tally of the gender count on the website for each event?

Women tend to sign up sooner than men for events. So if we let in women only as men signed up for events, all our events would have too many men. This is because men tend to sign up at the very end for most events, and by then most women tend to have already made their plans for the night. Also, it is hard to tell who will show up at the event. Frequently we have people who sign up and end up not showing. If this is the case and we have an even gender ratio signed up in advance, we are then skewed again. Genders usually are relatively even at our events, but there is individual variation from day to day.

Why don't you offer a break in the halfway point of speed dating?

Breaks create chaos at events. If we took a break in the middle, some people might leave, take too long to come back, and so on, and we would not be able to continue on with the rotations as normal. This would leave some people not being able to meet everyone there and our goal is for everyone to meet each other.

Why don't you give people a minute to take notes after each rotation?

We need to keep rotations for a specific time, so each person has the same amount of time to speak with each attendee. If we gave an extra minute for each rotation to take notes, it could actually end up taking another 30-40 minutes sometimes and attendees would tire out. Also, most people would not use that time to take notes but would actually continue talking to the person they were with.

Why don't you make rotations longer?

We try to make the rotations as long as we can given the amount of people who sign up. If there are a lot of people then we keep the rotations shorter so that everyone can meet as many people as possible. If it is a smaller crowd we can allow for slightly longer rotations. Our goal is for you to meet as many people as possible within a limited time period. After the rotation portion of the evening, you can then spend as long as you like speaking with somebody whom you hit it off with.

Why don't you make speed datings larger/smaller?

Our speed datings on weeknights tend to be smaller and on weekends tend to be larger. We prefer to give people as many options as possible, so they can determine what works best for them.

Which speed dating events do you recommend?

Our most popular speed dating events tend to be the ones we offer on Friday and Saturday nights. Our speed dating events that get the best feedback tend to be the ones based on age ranges.

Why do some of your speed datings stagger the ages so that the men are slightly older than the women?

Why don't you offer datings for older women with younger men? Likewise, why do you offer specialized datings for tall men but not for short men? The datings we offer and the frequency with which we offer them is based on our sales data. If a dating sells well, we repeat it frequently. If it does not sell, we do not repeat it. For example, when we offer age-staggered datings with the men slightly older than the women, that is one of our strongest-selling events. However, when we offer age-staggered datings with the women slightly older than the men, we have great difficulty filling it.

Why don't you rotate the women instead of the men?

On occasion, we do have an event where the women rotate instead of the men. However, we usually have the men rotate. We would prefer to rotate the women more often, but we get many complaints from both men and women when we rotate the women. So we generally rotate the men.

Why don't you include more items (e.g., food, drinks) with the event?

We don't own the venues we use, so we generally have to pay the full retail price for anything we provide. We used to provide more items with the event and charge a higher price. We found we got a bigger turnout, however, when we reduced the items we provide and reduced the price of the event.

Why do you offer age datings where the age range for men is slightly older than the age range for women?

The primary determinant for what events we offer is how those events sell. We offer datings where the age range for men is slightly older than the age range for women because those events tend to be very strong sellers. We also offer datings where the age range for men and for women is the same. We do not offer many datings where the age range for women is older than the age range for men because we have difficulty getting men to sign up for such events.

Who do I contact with other questions?

You can contact our Customer Service here

What is the normal dress attire for Speed Dating events?

Business casual is the normal dress attire.