Rowena Breen, organising a Meet and Greet socialising event
New Yorker Jared Nissim's Lunch Club ("because eating alone is boring!") featured in this magazine a few months back, but it might surprise people to know that a young Irish woman has been running "Dinner with Friends" events around Dublin for almost six months. Rowena Breen left a marketing job with a "large drinks company" to set up her own company, Breen Marketing, last year. She then decided to set up a socialising event called "Dinner with Friends" and ran the first event in May. Demand was such that she has hosted two per month since and plans to turn the venture in to a full-time business.
So who shows up for dinner? "They are a mixture of Irish people and foreign professionals. A lot of people find that they reach their late 20s or 30s, their friends are settled and they are working such long days that they hardly have time for friends and family, never mind meeting new people."
The modus operandi is as follows: "We meet at a restaurant and I act as a host, introducing everyone. Then we sit down to eat, boy, girl, boy, girl. The guys move on to another table during the evening so that it mixes things up a bit. Our biggest problem to be honest is trying to get enough guys to come along." Fearing that the formality of the dinner event might be putting tame Irish men off, Breen decided to host something "more party-like" - thus the "Meet and Greet Party" which is happening next Saturday at Heavenly Cafe, on Camden Street, Dublin 2. Tickets cost €60 with complimentary food and drink.
So are all "Meet and Greeters" looking for love? "No, not at all. We are definitely not a dating agency, though of course some couples have got together. But we have loads of customers who keep coming back each month just to meet new people. Some have told me that they have been at a business meeting and bumped in to someone they met at one of the events. I think that's great." Michael Kelly
Meet and Greet Party Night, Heavenly Cafe, 9pm Saturday November 11th. See www.breenmarketing.ie for details.