Cedar Rapids is the place to find a date

It’s billed as a fast, fun, guaranteed way to get a date and if you’re hoping to find a honey before Valentine’s Day, head for Cedar Rapids tonight. Susie Hamilton is the event coordinator for what’s called the Eight Minute Date. Several dozen eastern Iowa singles are gathering this evening to meet other available guys and gals. Hamilton says people just give out their first names and have eight, eight-minute dates throughout the night and then there’s a chance to mingle and meet other singles who are there. As a rule, no phone numbers are exchanged and no last names are used. She says it’s after the mixer that the participants go home and log on to their computers. You go home and get on the website and enter in the people you’ve met and whether you’d like to see them again for friends, business or dating. Later, if there’s a match, your information is exchanged via computer. Hamilton says this technique is catching on in Iowa, as it’s been popular on the coasts for several months.Similar events are planned in other Iowa cities, including Des Moines, Iowa City and the Waterloo area. For more details, log on to “www.8minutedating.com”, using the numeral eight.