BBC.CO.UK – Oct 25 – Professional matchmaking may have gone out of fashion in many countries or has it? James Gordon, BBC New York reporter, has been to the 4th Annual Professional Matchmaking Conference to see if it’s making a comeback.
James: New York City is home to millions of singles who are never really getting together unless they have help of dating sites or matchmaking. One of the organizers of the Professional Matchmaking and Date Coaching Worldwide Conference is Lisa Clampitt. Is it very difficult to meet people these days?
Lisa: The internet utilizes a lot of someone’s time and these people are not getting coached to make better decisions. What a matchmaker does is help them make better decisions for long term compatibility rather than short term chemistry.
James: Paul Falzone, you’ve been running your business for 22 years. Are those people just lazy that hey can’t bother to go out on their own to find people so they are using a service such as yourself?
Paul: It is not a question of being lazy at all. It is a question of doing some self help.
James: Some of these services mentioned prices of $25,000. It is a huge amount of cash to part with.
Paul: We charge anywhere from $2,000 to $8,000 depending on the package and programs you get.
James: Michelle Jacoby runs DCMatchmaking in Washington and there are so many dating sites out there. Why would someone want to go to a matchmaker when they can just sign up on a dating site?
Michelle: First privacy is very important. Also I have clients who are too busy to be online going through hundreds of profiles.
Listen to the interview here.
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THE STREET – May 12 – Matchmakers are optimistic that Facebook won't be able to replace their key advantage: face-to-face meetings. "There really is a magic meeting face to face and that's why businesses like mine have survived even with the growth of the Internet," said Michael Karlan, president of Professionals in the City, a speed dating events provider. "It will positively impact upscale matchmaking businesses because people will want personal service even if it costs more," argued Michelle Jacoby, a matchmaker in the Washington D.C. area. Jacoby has run her own company, DC Matchmaking, for nine years. She usually takes 20 clients at a time, and matches clients to 6k-7K Washingtonian singles who joined her database for free.