The life of every human being is a dialogue, philosopher Martin Buber says. This is our link to each other and the higher mind and this means mutuality and sharing. When we are out of this dialogue, we fall into the “I-it” relationship where everything is labelled and has shape but no soul or emotion. That is why when we communicate spontaneously and casually our bodies release hormones of happiness. Some people have no problems with communication but for others every conversation with a stranger brings tension. Some can easily create friendships and family while others rely on somebody liking them or accidentally meeting the right person in the virtual space... Miracles of course have happened, but while we are sitting at home in front of the keyboard years can pass. This is exactly the opinion of Kristian Georgiev and Lyubomir Tochev co-organizers of Speed Dating who, unlike their colleagues in the industry, do not place love affairs as the primary goal. “This is not about love dating," Lyubo says. We want to make contacts for them and it is up to them what they would do later.

“This is free communication and not the standard practice of five minutes, as in other Quick Meetings. We focus on more diverse forms of communication such as board games. People meet to play a game in which one can see character features and intelligence and reactions are revealed. These things can be seen in a longer conversation and direct contact. That is why we give more time to people. In a pleasant atmosphere within half an hour, an equal number of men and women play an interesting game and decide who they would like to meet again. In standard speed dating focus is finding a mate, and for us the focus is expanding the social circle of people,” Kristian adds. “At some point in life everyone happens to limit their social contacts for one reason or another. That is why we provide people with the opportunity to communicate through board games. This way the focus becomes having a good time and not dating.”

What has made Kristian and Lyubo do this?

“We are both very easy going and we have many friends," Lubo says." We have families now, so we do not meet other women but past experience has shown that some people have difficulties communicating and that's what has prompted us to do that. We try helping people not to be afraid of showing their emotions, especially when they are positive.”

The project of Lyubo and Kristian is very recent, although the idea was born a long time ago. When the two became colleagues, casual conversation led them to the difficult task to "make people get out of cyberspace and social networks and provide them with opportunities for natural communication with other people. People can to come out of the imaginary world and interact normally face to face. Some people confuse reality with virtual space, so we hope to help these people be themselves Kristian points out. The games are selected so that there is communication between the players. There are conversations, and situations emerge in which one can easily see if they like a person or not. Even if one gets a negative opinion about someone else, this is also a positive experience.

“We have games that are related to associations. They are very entertaining and show how some people think in the same way. Thus, in the course of the game, friendships also emerge. And if you have to spend months in the internet in order to get to know someone, it's all happening faster and naturally with this game. Sofia has grown quite a lot lately. People who come from other countries to live here do not know anyone; some do not know the language so we try to be helpful for them to find friends and love, too. We have a lot of ideas that we want to realize. We started with board games and when we make sure that they are well received, we will look for other ways to reach more and more people. We want to help people communicate in a natural way. We do not make money out of it and we just want everything to happen freely and without pressure.”

English: Alexander Markov