MARKET WATCH COLUMNIST
“My Advice to Guys: Love is Just a Tweet Away” Ellis Henican Column, amNewYork, June 4, 2010
Dating then, dating now.
It used to be when New York women weren’t meeting the men of their dreams, they’d follow a piece of time-tested advice: Take a course that single guys would be taking.
They would fire up their meet-a-guy radar, grab the Learning Annex
catalog and flip to the page for sailing lessons or winetasting seminars.
Well, now it’s the guys’ turn. They’re always a beat behind the women!
This weekend, men are signing up for a major New York Dating Conference at Dakota Studios on Fifth Avenue. The best advice they are likely to get? “Think about taking a course that single women would take.” Which means that while the women are sailing catamarans or sampling Shiraz, the men will be doing yoga and learning conversational Italian.
How literal! How cluelessly male! Taking a course to learn to take a course!
Maybe that isn’t quite enough anymore.
Frustrated singles of both sexes would all do better skipping these shopworn lessons from bygone days. Instead of taking courses about taking courses, they should apply up-to-date techniques from the worlds of branding and digital social media. It might actually do them all some dating good.
“Forward-looking businesses are very focused on branding themselves,” said Andrea Syrtash, author of “He’s Just Not Your Type (And That’s a Good Thing).” “That’s just as important in the dating and relationship world. You have to figure out who you are and project that clearly to the people you are hoping to reach.”
Finally, some dating advice that’s actually attuned to the times!
Of course, I’m eager to do mypart.
So I have agreed to quiz Syrtash in front of a public audience on her latest insights and techniques, giving New York daters the competitive edge they need.
This will happen at 6 p.m. on Monday at the Samsung Experience, which is in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.
But please don’t come if the only dating idea you can handle involves sailing lessons or winetasting seminars.
This one is for modern lovers, which pretty soon will be the only kind.
E-mail ellis@henican.com. Follow him at twitter.com/henican
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I recently moved from a small city to the Big Apple. Back home I knew the entire town. Here I am finding it hard to meet new people. Maybe I am just shy. I enjoyed reading your post on dating tips and advice. It opened my mind. Thanks a lot and keep up the great work!