Do you often travel for business? Do you regularly visit new cities and wish you had someone with whom you could catch a baseball game, take in a show or museum exhibit, or even grab a beer at a local pub? Founded in 2014, Here to Meet aims to give business professionals a safe, easy and real way to meet others while traveling. Utilizing cutting-edge video technology, Here to Meet lets you to crea
te a free 30-second introduction video in which you can showcase your personality and tell people a little bit about yourself. Other users can then get to know you in a very real and immediate way, with the intention of making good networking and social connections without having to rely on out-of-date photos or generic lists of likes and dislikes. Here to Meet puts the emphasis on real-world interaction, bringing together people who want to talk to each other and share experiences rather than status updates. Here to Meet allows users to interact with one another in real-time video conferencing, which lets you discover whether your personalities are a match. As busy professionals who travel, time is a limited resource, and Here to Meet gives you an immediate, satisfying way to create new relationship networks and take advantage of the social, cultural and business opportunities that new cities can offer. Before Here to Meet founder Dave Tavares embarked on the second phase of his professional life as an entrepreneur, he traveled the world as the drummer of a popular pop-punk band. He realized that every city he traveled to had a built-in network of people who shared the common interest of music – something that was harder to find as an entrepreneur because it was a more diverse group of people whose interests were varied. Wanting to connect with people who had the same interests, he turned to the Internet. What he found were many sites that didn’t quite fit the bill – most sites were geared toward dating or they were sites that didn’t allow you to easily find people with whom you didn’t already share a connection.
“I saw it all the time at hotels – business travelers would come in once a month and find themselves at the hotel bar, talking to the bartender or the local regulars because they didn’t know anyone else,” Tavares explains. “I wanted to create a safe, discerning way for them to meet other people in that same situation.”
Here to Meet is geared toward working professionals ranging in age from 25 to 50. You’re going to find people like you: well-educated and business-oriented with wide-ranging interests who want to make the most of their time while traveling. Here to Meet’s proprietary system allows you to meet people face-to-face and exchange messages through a safe and private platform, and a “group meet-up” function is a great option for those looking to meet several people at a public event such as a concert or sporting event. Selected questions will pinpoint the type of person you’re looking for, and general questions can help winnow it down even further, while video profiles give you the face-to-face interaction lacking on other sites.
“We want you to find people based on your compatible interests,” Tavares says. “It’s about matching personalities and emphasizing social interactions. We want people to actually talk to each other and show their true personalities. Here to Meet brings back the ‘real’ way to meet people.”
