It was a little daunting when I first walked into the ballroom at the W Hotel, the room lined with rows and rows of tables set with notebooks and bottles of water. Soon the room would be filled with some 400 singles, each sitting down with a stranger for a three-minute "date."

400 people? I needed a drink already.

The event, called "Find Your Luvah," was hosted in conjunction with Purple Lab cosmetics and promised to be a quick and fun way to meet a lot of young singles in the area without pretense (but with free booze).

Sounds good, right?

Before the actual event began, I mingled around the pre-dating cocktail reception, sipping on something called a "flirtini," sampling hors d'oeuvres. I chatted with some other participants, and the mood was nervous, but hopeful. The consensus seemed to be: "I've never done anything like this before."

Most people were dressed up, but there were a few that looked like lost causes. As for me, I was beginning to regret wearing Converse sneakers.

I talked with Colin Ortiz, a 25-year-old guy from Mahwah, who said, "I'm just going to be myself, that's all you can do in three minutes."

That advice rang true in my head as I came to terms with my sneakers and red lipstick. I was just going to walk into that room and be myself. And if a date went well–cool. If not, no sweat off my back.

At 9 p.m., the doors to the ballroom opened up and participants began to stream in, taking their seats and making awkward chit-chat with the person across from them.

I took a seat on the left side and found myself paired with Ron, a 24-year-old Stevens Institute alum who had recently moved to Jersey City. He confided that he had previously dabbled in online dating, but wanted to try something different.

Just as Ron and I had gotten through the basics–ding ding! The bell sounded that signaled the end of the three minutes. Next, the guys would move to the seat to their right and chat up another single lady.

So over sidled Zack, 22, from Manhattan, who after going over the whole "Where are you from? What do you do?" thing, joked with me about MTV's "Jersey Shore." He was friendly and funny, but just as I began to relax–ding ding! Date over.

Soon I met Frank, a 30-year-old guy from Queens, Mike, a 23-year-old from Hoboken and Guido, a 30-year-old graduate student from Union City. I was at ease and chatty with all of the guys, who were all equally outgoing and friendly.

I realized that a problem arose shortly into the event, though–there were way more girls than guys. While not an issue for the dudes, it left some of us ladies alone for a few of the three-minute dates.

Danielle, 27, from Long Island, was sitting next to me, and during these lulls, we chatted about how the night was going.

"Half the time, I'm just sitting here alone!" she said, exasperated.

While absent-mindedly tapping my pen against the table, I told her that I knew how she felt.

Barry, a charming 26-year-old from Hoboken, by way of Scotland, didn't share the same views as Danielle.

"There's too many girls," he said with a smile. "It's wicked awesome!"

Chris, 24, from New York City was one of the next guys on my conveyor belt of dates. He agreed that the event seemed to focus a little more on the "speed" than on the "date" part, saying, "There's a lot of nice people here, but it's not enough time to really get into it."

My last date was with a gentleman named Dan, who had actually come to the event with my first date, Ron. As it was the end of the evening, he politely asked me to eschew the monogrammed W Hotel notepad I had been using to scribble notes on, and instead use the remaining three minutes to dance and joke around. I barely got any info on Dan, who arguably might have provided the most fun date.

Alas, that's the beauty of speed dating, though–everything is set up for you. For instance, a few days after the event, women can log into a special Web site, put in their dating number, and see which guys rated them high.

I'm not sure if I'll log in to check. While it was a fun night, I didn't feel like any real connections had been made. At the very least I had the chance to mingle with some fun local people without any pretense or expectations.

Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I'm curious!