@FlirtBot—the flirty chatbot flow within @BrianBot—is a comedic case study in @Growth Hacking and @Litmus Test for a prospective partner. The flow, created as an experiment, was tested at @Retail Global Australia 2018. [1] The story below chronicles the first, and last, use of the flow. [1]
The story
In the elevator—while ascending to the VIP dinner—I saw, through the heads and shoulders of the human sardines, a @Button Nose and soft, doughy eyes thinking, "oh, this is the girl I'm going to think about approaching all night while I attempt to muster the courage to flirt with her." Walking out of the elevator, I judged myself for feeling somehow depleted from projecting anticipations of failure.
While looking the other direction, she caught be by surprise and introduced herself. Fifteen minutes went by and we were still talking—she hadn't yet run from my @Meticulously Ridiculous nature. As we saw others find seats at the various tables, I began thinking a substantial conversation outside of dinner followed by "I'm going to sit with you" would be a but intense, but, she quickly interrupted my silent anxiety and asked if I'd like to join her table.
Her @Quiet Confidence was charming. We talked for what seemed like the entire dinner; discussing life in Australia, preferred @Self-Care rituals, nerdy marketing methods, and ultimately the topic of chatbots. Having mentioned mine, she asked to see it and I was forced to make a choice.
Inside my right lapel was a scannable @Messenger Code for @MeetBot—a chatbot alternative to carrying paper business cards—while inside my left lapel was the code for FlirtBot. Both flows began the same, but—after a three minute delay programmed to enable my escape—FlirtBot was trained to begin its attempted charm. Being only partially through dinner, I would have no such escape. "Fuck it" I said to myself, "she'll either love this or never speak to me again" and exposed my left lapel.
She scanned it, got the first message of "nice to meet you at Retail Global, {NAME}" and started clicking wildly through the menu to explore how it worked. While her curiosity was endearing, I was concerned she'd broken the flow and became uncertain it'd trigger the next step. This was, at the time, entirely untested as I'd been unable to test my gender filtering condition filtering, seen below.
Three minutes later—feeling the vibration within her clutch—she asked me, "is your bot messaging me right now?" I laughed and realized I'd forgotten the timer was running. She opened her phone and read, "I could have asked in person, but figured it'd more entertaining for us both for me to ask via chatbot..." followed by the simple, direct question of "are you single?"
As she saw this question she made a tiny, yet, noticeably abrupt tilt of her phone screen—away from her male co-worker. I chuckled at the absurdity of me, a millennial, having programed "yes" and "no" as the only possible responses. Our generation doesn't have binary designations for relationships.
Regardless, it had seemed that—having moved abroad for a multi-year role with a Fortune 50 company—she wasn't looking to make commitments to anyone besides herself. The pragmatist in me understood, while the romantic in me was further charmed by her determination. [2]
We laughed about FlirtBot and eventually migrating to other topics. While we reconnected in similar energy throughout the conference, we never found a moment to explore dialogue in private. She's fiercely independent, passionately determined, abundantly empathetic, and radiant. While FlirtBot has an N=1, having fostered an authentic an unexpected connection, the context of the concept changed. To reattempt would diminish the beauty of what was the effortless serendipity of a @Shared Experience—both of us seeing something present itself in the world, shiny and new. Recycling flirtations changes the context of the past and this wasn't a moment I'd want to alter. I'm not sure if I'll see her again or what the context might be, but I'd like to and am not opposed to traveling 4,000 miles to find out. In the meantime, the tale of FlirtBot will prove entertaining to share.
References
- @FlirtBot
- Sex With Business, ghostinfluence.com
Contexts
- #dating-story