Last night I had my first taste of the latest dating phenomenon that's recently arrived over here from the US — nanodating.

Nanodating is aimed at busy singles for whom even speed dating is too time consuming, and is based on the idea that, in love, first impressions aren't just important, they're all that matters.

Here's how it works. Up to 30 men and 30 women can sign up for each nanodating event via the company's website and on arrival the women are arranged along the edge of a large circular carousel, facing outwards, while the men form a larger circle around them, facing in. A loud klaxon then sounds and the carousel starts to rotate.

Each couple is face-to-face for around three seconds and in that time they have to kiss, slap, or try to shake hands with their opposite number, depending on whether they think they love them, hate them, or just want to be friends. The result of each 'nanodate' is recorded by the Nanodater.com staff and entered into their main computer after the event.

The whole thing lasted for less than three minutes and in that time I got to meet over two dozen women, so it's certainly a lot faster than speed dating. However, it did take a bit of getting used to because everything happens so quickly.

For instance, I learned pretty quickly to reinstate my winning smile after a slap in the face otherwise risk a long run of slaps; I guess the normal expression on a recently-slapped face is not the best one for making a good first impression.

After one particularly brutal slap, I was trying to compose myself, the carousel moved round and I found myself in front of a girl that I really fancied. Unfortunately I froze, and then as she started to rotate out of reach I panicked and headbutted her.

But I wasn't the only one. Another girl — who I later learned had taken a fairly intensive self-defence course while at university — fell back on old instincts when her first would-be Romeo leaned in for a kiss and punched him in the throat.

The entire event lasted less than ten minutes including the briefing, so it's no longer a valid excuse to say you're too busy to find love. For those hell-bent on finding a partner as soon as possible, next month will see the first Nanodating Max event — 500 men and 500 women on a massive outdoor carousel. Despite these numbers, the organisers promise that the whole event will be finished in under an hour.

I logged into the Nanodater.com website this morning to check my results and was pleasantly surprised — 9 'loves', 7 'hates', and 14 'just friends'. Among the 'loves' was the girl I really took a shine to, so I've dropped her an email to see if she wants to go out for a drink as soon as her face has healed up.