After five minutes with about 12 special someones, it could be love at first sight.

The Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce is trying this technique, but not for romance--for business.

From 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 11 at the History Club of Los Gatos, about 100 people are expected to attend the Chamber's first speed-networking event.

Ronee Nassi, executive director of the chamber, said the idea developed after Blaine Kingsbury, a local chiropractor, suggested it.

The group will be divided in half. One group will remain seated for the next hour, while the other group will rotate every five minutes at the sound of a bell, with about 30 seconds to switch from one person to another.

By the end, Nassi hopes that participants will have made about 12 new contacts, and there will be a social hour afterward for people to reconnect.

"The idea is that people should have thought beforehand about what they would say about their business in one minute," Nassi said.

Nassi said that while the chamber has other events, such as monthly mixers, which is a social meet and greet, some people find it difficult to be sociable on command.

"This is just a more structured way of meeting people," Nassi said.

For Patti Rice, chamber president, this is an idea that she liked from the get-go.

"I'm not very outgoing, and it's hard for me to go up to strangers and say, 'Hi, I'm Patti,' " Rice said.

What's been happening at the other social events, she said, is that people would either talk to the same business owners, or they would just stand in the corner and not mingle.

"Speed-networking forces you to have a five-minute conversation with someone, and you see if there's any potential to do business with each other or someone else that they know," she said, adding that it eliminates the discomfort of introducing oneself to a stranger.

Nassi encourages participants to bring a lot of business cards.

The reservation deadline is Aug. 9, and the cost is $5 for chamber members and $10 for non-chamber members.

For more information, call 408.354.9300. The History Club of Los Gatos is at 123 Los Gatos Blvd.