About Us

Emmy Key is a British-born self-published author and mother of two, Isabella and Hugo. After relocating from the land of crocs and ice cream, Darwin, to the sun-soaked Sunshine Coast in early 2021, she quickly discovered that new friends don’t just magically appear like free Wi-Fi. With only one precious hour a week to socially awkwardly squeeze in friend-making between her demanding career, raising her tiny tornadoes, and crafting her first children’s novel, time was as rare as a unicorn. Working remotely during COVID meant she spent more time with her laptop than with actual humans. On the rare occasions she’d escape to pick her daughter up from school, she'd sprint through the gates like she was in an Olympic marathon, laptop in hand, ready to facilitate a workshop—all while trying not to drop her coffee! Let's just say, her friend-making strategies were running low on both ideas and caffeine!

Having moved from the UK to Darwin just a few years before, she knew that she’d need to spend several hours every week attending local meet-ups and that even then, it would likely take several months before she found that connection she was looking for after speaking with a dozen or so women. She thought there had to be a quicker way! That’s when she came up with the notion to adapt the speed-dating concept so that the aim of the game was to make friends rather than pursue romantic interests. She needed a quick-fire way to meet new people who were also looking to make new friends. She shared the idea for hosting a speed-friending event on a Sunshine Coast Facebook forum and when she woke up the following morning, her phone was flooded with messages from both men and women asking her to take the idea forward. Not one to let people down, she decided to take on the challenge! Fast forward a few weeks later and Create My Tribe was born. Speed-friending isn’t new and has been around since the mid-1990’s. However, due to social media and COVID 19, we’ve moved away from making those in-person connections. Now seems like the perfect time to resurrect speed-friending!