I’ve heard of events such as start-up pitching at a bar and even TweetUps, but I think CuddleParty.com comes off as the most bizarre type of event I’ve heard of so far.  Cuddle Parties started about 5 years ago for people that want to literally cuddle with each other.  A bunch of people in pajamas show up and cuddle with each other as long as there is consent.

There are several rules for the cuddle parties: No alcohol, no promiscuous pajamas, consent required, and cuddle participants must be hygienically-savvy.  Each cuddle party is hosted by a trained guide and participants are sometimes charged as high as $40 per party.  But there are some free parties.

Cuddle Party is a non-profit institution that makes money by training the facilitators. It costs $495 to learn the skills and $995 for a 10 session teleconference. There is an additional $195 per year to stay affiliated with the website CuddleParty.com.

Over 50 facilitators have been trained around the world over the last 5 years. The number of Cuddle Parties are increasing and so is the number of facilitators.