McDermott is a 16-year veteran of the dating industry and a world-recognized authority regarding singles and online dating. McDermott began her career working in the bricks and mortar matchmaking category and went on to help found the first trade association for the dating service industry, where she developed an industry code of ethics and consumer guidelines. McDermott was a member of Match.com's startup team and helped launch the site in April of 1995. In her ten years serving dual roles as Match.com's spokesperson with the press title 'Vice President of Romance,- as well as the site's Vice President of Communications, McDermott played a key role in introducing online dating around the world and in developing and popularizing the Match.com brand. McDermott has been featured as an industry expert in hundreds of television programs including: 60 Minutes and 48 Hours on CBS, Nightline on ABC, The Today Show on NBC, and CNN. She has been interviewed by publications including: Time Magazine, Newsweek, US News and World Reports, American Demographics, Business 2.0, People Magazine, US Weekly, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and The London Financial Times.

The San Francisco-based Engage.com, McDermott's current employer, was co-founded in 2005 by CEO Suneet Wadwha. Engage.com offers a number of unique services for subscribers, most notably the idea of each subscriber being offered the opportunity to act as an online "matchmaker" for relatives, friends, and other acquaintances. Despite bringing in millions in revenues, many online dating sites such as Match.com and Yahoo! Personals have received harsh criticisms for allegedly hiring beautiful "print model" types to attract more subscribers to their respective sites. McDermott was one of those in the online dating industry that has refuted such allegations, and she continues to encourage colleagues in the industry to pursue a high standard of integrity regarding their membership guidelines in order to maintain the trust of the many single men and women experimenting with the idea of online dating for the first time.

Currie, who says that many of the male readers of his paperback, "Mode One," have subscribed to many of the popular online dating sites in recent years, stated that many men have expressed to him "mixed sentiments" on their results. "Some guys think many of the online dating sites are scams. I've heard criticisms of Match.com, Yahoo! Personals, AdultFriendFinder, and a few others. But in fairness, I've also spoke with men who've experienced success with one or more of those sites as well. I would argue that for most singles, and particularly middle-class, college educated professionals, there is still somewhat of a 'stigma' associated with online dating. A lot of my single friends and acquaintances are still very skeptical about the whole idea. No one wants to tell their Mom, 'Hey ... I met her or him on the Internet!'," said Currie, who between 1999 and 2001 was himself a member of "Love@AOL," a personals site for America Online subscribers, before they merged with Match.com in 2002.

For more information about "Upfront & Straightforward with Alan Roger Currie," please visit http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ModeOne or http://www.modeone.net Also, visit http://www.engage.com/e/faq.htm and http://www.princess.com/news/article.jsp?newsArticleId=na851