On the first morning of a conference every conversation feels memorable. By the last afternoon they've merged into one long hallway: the woman from the fintech panel, or was it the climate one? The guy who said to email him about the pilot, but which guy?
The follow-up email that gets an answer is the one that remembers the conversation: "You mentioned you're moving the team to Austin in the spring." That sentence is only possible if you caught it at the time.
Why conferences are hard on memory
- Everyone looks alike. Same lanyards, same coffee line, same carpet. The setting gives your memory nothing to tell people apart by.
- Each conversation pushes out the last. Similar conversations, back to back, interfere with each other. The one you had at 10:40 is the hardest to keep, because 10:50 looked just like it.
- The badge scan and the business card keep the wrong part. They give you a name and a title. They don't keep why you talked, what you promised, or what the person looks like.
Before you go
- Put the conference in your calendar with its real dates and location, not just a reminder to book the flight. It gives every note you take there a home.
- Pick a handful of people you want to meet, from the speaker list or the attendee app, and write one line on why. You'll recognize the names when you hear them.
- Choose your opening question. "What brought you here this year?" gets you something worth remembering, which "What do you do?" often doesn't.
Ten seconds after each conversation
This is the whole system. After each conversation, before the next one starts, capture four things:
- Who. Name and company, or "didn't catch the name" if you didn't.
- What you talked about. What they're working on, what they need, what surprised you.
- What you promised. Send the deck, introduce them to Lena, check if your team has tried that vendor.
- How you'll recognize them. Red sneakers, very tall, the one who asked the question about pricing at the panel.
Do it while you walk to the next session or wait for coffee. Ten seconds now beats twenty minutes of reconstruction on the flight home, and it beats it by a lot, because by then the details are gone.
If you collect business cards, an old trick still works: write the one thing you talked about on the back before you put the card away.
The evening review
Ten minutes in the hotel room does more than an hour next week.
- Recall before you read. Go through the day in order and try to picture each person before you look at your notes. Recalling strengthens memory far more than rereading.
- Fix what you got wrong. Correct the spelling of names, add the company you didn't catch, note who introduced you to whom.
- Mark the follow-ups that matter, so the promises don't get lost under the polite ones.
The follow-up
Send follow-ups within two or three days, while you're still a face to them too.
- Lead with the detail. "Good to meet you after the robotics panel. You mentioned the Zurich meetup; here's the intro to Lena I promised."
- Do what you promised first. An introduction or the link you mentioned is worth more than "great to connect".
- Connect people to each other. If two people you met should talk, introduce them. They'll both remember you for it.
Where Requaint fits
Requaint™ is an app for iPhone made for the ten seconds after the conversation. Tap the mic and talk while you walk: "Sat between Kenji, who runs a seed fund for Japanese founders, and Jörg, who runs the Zurich robotics meetup. Promised Jörg an intro to Lena." Or type a line. Requaint drafts a card for each person: name, what they do, who they came with and how to recognize them. You check the cards and save.
- The event is attached. If the conference is in your calendar, each note keeps it, along with the place. Later, open the event and see everyone you met there.
- Several people in one note. One ramble about a dinner table becomes a card for each person at it.
- Bad hall Wi-Fi. Without a connection, the recording is saved and becomes a card once you're back online.
- Search what you remember. Type "seed fund", "tall bald" or "robotics" and the person comes back, even if the name never stuck.
- Promises become a list. "Promised Jörg an intro" turns into a follow-up you can tick off.
When you run into one of them again next year, their card still has what you talked about the last time.