Problem: Remembering persons you meet at meetings, conventions, retreats, and large social events. I attend monthly meetings of several professional organizations and two or three large conventions each year. At conventions I usually meet 30 to 40 strangers, and typically we exchange business cards. However, when I'd look through my card file a few weeks later, I wasn't able to remember many of them. Occasionally I'd have 2 or 3 cards with similar names. James Smith. James Schmidt. (Who?) Solution: Here's a simple acronym for remembering strangers: F = Facility, e.g. Marriott Hotel, San Diego A = Activity, e.g., conversation workshop C = Contact date: Oct 26, 2011 T = Topic of the person's greatest interest Write this information on the back of their card immediately after your encounter. Later you'll be able to "see" the place, activity, and person in your mind's eye. My personal business cards have a recent photo on the front, and that helps others to remember me. However, most of the cards I get from strangers do not have a photo, so this FACT method is helpful, especially the T. (I learned this FACT method from Canadian professional speaker Brian Lee, a much-honored expert on customer service and staff retention in hospitals and other health care facilities.)

I attend monthly meetings of several professional organizations and two or three large conventions each year. At conventions I usually meet 30 to 40 strangers, and typically we exchange business cards. However, when I'd look through my card file a few weeks later, I wasn't able to remember many of them. Occasionally I'd have 2 or 3 cards with similar names. James Smith. James Schmidt. (Who?) Solution: Here's a simple acronym for remembering strangers: F = Facility, e.g. Marriott Hotel, San Diego A = Activity, e.g., conversation workshop C = Contact date: Oct 26, 2011 T = Topic of the person's greatest interest Write this information on the back of their card immediately after your encounter. Later you'll be able to "see" the place, activity, and person in your mind's eye. My personal business cards have a recent photo on the front, and that helps others to remember me. However, most of the cards I get from strangers do not have a photo, so this FACT method is helpful, especially the T. (I learned this FACT method from Canadian professional speaker Brian Lee, a much-honored expert on customer service and staff retention in hospitals and other health care facilities.)

I attend monthly meetings of several professional organizations and two or three large conventions each year. At conventions I usually meet 30 to 40 strangers, and typically we exchange business cards. However, when I'd look through my card file a few weeks later, I wasn't able to remember many of them. Occasionally I'd have 2 or 3 cards with similar names. James Smith. James Schmidt. (Who?) Solution: Here's a simple acronym for remembering strangers: F = Facility, e.g. Marriott Hotel, San Diego A = Activity, e.g., conversation workshop C = Contact date: Oct 26, 2011 T = Topic of the person's greatest interest Write this information on the back of their card immediately after your encounter. Later you'll be able to "see" the place, activity, and person in your mind's eye. My personal business cards have a recent photo on the front, and that helps others to remember me. However, most of the cards I get from strangers do not have a photo, so this FACT method is helpful, especially the T. (I learned this FACT method from Canadian professional speaker Brian Lee, a much-honored expert on customer service and staff retention in hospitals and other health care facilities.)

I attend monthly meetings of several professional organizations and two or three large conventions each year. At conventions I usually meet 30 to 40 strangers, and typically we exchange business cards. However, when I'd look through my card file a few weeks later, I wasn't able to remember many of them. Occasionally I'd have 2 or 3 cards with similar names. James Smith. James Schmidt. (Who?)

Solution: Here's a simple acronym for remembering strangers:

F = Facility, e.g. Marriott Hotel, San Diego

A = Activity, e.g., conversation workshop

C = Contact date: Oct 26, 2011

T = Topic of the person's greatest interest

Write this information on the back of their card immediately after your encounter. Later you'll be able to "see" the place, activity, and person in your mind's eye.

My personal business cards have a recent photo on the front, and that helps others to remember me. However, most of the cards I get from strangers do not have a photo, so this FACT method is helpful, especially the T.

(I learned this FACT method from Canadian professional speaker Brian Lee, a much-honored expert on customer service and staff retention in hospitals and other health care facilities.)

Loren Ekroth ©2012, all rights reserved

Loren Ekroth, Ph.D. is a specialist in human communication and a national expert on conversation for business and social life.