Haveo · How to follow up after meeting someone at a networking event

How to remember who you met

Do not try to remember. Type a name and one detail into your phone the moment you walk away — nobody minds, and everybody assumes you are answering a message. Memory is not the tool for arbitrary names in a loud room under stress.

Why it fails

A name is arbitrary information, attached to a face, in noise, while you are also producing speech. It is the hardest thing the room asks of you.

People who seem good at it almost always have a system. Very few of them have a better memory.

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The ten-second note

Name. Where. One thing they said that is not on their LinkedIn.

"Priya — Leeds meetup — runs ops at the bakery place, needs a supplier in Yorkshire." That is a follow-up you can write a week later.

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Write the detail, not the title

Their job title will be on their profile. What they were worried about, pleased about or trying to solve will not, and it is the only part that makes a message feel like it was written to them.

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Do it as you walk away, not at the end

The end of the night is when you are most tired and the names have already blurred into each other.

Stepping aside to use your phone mid-event is invisible. Everyone does it, for less good reasons.

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What Haveo does with this

Haveo keeps the people you met with the event they belong to, so the note, the name and the reminder to follow up are in the same place rather than in three.

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Rehearse it before you walk in.

Haveo builds your intro, lets you practice out loud with an AI coach, and keeps your notes one tap away in the room. Free on iPhone and iPad.

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Common questions

Is it rude to use my phone at an event?
Not for ten seconds after a conversation has ended. It looks exactly like checking a message, which is what everyone assumes.
What about memory tricks with names?
Repeating the name aloud once, in the conversation, genuinely helps. The visual association tricks take more attention than a room like this leaves you.
How many people should I expect to remember?
Without notes, two or three. With notes, all of them. That gap is the entire argument.
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