I couldn’t agree more with gawp’s trick to listen and not talk during intial meetings. I use this regularly at work - I’m in business development so I meet a lot of new people. I use it even more in personal life, especially when dating. It’s amazing how much people appreciate the fact that you are interested in them, though the trick is actually caring (not just acting like it).

Of course this still doesn’t solve my problem as Teo Zilla alluded to - I can have a wonderful, in depth conversation with someone, remember lots about them, and still not remember their name.

While I haven’t found a solution to this problem, I have found a way to help the other person remember my name. I tell them my nickname - World Wide Weber. People rarely forget this. So at least one of us remembers the other one. Occasionally I get lucky and the other person also has a catchy nickname. Then we both remember :-)