a few years ago i took a social psych course and learned that the best way to remember is to make the memory more elaborate, more particular than just an everyday experience might normally afford. if you meet a lot of people, you get used to that process of introductions and unless someone (or you) do something to make it meaningful, those memories may not stick. so yeah – ask them to tell you something interesting, or use some sort of pneumonic technique (rhyme the name, relate it to something that you already remember)...or just repeat it a few times, maybe quietly. and here, check out this page with some tips for remembering names: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTIM_12.htm. best of luck!