I meet people all the time.

In the past it was at entrepreneurship networking events when I was starting up Nudge.  Then, it was at engineering conferences and engineering networking events when I was working on Robogals.  Now, it's because I give a lot of speeches at conferences.

I used to exchange business cards, follow-up with everyone, and add them to the Robogals mailing list.

But then last year, it got to the point where I was giving 3 ~ 4 speeches a week, and didn't have time to follow-up with everyone and add them to the mailing list.  So now I have a huge pile of business cards that I haven't dealt with.  For people I met nearly a year ago.

So I still haven't worked out the best way to keep in touch with people.

But the more people I meet, the more I cherish the handful of people I've met at each conference who changed the way I saw the world, or who I spoke to for really long periods about things that I'm really passionate about (living life powerfully and with integrity/ what's important in relationships with venture capitalists/ entrepreneurship/ education) or nothing in particular at all, but who seemed to be on the same wavelength as me.  It's those who I remember long after I remember what the sessions were about.

I think that's what I try to be when I network - a great conversation that changes the way someone sees the world.