Agreed. Shake the hand. Look them in the eye. Say "Hello name." Then pause to look at them while they respond. Tunnel vision.

That's step 1 to remembering someone I meet at a party.

I find that as soon as I find out something interesting about the person I've just met that the odds of long-term recall improve dramatically.

Context is everything when it comes to recall. I find it takes me at least 5 seconds to remember a remote office co-worker's name if they are visiting our office - by that time, they've already walked past me.

I was in another city at an event and thought I saw someone I knew from my home city. I thought 'what the heck would he be doing here? it can't be him' Later on, I emailed him and he was like 'yeah, i thought it was you. i was there too'