12 iPhones Apps That Will Make You a Networking Star

Nothing is more embarrassing than forgetting someone’s name shortly after meeting them or after running into them repeatedly. Thankfully, there’s a good app to solve this problem: Namerick ($.99). The app lets you quickly record a name and jot down notes about the person, such as what they’re wearing, where and when you first met, and other identifiers. You can search names and notes to recall names, too.

When meeting strangers, it’s best to find common conversational ground. What are people talking about? If you’re not on Twitter (free), you better get with it. Conferences almost always use Twitter hashtags, so you can search what attendees are tweeting about. This will give you a sense of the conference’s main themes, which make great conversation starters.

Some custom-conference apps also have a social stream for attendees only – another good place to get up to conversational speed.

At a conference, it’s all about swapping business cards. This meant inputting contact information into your address book when you got home. With CamCard (free), just snap a picture of the card and you’re done. Sure, some iPhone business reader apps wirelessly link up phones, but that seems a little intimate for someone you just met. Besides, it’s hard to refuse such a request. Just gimme your damn card.

Similar business-card scanner apps include CardMunch (free) and WorldCard Mobile ($6.99).