Don't just meet people. Keep them.

For almost 30 years, as a technician, an inspector, a designer, the owner of my own firm, and as the 21st City Engineer in Jacksonville's history, I was often the only one in the room who looked like me. People remembered me.

My problem was remembering all of them.

I'll never forget stepping off a panel at a transportation conference in Jacksonville, where I'd just spoken for the city about the year's upcoming work. A man came up, shook my hand, and started talking about a DOT project from years earlier, when I was out testing concrete. He remembered the car I drove, my business partner, the jokes we shared on that job site over months of visits. He remembered everything.

I had no idea who he was.

That wasn't the only time. Twenty people here, fifty there, a hundred at the next event, and every one of them deserved better than a polite smile and a blank memory.

So I built Syndeya, so the people you meet never become people you forget.

Sheldon Gibbs, PEFounder