1) Veronica Belmont
Veronica Belmont is tech writer, media producer and is also the video host of Tekzilla, a twice-weekly tech how-to show on Revision3 Internet Television. And she has over 1.5 million Twitter followers! With all those friends, how do you remember names, Veronica? We’d love to know. She was also listed #2 on Fast Company’s list of Most Influential Women in Technology. To state it simply, Veronica rocks.
2) Shira Lazar
Called the “Barbara Walters of YouTube,” Shira Lazar hosts numerous television and online broadcasts and special events as well as writes about social media, one of her areas of expertise, on Entrepreneur.com. Shira is clearly a name to remember with 10 billion connections, and you can bet she didn’t get where she is today by forgetting people’s names.
3) Heather Harde
Heather Harde is a contemporary of mine (we are the same age, both studied literature and both have ties to the New England area). Unfortunately (for me), the similarities stop there. Graduating from Harvard, Business School, Heather began to build an impressive career in technology. She is now the CEO of TechCruch. You can’t get much better than that.
4) Dr. Cynthia Breazeal
Dr. Breazeal is clearly a super-genius and a professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT. She also directs the Personal Robots Group at MIT, which studies and creates humanoid robots meant to interact with humans in expressive ways. Dr. Breazeal clearly knows a thing or two about human (and robot) capabilities. Boy, would we love to ask her a thing or two about the science of human memory!
5) Kellee Santiago
Kellee is the president and co-founder of That Game Company, a company that designs and develops video games. Before landing this most-impressive gig, Kellee worked for Guitar Hero. Seriously, though, how cool is she?
6) Erin Robinson
Erin is an independent video game developer as well as a writer/blogger. She wrote a amazing article exploring neuroscience and gaming on Gamasutra, which touched upon a subject near and dear to us…the human memory. Wouldn’t we love to pick her brain?!
7) Katrin Verclas
Katrin Verclas is the founder of Mobile Active , which is just about the coolest company ever. Mobile Active uses mobile phone technology to connect people to one another for a common good (humanitarian aid, education, the environment). You could say this is a tech company with a conscience. With global connections like hers, we’d love to know how Katrin keeps everybody’s names straight!
8) Jennifer Aaker
Jennifer Aaker is a highly influential social psychologist and marketing expert. She co-authored The Dragonfly Effect with her husband, a book about the impact of social media. She is also a professor at Stanford Business School. Well, you’ve certainly impressed us, Jennifer!
9) Leslie Bradshaw
Leslie Bradshaw is the COO for Jess3, a popular and well-connected interactive digital agency based in Washington, D.C. Leslie was raised not in Silicon Valley, but on a farm in Oregon. She is indeed a role model for young girls who want to think and work outside the box. Leslie was kind enough to tell us what names she has the hardest time remembering…old friends from high school that she hasn’t seen in a while! What cues help her to remember names of people she meets for the first time? Asking questions, listening carefully to their answers and repeating the person’s name out loud. She says she learned these great strategies from her dad, who is in the hospitality field. Thanks, Leslie (and Leslie’s Dad)!
