I just read the latest news bulletin from Evernote, the developers of the “remember-everything,” multi-platform, digital filing cabinet of the same name.

They have just released and announced their newest iPhone app called “Evernote Hello.”

Evernote Hello

Here’s their description of their latest innovation, what I would consider to be Rolodex meets LinkedIn meets… I don’t even know what, because it’s the first of its kind.

Evernote Hello is based around the three fundamental ways that our brains actually remember people:

1. Faces - What do you look like?
2. Time - When did we meet?
3. Context - Why did we meet and who else was there?

That’s all there is to it.

Whether you’re at a big conference, catching up with people at a coffee shop or joining a meeting in your office conference room, these concepts hold true.

I’m jumping out of my skin excited thinking about the possibilities this app has!

Evernote has clearly positioned this app as a next generation networking tool for business professionals to remember, for example, that Archives Clerk that I met at that awkward mixer party for all the regional account managers.

It’s a tool to quickly capture a name, a photo, and any other details the person whom you just met may provide to you. It then tracks that meet up as an ‘encounter’, providing context to your meeting to help you remember who that person is later.

A Ministry Tool

But that’s not the reason I love the concept. This is the perfect tool for youth workers or any ministry worker for that matter that encounters new people in their weekly events, at church or otherwise, and need a quick way of capturing this new person’s information.

Imagine “Joey” walking into your event for the first time. You make your move and take your best stab at making a good first impression, trying to get to know a bit, without seeking too creepy! You introduce yourself and as he introduces himself, you whip out your iPhone (or iPad) with Evernote Hello open and ask him to tap in his name, snap a quick shot of himself (the app automatically takes a picture with the forward-facing camera when the person raises the phone above their shoulders), and provide any additional details he may have been willing to give you.

Once he saves the info, the app automatically sends him an email with your contact details (if he gave you his email address).

Think about it! You’ve just created a fantastic first impression! You instantly have credibility because you’ve got an iPhone and you let him interact with it (instead of scribbling his details on a green “I’m new here” card you printed out an hour ago). You’ve got a slick phone app for him to use that he’s never heard of before. You’ve created a memorable moment for him.

Suddenly, you’ve got his name and face to match the next time you meet him, and you may just have his contact details to interact with him further after your meeting. Not to mention that Hello just sent your contact details to him as well, starting a “conversation”. Instant connection — one Joey can’t ignore!

Just the Beginning

But that’s just the beginning of what is a fantastic application for tracking your interactions with people on an ongoing basis. That’s where Hello’s “encounters” function comes in.

As soon as you add an individual to Evernote Hello, the app automatically creates an Encounter with this person. An Encounter consists of the person’s profile, the location of your meeting and any additional information you’d like to add that will make the event more meaningful for you later. The app lets you attach photos and notes to your encounters.

It will even scan your calendar to anticipate who you might be at the meeting with to make it easier to add them to the app.

The next time you meet the person, you can add an additional Encounter by tapping on the option at the top of this screen. You can even add new photos of the person, if you’d like. Now you’ll have a running history of every time you’ve met, along with a bunch of useful information to jog your memory.

It even interacts with notes you’ve made within Evernote around the time you met with them, and the food you may have eaten with them that you recorded in Evernote Food , another slick app by Evernote meant to preserve “the experiences, thoughts and memories that accompany food.”

Ministry leaders recommend tracking the meetings and interactions you have with followers of your ministry so that you can produce numbers on how many people you’ve met with, for how long, doing whatever–it keeps you accountable to those who have hired you.

How amazed would your church board be when you hand them a report generated by Evernote Hello of all of your interactions in a year?

Finally

Of course all of this information is synchronized to your Evernote account, recorded and saved to be remembered forever.

Who knew that an application would be created for business purposes that has so much potential to assist ministry workers, especially those of us who want to focus on meeting with people face to face, and couldn’t be bothered to setup a spreadsheet to track meetings.

Go download the app today! You can thank me later.

Are there any other creative uses you can think of for this app?

[via Evernote | Image via soleir & GraceOda]