One of the main challenges most people have when the go to events is what they do with business cards after the fact.
It doesn’t actually matter what you do as long as you have a routine, one that will make sure you are able to retrieve the contacts at will is what will make it work.
One of my clients kept all of the cards he collected in grocer bags. I asked him to bring the cards to me one day so I could help him sort them out. He should up with 11 bags of cards. We spent a bit more than an hour going through the cards, sorting them by Power Partners, possible clients and those who might never have any association with him except they might be good referrals for others.
I designed a database he could put the business card in but he never used it after the day I set it up for him. He would keep stacks of cards in several pockets and when someone might mention they were looking for a house painter or CPA, he would know exactly the right pocket and stack of cards to go through and then hand them the card.
I developed a system of putting the cards in the order I met people in the plastic business card sleeves. I would put people in the database once I had talked with them but not if them didn’t return my calls.
For some reason, I was able to remember exactly where the card was by some visual technique I became adept with.