Whatever you build, manage, analyze, or support, you work with people—and every one of them has a name. Your colleagues, bosses, direct reports, contractors, clients, and customers all bring their own names and stories to the interaction. Have you ever stopped to think about the power and potential those names bring to your everyday role?

Names are social building blocks. Used thoughtfully, they can signal attention, build rapport, and make everyday interactions more memorable. Used carelessly, they can create awkwardness, reinforce assumptions, or undermine a relationship before it has a chance to develop. And in an age of stored data and automated personalization, the need to use names appropriately is more pressing than ever.

In this lively, practical session, Kaomi Joy Taylor, MPA, founder of the Museum of Names and creator of Name Fluency™, explores the surprising, sometimes funny, and often overlooked role names play in our working lives. Drawing on research, real-world stories, psychology, neuroscience, and humor, she reveals the often unexpected ways that names shape our interactions and how using them thoughtfully can strengthen relationships and help achieve workplace goals.

Together, the group will:

> Rediscover names as carriers of identity, trust, history, culture and belonging

> Explore power dynamics inherent in names and name usage

> Learn how to memorize and use unfamiliar names comfortably, and recover gracefully from inevitable name errors.

> Learn to recognize organizational name-handling and data storage habits that may create unseen friction

Participants will leave with practical strategies they can apply right away to turn everyday interactions into better communication, stronger relationships, and more effective collaboration.

Keywords: Names, Trust, Relationship-Building, Team-Building, Communication, Personalization, Sales, Marketing, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Loyalty, Leadership, Workplace Culture, Organizational Culture, Diversity and Equity, Hiring & Recruitment, Systems, Human-Centered Innovation, Name Fluency™