I read Moonwalking with Einstein recently, and although there aren't many specific memory exercises to practice, the notion it incepts into your brain that to recall information better you need to encode it in the first place has changed my ability to remember on a daily basis. To remember a name, you need to first listen to what the person actually says instead of anticipating when you get to say your name.

I've specifically been using the mneumonic talked about in the book for remembering names and it has been working great. The idea is to turn Billy Baker into a visual image of that person riding a BILLY goat dressed in a BAKER's outfit. Then the next time you see Billy, you can recall your mneumonic and therefore his name.

Sidenote: Ed Cooke, the mneumonist who mentors Joshua Foer, is now working on a startup called Memrise which teaches language through memory techniques.