"The meeting isn't the work. What you do after it is."
By the end of this Beacon, you'll know how to:
NotebookLM is Google's AI-powered research assistant — but it's brilliant for meetings too. You upload a document (like a transcript or typed-up notes), and NotebookLM reads it carefully. You can then ask it questions, get summaries, and pull out exactly what you need.
You've already seen NotebookLM in Beacon 7 and Beacon 9 — here we're using it in a new way: as your personal meeting assistant.
→ Go to NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google.com
You sit through an hour-long staff meeting. People talk, decisions get made, someone volunteers for something. Then it's over — and a few days later, nobody's quite sure who was supposed to do what.
Sound familiar?
AI can help. Not by attending the meeting for you — but by reading your notes and doing the hard work of summarising them.
Here's the workflow: you give your notes to NotebookLM, get a clean summary, then hand that to your AI chatbot to turn into a clear action list.
Two tools, one smooth flow.
You don't need a recording or a fancy transcript. Rough notes typed up after the meeting work perfectly well — even bullet points are fine. NotebookLM is good at making sense of messy input.
If your school or organisation does record meetings, many tools can generate a transcript automatically:
For this Beacon, we've prepared a sample set of meeting notes you can use — no recording needed. 👇
NotebookLM works with "notebooks" — each one is a separate project where you upload your sources.
Here's how it works:
It's a bit like having a very attentive colleague who never forgets a word that was said.
For this exercise, you'll use a sample set of meeting notes from a fictional school staff meeting. No recording needed — just copy and paste the text below.
Open NotebookLM (https://notebooklm.google.com) and create a new notebook. Choose Paste text as your source, and paste in these sample meeting notes:
Once uploaded, ask NotebookLM to summarise the notes using this prompt:
Copy the summary NotebookLM gives you — you'll need it in the next step.
Open your preferred AI chatbot — ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini — and paste in both the summary and the original notes, then use this prompt:
Replace the two placeholders with your actual content, then send the prompt.
Screens and menus may look slightly different — that's normal. Just explore and you'll find your way. 😊
Look at the action items your chatbot produced — specifically the structure it used.
It didn't just list tasks randomly. It organised them by person, added the deadline where one was mentioned, and noted where follow-up is still needed.
That's the insight: the AI isn't just copying information — it's reorganising it into a format that's actually useful. The same words, made actionable.
Do I need a recording?
No — typed notes or even rough bullet points work fine. The AI is good at making sense of imperfect input.
What if the notes are messy or incomplete?
That's fine. You can ask your chatbot to "clean up" rough notes first, then turn them into action items. It works surprisingly well even with gaps.
Can I use this for other types of meetings?
Absolutely — parent evenings, committee meetings, community groups, book clubs. Anywhere people meet and decisions get made, this workflow helps.
Does NotebookLM store my data?
Your notebooks are private and stored in your Google account. You can delete them any time.
Why do we paste both the notes and the summary?
The summary from NotebookLM gives a good overview, but it sometimes leaves out names. By including the original notes too, your chatbot has everything it needs to assign tasks to the right people.
You've just built a simple but powerful meeting workflow — upload, summarise, act.
No more "wait, who was supposed to do that?" moments.
Up next: Beacon 23 – Your personal assistant
You'll set up a simple daily AI routine — a morning briefing, a task list, a check-in. Small habits, big difference.
No rush. Come back whenever you're ready. 🙂