Get the Most Out of a Conference: Simple Note-Taking and Follow-Up

When you spend the time and money to attend a conference, it’s worth making sure the ideas don’t slip away as soon as you leave. Conferences move fast, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed or lose track of what really stood out. Over time, I’ve built a simple system to make those takeaways stick. It’s flexible, low-effort, and easy to use during and after the event.

Everything I recommend boils down to one thing: capture the important stuff and put it somewhere you will actually find it later.

That sounds obvious, but most of the friction comes from how you capture, where you store, and how quickly you review.

Before and during the conference: keep it simple

I try not to over-engineer note-taking when I am in sessions. If you can, do a small setup ahead of time—create one page in your notes app, or bring a small physical journal—but don’t stress if you don’t have the exact right thing on you.

Here are the practical choices I use and why:

• Pen and paper: low distraction, no battery, fast. I always carry a small journal and write a one-sentence note for the idea and the presenter name. That single line is usually enough to jog my memory later.
• Digital quick notes: if you prefer digital, use your phone—but avoid long typing during sessions. A single-line note is ideal.
• Audio notes: after a session, record a quick 60–120 second voice memo talking yourself through what stood out and any action items or people to follow up with.

Why short notes work better

I am not suggesting you transcribe every slide. Short notes force you to distill what matters. It also lowers the activation energy to take notes at all, so you are more likely to capture the moments you care about.

Use tools to accelerate the follow-up

Once you have those quick notes and audio memos, tools can help you turn them into something you will actually use.

• Take a picture of your handwritten notes and have a transcription tool process them.
• Upload audio memos to a transcription service or ask a tool like ChatGPT to transcribe and summarize key points.
• Ask for the output to include explicit action items and people to contact. That makes follow-up much easier.

“Maybe take an audio recording and just talk yourself through what was interesting, what came to mind, is there anything action items you want to have or people you want to connect with?”

Recording your thoughts out loud does two things: it cements ideas in your head, and it creates material that is easy to summarize later.

One place to rule them all

My biggest rule: get everything into one location. Do not leave your ideas scattered across a journal, an app, voice files, and scraps of paper across different places.

Options I use or recommend:

• Notion: create a conference page, upload images, audio, and summaries. Tag it and add dates.
• Obsidian or Roam Research: good if you prefer linked notes and long-term connections.
• A single folder in your files app with a clear naming convention also works if you prefer simple structures.

Once everything is in one place, you can add to it after each day, or after the conference. The more often you touch it, the more it will stick.

What I do when I get back

Travel and work catch up quickly. I block a little time after travel to avoid the frantic “backlog” feeling. Here is my return routine:

1. Block 60–90 minutes in my calendar within a day or two of returning.
2. Load any photos of notes and audio memos into my conference page.
3. Use a transcription/summarization tool to create a short summary and a list of action items.
4. Tag people to reach out to and add follow-up tasks to my task manager.

I will be honest: on my last trip I took loose notes but did not create daily summaries. I am going back through my notes now, transcribing a couple audio files, and adding everything to a tagged page for easy reference later. That extra review will make the whole trip more useful.

Daily or session-based cadence

You can adapt this system to how you like to work. Options that work well:

• Session-level: 2 minutes after each session—write one line and record a 30–60 second voice memo.
• Daily summary: at the end of each conference day, spend 10–20 minutes consolidating notes and listing action items.
• Post-conference: within 48 hours, do one consolidation pass and schedule follow-ups.

Quick checklist to try at your next conference

• Bring a small journal or open a single notes page.
• Write one sentence per idea: presenter name plus the idea.
• Record a quick voice memo for thoughts and action items.
• At the end of the day, transcribe or upload your notes to a single place.
• Have the transcript summarized and converted into action items.
• Tag and date the conference page so you can find it later.
• Block time after travel to review and schedule follow-ups.

Final note: Be practical and kind to yourself

I share this because it has helped me get useful, actionable outcomes from conferences without losing days to rework. You do not need perfect notes. You just need a low-friction habit that captures the parts you care about and a reliable place to store them.

Try one small change next time: whether it is carrying a pocket journal or recording a 60-second memo after a session, small habits compound into much better recall and follow-up.