Keep the discussion and follow-up from an in-person workshop
When you're leading a workshop, writing down one contribution can pull your attention away from the next. Use Rebrief for Mac to record the room conversation, then review its transcript and notes afterward for decisions and follow-up tasks. Start the recording manually. The result depends on what your microphone hears, so check that people away from the Mac are audible before the discussion begins.
Get ready to record the discussion
Agree on recording with the organizer, get the required participant permission, and follow the organization's rules. Explain that you'll use the recording to prepare workshop notes and who will receive them. If part of the discussion should stay off the record, agree on that before starting.
Set up Rebrief in advance on an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 15 or later. It can record, transcribe, and create notes offline once the initial downloads are complete. Free recordings stop at 15 minutes, so arrange the one-time paid unlock before recording a longer session. Rebrief support covers setup and the recording limit.
Place the Mac or room microphone where the group can speak normally. Make a short recording from the seats people will use and listen back, including a contribution from the board if people will speak there. Shure's room guidance recommends checking both seated and standing positions for gaps in coverage. If a voice is unclear, move the microphone or adjust the seating; for a large room, ask the venue about its microphone setup.
Let Rebrief keep the spoken record while you facilitate
Start Rebrief from the menu bar when the workshop discussion begins. For an in-person session, use manual recording rather than waiting for automatic call detection. Keep the Mac awake and connected to power: Rebrief stops recording before the Mac sleeps.
With the conversation recording, use your own notes for things that need your attention: a question to return to, a disagreement to resolve, or an observation the microphone cannot capture. You can return to the spoken explanation later. Rebrief's transcript and notes are produced after recording, so continue to keep the group's current decisions visible during the session.
When several people speak at once, ask them to repeat an important point separately. Read a decision back and have the person taking responsibility confirm the task and timing. This lets the group correct misunderstandings while everyone is present and gives you a clearer passage to check afterward.
Keep track of breaks and group reports
Stop the recording when the group takes a break if you don't need the informal conversation. Start a new recording when the discussion resumes, before inviting the next contribution. Treat these as separate recordings to review; don't assume that stopping and starting will produce one continuous session.
For breakout work, collect each group's written output and bring people back together for spoken reports within the microphone's reach. Rebrief can preserve those reports, but a recording at the main table cannot be relied on to capture conversations happening elsewhere. If several groups must be documented in detail, arrange note-taking within each group.
Turn the recorded discussion into follow-up
After the workshop, let Rebrief finish the transcript and then generate the notes. Its meeting notes organize the discussion into key points, decisions, action items, and open questions. Start with the decisions and actions when preparing the follow-up, then use the rest to recover context.
Check each decision against what the group actually agreed. A proposed approach may have been discussed at length and then left open. Pay particular attention to corrections near the end of a topic, where a date or scope may have changed.
For each action, confirm the person responsible, what they agreed to do, and any stated deadline. Listen back when a name is uncertain or people interrupted each other. If the recording doesn't settle the question, ask the participant before sharing the task as an agreement. Leave unassigned work and unresolved dates clearly marked for confirmation.
Add the board photos or written exercise results you collected separately. Rebrief records audio only, so the notes need your help with diagrams, votes, and comments such as "this option." Copy the notes into your usual workshop document using Rebrief's Markdown copy option, make your corrections there, and share the reviewed version through the team's existing process.
Find the explanation when someone follows up
If someone later asks why the group chose an approach, use Rebrief's Ask to find the relevant discussion. Ask a specific question such as "What concerns were raised about the proposed handover process?" Include the workshop topic when you have several recordings.
Read the source passages beneath the answer and open the relevant moment before responding. They can help you explain the reasoning or spot an unresolved concern without relying only on the short recap. For your next workshop, decide who will review the recorded decisions and send the follow-up, so that work has an owner before the session begins.