3) Summarising by topic

This is a different approach to summary, which we have tried and found to be broadly not very successful, and considerably more time-consuming than chronological summary.

We include it here because it can work well for some very specific types of meetings - those where there is no pre-defined agenda, where discussion tends to jump about from topic to topic, or where a set of themes and topics emerges during the meeting which is very different from those defined in the agenda. It can also occasionally be useful for very complex topics, where issues are discussed and re-discussed from different angles; it can help readers to make sense of the discussion if all the thinking on a topic is pulled together under one heading.

1. Listen to the video and take notes of broad headings and topics as you see them, These might or might not correlate with any agenda or session plan that was used.

2. Group the speakers’ comments under these headings, regardless of when the comment was made. You can add a timestamp after a point, to help readers navigate the video.

3. You will probably need to go through the recording more than once, to ensure you haven’t missed anything.

4. Some speakers’ points might need to be listed under more than one heading.