How I Navigated the ASTD Conference With an Ipad, Evernote, and Gtd

I recently returned from the 2011 American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) Conference in Orlando, Florida. On this trip, I approached my note-taking just a little differently. Normally, I take notes with traditional paper and a pen. This time, I took all of my notes on my iPad, and it worked out wonderfully.

Evernote screenshot

Preparing Evernote Before the Conference

My primary application of choice has been and will be Evernote. Evernote allows me to capture my ideas easily. I could then organize them in notebooks, tag them, and make them available through the cloud.

Knowing I was going to the ASTD conference, I prepared early. Using strategies from Getting Things Done (GTD), I created a tag to identify my postings. At a minimum, I tagged them with “ASTD 2011.” I used other tags depending on the topic. I placed all of my notes or postings in my Reference notebook since I planned to use these ideas later, but they did not require a next action.

To prepare for the conference, I forwarded my airline, car, hotel, and conference information to the appropriate tag and notebook. It was very useful to have this information at my fingertips.

Capturing Notes During Sessions

During the conference, I used the ASTD application extensively to schedule the sessions I wanted to attend. While in the session, I took notes directly into Evernote. I gave each session its own note page. Any pictures I took during a session, I emailed directly to Evernote and appropriately tagged and placed in the Reference notebook.

Creating My Trip Report

Once I returned from the conference, I could use the desktop Evernote client to help assemble my trip report. By using Evernote and the GTD strategies, I felt I was more prepared, and I worked less. Normally, I have to do double duty on my notes when I write them on a legal pad and then transcribe them to my trip report. With Evernote, I had the additional benefit of being able to search through my notes immediately.

Lessons for Next Time

Here are a couple of lessons I would like to pass on: 1). Make sure you fully charge your iPad before starting the day. I came close to running out of power and 2). Spend time preparing for note-taking before you actually get to the conference.

I had a tremendously positive experience using this method; I expect to continue to use my iPad and Evernote to capture conference notes well into the future.

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