(GRWM is ‘get ready with me’ and quite the trend. In this case, it’s agenda review, not makeup.)

Me last night, managing a pup injury, a kiddo’s birthday party, an unpacked suitcase, and two hours till I leave for San Francisco:

I wish there were a way to get ready for agenda, topics, speakers, overall theme of this conference I’m attending in San Fran!

OH WAIT - There IS a way to get ready quickly.

NotebookLM prepared today’s podcast, a deep dive of the agenda and speakers in ten minutes, from one PDF and a strong-ish prompt.

For the time I have, and what I need done to prep for Fortune Brainstorm AI in San Francisco this week, this AI tool helps solve that initial set of questions:

* What and who is on the agenda?

* What are they adressing in and around AI?

* (most important) Where might I find beyond the table stakes, “enterprise implementation of AI is difficult! Regulation! Data is a mess!”

The AI tool I’m using to help prepare: NotebookLM, one of the Google apps. Google’s Gemini is very powerful generative AI tool.

We’re going to use NotebookLM to do the digging on my questions, and present it to me in a podcast format that I can listen to in the air tonight.

So cool.

From the podcast:

“You’ve tasked us with something massive, synthesizing the strategic landscape captured within the entire agenda for Fortune Brainstorm AI San Francisco 2025. And this isn’t just about giving you a simple list of who’s speaking. The goal here is, I think, much more ambitious. Our mission is to transform you from a well-informed attendee into an insight generator.”

Here’s how I did this (all on my iPhone):

* Download the NotebookLM app from Google (always glance at who made the app before downloading)

* I navigate in my phone browser to the event website for Fortune Brainstorm AI 2025

* Get the link to the agenda. If easier or captures more info, you can use iPhone screengrab feature to create a full page PDF! Press your button on the right and your volume up button at the same time - then it will ask if you want a photo of the screen or the full page (!). Then choose to save to files as a PDF. I LOVE this new feature!

* Go to NotebookLM app or on your mobile browser, and start a new project. Then add either the URL or the PDF you just made. After it starts processing that info, tap Studio, then the little pencil icon on Audio Overview to add a specific prompt of the thing you want covered.

* This is the prompt I used: “I need a full briefing on this upcoming conference taking place centered around AI. Who are the speakers? What are their topics? How can I as an attendee be prepared to be fully engaged based on the latest happening with these speakers and what they’re doing in the field, and how the specific session speakers even intersect each other and what kind of thought leadership angles can I take as an attendee who will be seeking unique insights that are more novel than commonly discussed to share with my audience who will not be in attendance and would benefit from me relaying what I’ve learned.”

See my NotebookLM - chat with it about the agenda (just try it out! easy! No one sees what you ask! Important to try new, highly reputable AI tools)!

Or listen to the audio overview here as a podcast now!

Thanks to Kate Marshall for sharing your AI journey and showing me how to do this!

What kind of personal or business help might a tool like this give you?

Tried it before?