GINGER ALCHEMY • ALCHEMY AI
Friday Build + Field Notes • Issue 08
Field notes from a conference

Stop filing your notes.

Start asking them questions.

One useful build. One small observation. One thing worth keeping.
Last week, I went to a conference and tried something different.
Instead of scribbling away in some random notebook I remembered to bring, I used Granola to capture the sessions I attended, snapped pictures of the slides that interested me, and put everything into one tidy little ChatGPT Project.
Now I can ask the whole conference a question.
In this email
01 •
Friday Build
Turn conference notes into a knowledge bank you can ask
02 •
Noticing
Use what you learned on the next real problem
03 •
Keep This
Ask AI to show you the source
01
Friday Build

Turn the notes into something you can ask.

If you haven’t used it, Granola is an AI notetaker. It listens while you’re in a meeting, or in this case a conference session, and gives you clean notes afterward: who spoke, what they covered, the stuff you’d have scribbled. I used the app on my phone.
Quick note: make sure recording isn’t off-limits at your event.
I uploaded the Granola notes and my slide photos as source files. ChatGPT used the timestamps to match the photos to the right sessions.
Then I asked ChatGPT to write the instructions for the Project. I told it how I wanted to use the information later: find common themes across sessions, compare the case studies, and help me apply what I learned to whatever I was working on next.
Once the Project was set up, I asked:
What were the common themes across all of the case studies I saw today?
The common thread was curiosity.
Each case study started with some version of What would happen if…? Then the team used the data and tools they had to explore the question, build the story, and turn it into a business outcome.
That answer didn’t come from one presentation. It was the pattern across all of them, and I wouldn’t have pieced it together from a pile of separate notes.
Upload your notes, slides, and photos as source files. Then paste this into the Project chat.
Write my Project Instructions
I’m setting up this Project with my notes, transcripts, and slide photos from [EVENT]. I run a [YOUR BUSINESS].

Later, I want to use it to [find themes across sessions / compare the case studies / apply the ideas to problems I’m working on].

Write Project Instructions that tell you how to use these files for that. Only answer from my source files, and tell me which session an idea came from. Ask me one question at a time about anything you need before you write them.
Paste what it writes into the Project Instructions. Now you can ask questions across the full conference instead of trying to remember which session had the thing you need.
02
What I’m Noticing

The useful part happened after the conference.

A few days later, I was preparing a big presentation. I didn’t just need the information from the conference. I needed to understand how the strongest case studies framed the problem and built the story.
So I went back to the Project with the problem I was working on. What questions did the successful case studies answer? What order did they present things in? How could I use that same thinking for the situation in front of me?
That’s always the part I care about. Not how this solves a problem today. How is this an asset three months from now?
I’m not hunting for the notebook or trying to remember which speaker said what. The thinking is still there when I need it.
03
Keep This

“Show me the source.”

If an answer feels off, or useful enough that you want to act on it, ask ChatGPT or Claude to show you where it came from in your source files.
It’ll point you to the note or session so you can see the original context. No forensic audit required.
Do this before Monday
Pick the next conference, webinar, or course on your calendar and set up its Project before you walk in the door.
Hit reply and tell me the last conference you went to, and whether those notes have been opened since. I read every one.
— Jamie