Here is a summary mind map of a monthly networking group I went to last night

I left my bag in the car that had my different coloured pens and only had the Sofitel Hotel's black pen

The Mind Map is still effective as it summarises the key information and gives me an overview of each of the speakers on that night.

Using images and symbols can help enhance the memory aspects and I could colour it in (using Highlighters or Stabilio pens) if I needed to or had the time.

Hint :  How to get the perfect circles in the O and C - i just traced around the lid from the bottle of water on the table!

As this was just a quick summary of the evening I don't need to do anything more with it - just file it away for future reference.

Here is a brief summary of the Event - based on my Mind Map

National Speakers Association  Monthly meeting - 20th October 2009

The MC was Leonie Russell

The NSAA website has been updated

Jason Fox spoke briefly about the Kerrie Nairn Scholarship - which is a $10,000 scholarship to those just entering the speaking business - jason was this year's recipient

Andreas Dagelet

Spoke about his accident in 1995 where he fell off a tree and is now in a wheel chari

his website www.extremerolling.com has information about his next adventure to handcycle from Melbourne to Darwin  starting 17 Feburary 2010 to raise money for 1,000 children  born with a club foot in africa - $200 per child to cure them. He will be doing it with Dale Elliot a fellow wheelchair adventurer

Andreas talked abou dream takers who create obsticals to any dream and how to turn those obsticals into opportunities.

You can remove anxiety by just focussing on the right future using your imagination

the final speaker was Karen Schmidt on how to master the balancing act between work and life as a speaker

The three s's are Success, Sanity and Speaking

She asked us how do we define success as speakers (Money, Choice, Travel, Audience Ah-ha moments)

What are our habits and roles other than speaking

and to look at life like a wheels with six segments - Career, Money, Relationships, Health, Mind and Leisure

And to ask questions on each of these that help us assess how balanced we are.:-

For leisure What is on our "Used to Do list" - things that we enjoyed in the past?

So you can see how easy it is to translate a Mind Map into a full text summary or article - I have only done a brief summary that took only 8 minutes.

What have you found works when you do a Mind Map of a meeting??