AI Tools to Summarize Public Meetings — LIVE Webinar Replay

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On February 6, 2025, Our-Hometown hosted a webinar demonstrating their new AI-powered tools designed to help journalists and publishers efficiently summarize and report on public meetings. The presentation focused on showing how their technology can transform lengthy YouTube videos of government meetings into structured, time-stamped summaries with key discussion points and decisions.

Table Of Contents
  1. Purpose of AI Tool for Public Meetings – 00:00:21
  2. YouTube Video Processing – 00:01:28
  3. URL and Transcript Input – 00:08:56
  4. Custom Topic Instructions – 00:10:05
  5. Timestamp Quality Control – 00:10:57
  6. Generating Detailed Meeting Summary – 00:16:15
  7. Custom Article Generation – 00:18:40
  8. Cross-Meeting Topic Connections – 00:21:37
  9. Video Embedding Functionality – 00:26:30

Led by Matt (President/CEO) and Christopher (Marketing/AI Development), with attendance from Scott of the Gaffney Ledger, the webinar showcased practical applications of AI in local journalism, particularly for covering school board and city council meetings. The tool aims to help publishers maintain comprehensive coverage of local government meetings despite resource constraints.

Purpose of AI Tool for Public Meetings – 00:00:21

Matt, CEO: Introduced the webinar’s purpose and explained how the tool helps publishers maintain coverage of public meetings they might not otherwise be able to attend. The focus is on creating efficient workflows for processing meeting videos and generating useful summaries.

Transcript

  • Matt: “The whole point of this app and this process is to help publishers cover those meetings that maybe you used to cover but don’t cover anymore as much, or you can’t get to every meeting.”

YouTube Video Processing – 00:01:28

Christopher, AI Development: Detailed the technical aspects of processing YouTube videos, including transcript extraction and timestamp generation. The system currently focuses on YouTube channels but plans to expand to other video formats.

Tool Demonstration Process – 00:08:31

URL and Transcript Input – 00:08:56

Matt: Demonstrated the process of inputting YouTube URLs and meeting agendas into the system. The tool can process meeting transcripts even without an agenda, though having one improves accuracy.

Custom Topic Instructions – 00:10:05

Matt: Showed how users can customize the AI’s focus through specific topic instructions, allowing for more detailed coverage of particular meeting segments.

Timestamp Quality Control – 00:10:57

Christopher: Explained the importance of quality control in timestamp generation and how users can adjust timestamps for accuracy.

Summary Generation – 00:15:27

Generating Detailed Meeting Summary – 00:16:15

Matt: Demonstrated how the tool generates comprehensive summaries with speaker identification, quotes, and detailed topic breakdowns.

Custom Article Generation – 00:18:40

Matt: Showed how the system can generate focused articles on specific meeting topics, such as teacher recognition or policy changes.

Future Development and Potential – 00:21:19

Cross-Meeting Topic Connections – 00:21:37

Christopher: Discussed future capabilities for tracking topics across multiple meetings and generating comprehensive reports on ongoing issues.

Video Embedding Functionality – 00:26:30

Christopher: Explained upcoming features for embedding videos with synchronized timestamps on publisher websites, enhancing the user experience for readers accessing meeting coverage.

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