> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/rowboatlabs/rowboat/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Preparing for Meetings

> Gather context from your knowledge base and calendar to prepare comprehensive meeting briefs

Rowboat helps you prepare for meetings by automatically gathering context about attendees from your knowledge base and calendar, creating personalized meeting briefs with history, open items, and suggested talking points.

## How It Works

When you ask Rowboat to prep for a meeting, it follows a thorough workflow:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Identify the meeting">
    Rowboat scans your synced calendar to find the meeting. You can specify which meeting or ask for your next meeting.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Look up attendees">
    For each attendee, Rowboat searches your knowledge base for:

    * Person notes with their role, background, and history
    * Organization notes about their company
    * Project notes where they're involved
  </Step>

  <Step title="Extract relevant context">
    From your notes, Rowboat pulls:

    * Previous interactions and their outcomes
    * Commitments made (by them or to them)
    * Open action items
    * Key facts about what they care about
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create the brief">
    A comprehensive meeting brief is generated with:

    * About section (role, background, focus areas)
    * Chronological history of interactions
    * Outstanding action items
    * Concrete talking points based on your relationship
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Example Usage

<CodeGroup>
  ```text Simple request theme={null}
  Prep me for my next meeting
  ```

  ```text Specific meeting theme={null}
  Prepare for my 2pm with Sarah Chen
  ```

  ```text Multiple meetings theme={null}
  Prep all my meetings for today
  ```
</CodeGroup>

## What You Get

Rowboat creates a structured brief like this:

```markdown theme={null}
📋
Meeting Brief: Sarah Chen
2:00 PM today · Horizon Ventures

About Sarah
Partner at Horizon Ventures. Led investments in WorkOS and Segment. 
Very focused on unit economics.

Your History
- Jan 15: Partner meeting — positive reception
- Jan 12: Sent updated deck with cohort analysis
- Jan 8: First pitch — she loved the 125% NRR

Open Items
- Send updated financial model (she asked Jan 15)
- Discuss term sheet timeline

Suggested Talking Points
- Address her question about CAC by channel
- Mention [[TechFlow]] expansion closed ($120K ARR)
```

<Tip>
  Rowboat uses `[[Name]]` wiki-link syntax to cross-reference related people, projects, and organizations in your knowledge base, making it easy to navigate to additional context.
</Tip>

## Key Features

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Context-driven" icon="brain">
    Never get generic templates. Every brief is personalized based on your actual relationship history and notes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Automatic lookup" icon="magnifying-glass">
    Rowboat searches your knowledge base first before creating any brief, ensuring accuracy.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Actionable insights" icon="list-check">
    Get specific talking points and reminders about commitments, not generic meeting tips.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Smart filtering" icon="filter">
    Only preps for meetings with external attendees, skipping internal blocks like Focus Time.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Best Practices

### Keep person notes updated

The quality of your meeting briefs depends on your knowledge base. After meetings, update person notes with:

* What you discussed
* Commitments made
* Follow-up items
* New insights about what they care about

### Specify unclear requests

If you have multiple meetings coming up, Rowboat will ask which one to prep. Be specific to save time:

* "Prep my investor meeting" (if you only have one)
* "Prep the Sarah call" (use their name)
* "Prep my 2pm" (use the time)

### Review before the meeting

Get your brief 15-30 minutes before the meeting starts so you have time to review and prepare additional materials if needed.

## Data Sources

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Calendar sync" icon="calendar">
    Rowboat reads your synced calendar events from the `calendar_sync/` folder to identify meetings and extract attendee information.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Knowledge base" icon="database">
    Person, organization, and project notes from your `knowledge/` folder provide the context for creating personalized briefs.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Tip>
  If Rowboat finds no notes for an attendee, it will mention this and offer to help create one. This is a great opportunity to capture context before the meeting.
</Tip>

## Related Features

* [Document Collaboration](/use-cases/document-collaboration) - Work with Rowboat to maintain your knowledge base notes
* [Email Drafting](/use-cases/email-drafting) - Draft contextual follow-up emails after meetings