What do you think of recording video meetings?

Question

At my large tech co, occasionally a host of a small ordinary inter-team video meeting will record it (after getting consent). I see many cons and also some pros to this practice, I&rsquo;m curious what you all think?

zhte415 · Accepted Answer

If a meeting has an agenda and summary / minutes of what was discussed, this seems redundant. A summary doesn't take long compared to the cost of trawling through video. Also, some may speak their mind less if it's 'on record'.
If it doesn't have the above, was the meeting necessary? If something material and of substance arises, make a note of it, a note that has discoverability. What about retention policy? References in the future?
Is this to encourage people not to attend?
It seems something no sane organisation would do for the purposes of having a meeting. For marketing, for a presentation, for a demonstration, promises or interactions with a customer or supplier, recordings make sense as far as they're needed for that explicit purpose.
My 2p. Interested in use cases others may have though.

cromulent · Answer

Are they really useful - do people watch them? If I missed a meeting and needed to catch up, or review the outcome, I would prefer skimmable searchable text, if only for the time saved.Recently I have seen people delivering recordings of meetings in lieu of documentation. It really annoys me. Textual documentation is far more useful than videos.

Arrivest · Answer

Personal experience: sometimes someone has clearly said something, and I heard every word, but my brain didn't process it. When I go back to re-watch the recording, I get so much more information. It's similar with watching a movie the 2nd time.