Pre-alpha · macOS · Windows (unvalidated)

Convene

A facilitation copilot for people who run rooms. Built by a facilitator, running in real sessions, looking for a handful of people to break it.

Convene is a working title. Pre-alpha software changes names; this one might.

“I’m waiting for Mary to get back from leave.”

Status update, or an impediment nobody has agreed to fix? That’s the moment a good facilitator stops the room. It’s also the moment most of us miss, because we’re watching the clock, the board, the quiet one and our own notes, all at once.

So I built the thing I wanted. It is not another AI note-taker. Recorders tell you what happened. I wanted something that changes what happens. The transcript is an input. The meeting outcome is the product.

What it does today

Describe the session you’re about to run and it drafts the themes to cover and an agenda. Not a template menu.

While you run it, it listens locally and prompts you, privately, through those themes. It judges whether the purpose of the session is being met, never whether a format was followed.

It flags the moments a good coach catches. An impediment being quietly normalised. “We should look at market rates” landing in the room as a commitment with no owner and no date.

It captures actions with the exact quote, so nobody relitigates what was said. Afterwards you get an honest report: themes met, themes missed, why. Recurring sessions carry forward, so last time’s open actions and unmet themes feed the next agenda automatically.

What it looks like

Real screenshots from the current build. The finished report shown here ran against a recording of a public GitLab team meeting, used as test material.

Before the session

Describe the room you’re walking into. The planner asks what the session must achieve — and what has been hard about facilitating it before.
Describe the room you’re walking into. The planner asks what the session must achieve — and what has been hard about facilitating it before.

The drafted plan

Themes to cover, each with a ‘does not count’ line: what genuine coverage sounds like, spelled out and editable before you start.
Themes to cover, each with a ‘does not count’ line: what genuine coverage sounds like, spelled out and editable before you start.

The agenda

A timed agenda with the questions a coach would ask. The timings are yours to change.
A timed agenda with the questions a coach would ask. The timings are yours to change.

After the session

Decisions with the exact quote, when each was decided, and how long it took from first being raised.
Decisions with the exact quote, when each was decided, and how long it took from first being raised.

Reservations kept

When someone voices a reservation, it stays on the record next to the decision — not smoothed over.
When someone voices a reservation, it stays on the record next to the decision — not smoothed over.

The honest report

Themes met and missed with the reason why, and the moments a coach would have picked up.
Themes met and missed with the reason why, and the moments a coach would have picked up.

In the lab

Concept visual of the Convene Apple Watch prototype in a meeting: session timer, themes covered, and a private coach nudge on the wrist

The nudge doesn’t have to live on a laptop. We’re experimenting with an Apple Watch face for it: the session’s thread on your wrist — time left, themes covered, and the coach’s prompt as a glance rather than another screen to sit behind. A prototype runs on a real watch. It is not in the pre-alpha build, and the image above is a concept visual, not a live session. If the wrist turns out to be where the nudge belongs, the cohort gets it first.

Hard lines

  • Audio never leaves your machine unless you opt into a cloud model.
  • The AI never speaks to the room.
  • Nudges are private to the facilitator. Not your team, not your manager, not me.
  • It’s a coaching aid, not surveillance.

What I don’t know yet

Whether a nudge mid-session helps, or whether it’s just one more thing to ignore while you’re holding a room together. I can’t answer that from my own meetings. I’m too close to it.

That’s what the pre-alpha cohort is for: facilitators running it in anger and being rude about it.

The deal

It’s free, it’s pre-alpha, and there is no support promise. You will find bugs. That’s the deal. You’ll need:

  • macOS on Apple Silicon, M1 or later.
  • Real sessions: retros, planning, standups, workshops.
  • A willingness to tell me it’s rubbish if it is.

There is also a Windows build. It exists, and that is all I can honestly claim for it: it’s untested and unsigned, so SmartScreen will warn you about it. If you’re on Windows and up for being the very first, say so and you get an even earlier seat.

Join the pre-alpha cohort

Email me and I’ll send you a build. Tell me what you run, how often, and what machine you’re on.

On Windows? We especially want you. The Windows pre-alpha is unvalidated — nobody has run it in a real session yet — and we’re keen to change that with one brave tester.

Register your interest Or DM me on LinkedIn

And if you’d rather not: go back through last week’s sessions and count the commitments that were made out loud with no owner and no date attached. Then decide whether what you need is a tool, or a harder question in the room.