(Tl;dr): Check out my Quarto-Keeper for a template notebook for making notes during conferences and events: https://github.com/ats/quarto-keeper
I’ve experimented on and off with putting journal-style notes into a Quarto notebook, and for that use it has just enough friction that I (inevitably, just as the salmon climb the Columbia, and the mountains crumble to the sea, etc) found my way back to emacs’ org-mode for a lot of day-to-day planning, work-related journaling, and drafts.
Attending last month’s Posit::conf() remotely, I experimented with another Quarto use and love the result: Throughout the conf, I threw all my notes, screenshots, and bits of code that I captured into a set of files in a new Quarto book — producing a searchable, lovely-rendered book that I’ve already referred to several times in follow-up thinking after the conf. I started with minimal structure that evolved into a handful of purpose-specific files that I added to over the course of the event: A place for keynotes, another set of files for regular sessions, and a file to stash miscellaneous bits and pieces.
The visual editor for Quarto in RStudio is particularly useful, because it handles easily including screenshots with lots less friction than the comparable method in something like org-mode. And of course, since it’s a Quarto doc, I can include code chunks and … they work!
I went and cleaned up this structure, putting it into a template that I can re-use, and have published it as Quarto-Keeper (like a Trapper Keeper, but for conferences and in Quarto). Reusable, publishable technical note taking for everyone!
Try it out: https://github.com/ats/quarto-keeper