LOTI Skills Programme: Gemini Notebook for council officers

Event Description

Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) is a powerful, personalised AI research assistant that can radically change how you interact with information. Many council officers whose local authorities use the Google Suite do not realise that they already have access to this tool, what it can do, or how effectively it can support their day-to-day responsibilities.

This interactive session is designed to close that gap. We will explain exactly how Gemini Notebook works, highlight its unique benefits for local government, and guide you through live, hands-on exercises that we will complete together during the call.

Why attend? What are the benefits of Gemini Notebook?

Unlike general AI chatbots, Notebook acts as an expert on the specific documents you give it. By grounding its answers strictly in your uploaded sources (such as policy documents, consultation responses, or strategy reports), it virtually eliminates hallucinations and provides automatic citations back to the original text.

In this session, you will learn how Notebook can help you:

• Synthesise complex data: Instantly summarize long reports, briefing notes, or legislative documents.
• Generate ideas and formulate policy: Brainstorm connections across multiple council datasets or policy frameworks.
• Create automatic study guides: Transcribe or translate complex materials into FAQs, briefing documents, or even audio overviews.
• Draft with confidence: Query your documents securely, knowing the answers are cited directly from your trusted sources.

Who can attend this workshop?

To attend this workshop you must be a council officer working for a LOTI member. You can see our membership by visiting our website.

• For Google-Suite users: This workshop is highly recommended for any officer currently using Google tools who wants to unlock a powerful feature they likely already have at their fingertips.
• For non-Google-Suite users: If your council uses Microsoft 365, you are still highly encouraged to attend! This session will show you exactly what NotebookLM is capable of, equipping you with the knowledge to request it to be enabled or explored within your own authority to improve your work.

Technical requirements and preparation

To participate fully in the live exercises, you must have a Google account (either work or personal). We will provide synthetic data sets to use in the session. No private council data will be used in this session. 

IMPORTANT: Due to the size of the workshop and diversity of participants, it is your responsibility before registering to check your access. We will be sending you instructions to set up your system before the session. If you cannot complete the setup before the event, please register for the waitlist for the next event as we will not be able to assist you on the call.

LOTI cannot assist officers from individual councils to access or enable their internal IT tools. If you have any questions about tool availability, please contact your council IT support team before the call.

About LOTI

The London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) was established in July 2019 to help its London borough members, the Greater London Authority (GLA), and London Councils to collaborate on projects that bring the best of digital and data innovation to improve public services and outcomes for Londoners. For more information, visit our website.

If you have any issues registering for a ticket, please kindly email contact@loti.london