The first thing I noticed was that I am not the only one who has raised this question/issue. There are lots of articles on the internet regarding this topic. The majority of articles were focused on college students and note taking, but I was able to find some that relate directly to the workplace and meetings. I also found some studies that have been performed and quoted over the years regarding the retention of information when handwritten. It seems that the brain processes information differently when typing versus writing. So far I seem to have found more evidence supporting writing as superior -meaning it seems that people understand and retain the information better if they write by hand instead of typing it. When you take notes by hand, you are forced to digest what has been said and write down only a fraction of it. When typing, you don't necessarily need to think about the words and, if you are a quick enough typist, you can type down the entire conversation verbatim.
To stick with my main questions about using a laptop in business meetings I am not going to go into detail on any studies or other information regarding students and note taking. The information that I found provided a lot of fodder for thinking, though. I found pros and cons for written notes and typed notes, as well as, using a laptop during meetings in general.
I'll start with using a laptop in a meeting. There are many pros and cons for this and it seems there is a school of thought that would like to see laptops eliminated altogether from business meetings (unless you are the presenter). Some good reasons to use a laptop are: quickness of notes, you can spell check and use the delete button quickly, you can "multi-task", it's a quick way to schedule the next meeting while sitting right there and the dissemination of your notes is much easier and quicker. I have also witnessed a developer who can write code during the meeting based on the current discussion which then saves time in the long run. Disrespect is one of the most interesting cons that I found. It appears that some individuals find it very disrespectful to see someone working on a laptop in a meeting. It gives the impression that the laptop user is not paying attention and given the lack of attention to the meeting the entire group is less effective. It also gives the impression that the individuals' personal work is more important that the groups' work together during the meeting. If someone is paying attention to their computer they may be taking notes, but they probably also have email and other programs open which can become distractions. If distracted by other things on the computer, such as email, an individual may not catch the entire meeting conversation, miss important details and/or have the need for someone to recap the discussion that just occurred in order to answer a question.
As for handwritten notes there are also pros and cons that I found. Interestingly enough, I found that one of the main cons is doodling. I don't doodle, so this is surprising to me. I guess a lot of people get distracted during meetings by doodling and end up with page after page of doodles instead of meeting notes. Another con is that handwriting can be sloppy and it takes a person a longer amount of time when reviewing notes to understand what was actually written. When having to pull up information from past meetings it can be a hindrance to someone to have to page through a notebook to find the appropriate page whereas, on a computer it can be filed appropriately and accessed quickly. The last large con for writing is that it's extra work to have to type your notes all over again if they need to be sent along to others. One positive aspect of handwritten notes is that you can easily and quickly draw things such as a process flow from a white-board. You can also mind-map and chart easily. It is believed that more thought occurs while writing and that just the act of transcription from notes to computer is productive as well.
One thing to consider when requesting and/or attending a meeting -the number of individuals and the time spent in the meeting can really add up in cost to a company. Is the time being spent in the meeting effective, efficient and productive? This also brings up the topic of meeting effectiveness. Every meeting attendee should understand why they are participating, what the purpose of the meeting is and what is being discussed. Every meeting should have a clear agenda, a means to track any parking lot items (sidetrack discussions for later) and clearly taken meeting minutes that are distributed after the meeting. If the meeting is not run effectively it is much easier for someone to not participate.
Based on my research the main goal is the effectiveness of the meeting. How that happens depends on the meeting participants. Everyone in the meeting should be paying attention to the topic at hand to maximize the time spent together. I'm not sure I feel strongly either way when it comes to the question of using a laptop or writing by hand meeting notes. I feel comfortable in my method of using handwritten notes and will not be changing my style any time soon. I do feel that this is a personal choice unless the method becomes a hindrance to the main goal(s) of the meeting.
Here are some sites that I used during my research and that you may find interesting:
http://www.miningman.com/Blog/February-2010/How-to-get-Laptops-Out-of-Meetings---Part-1
http://www.to-done.com/2005/08/taking-notes-by-hand/
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/colb/20060906.html
http://www.incm.cnrs-mrs.fr/publication/LongcampActaPsycho05.pdf
http://www.lapma.ups-tlse.fr/membres/mp/longcamp/Longcamp_2006b.pdf