By recording messages in a relational database, and by classifying each message by one or more "keyword", it becomes relatively easy to generate a cumulative report of the messages by subject (see Database Products / C2).
We are now talking of a system with greatly increased power and complexity - sufficient to handle hundreds and thousands of items. Do you need it? You or someone on your team must be very familiar with the data processing programme. Count on the time required to train operators and the need for system supervisors and expert technicians. At this scale you are almost certainly going to be using local and/or wide area networks, with their considerable advantages and drawbacks (see Networks / I13).
Creating data software requires very high computer skills. A piece of custom software (Da Zi Bao) has been written by Robert Pollard and has now been tested at several conferences, including the Earth Summit/Global Forum in Rio in June 1992 (see "Case Studies" 6, 7 and 8 which used the "Da Zi Bao" software developed by Robert Pollard). Behind the "user friendly" face of this software is a relatively sophisticated a relational database (DataPerfect) integrated with desktop publishing features of WordPerfect 5.1. It has the advantage of being usable at both small and large scales.
A final point, particularly in cross-cultural meetings, is that some people can be very concerned where data is stored and by whom it can be manipulated and hence are suspicious of databases based at unknown locations. This impression may be disappearing, but may still be a concern for people from certain countries or regions.