If a meeting is simplistic enough not to need planning and action items, you don't need a meeting. Make a conference call.
If action items are simplistic enough that you don't need to consider calendars for the future, don't need the ability to show the status of existing concerning items, and any reliable information is conveyed via paper, you've got multiple problems.
Mostly you have a culture problem, to put it simply.
I'd probably make the opposite argument. If I'm messing with my computer during a meeting then the meeting probably didn't require me to be physically present. At that point it could've been either remote or async facilitated by software.
This is unless I'm running the meeting and my laptop is plugged into the big screen.
> If I'm messing with my computer during a meeting then the meeting probably didn't require me to be physically present.
I was making the assumption that presentations were excluded (and confusing the issue). A meeting is dynamic between individuals. Relying solely on what you can recall is less efficient than using a device to assist, plain and simple.
If there is any value, at all, in a face to face meeting, then a device can only enhance it. If there is no value, then that consideration has no place in the discussion about how to have the most productive face to face.
If action items are simplistic enough that you don't need to consider calendars for the future, don't need the ability to show the status of existing concerning items, and any reliable information is conveyed via paper, you've got multiple problems.
Mostly you have a culture problem, to put it simply.