The Complete Guide to Event Videos in the AI Era
Live events are now stronger than ever, with the majority (82%) of event-goers preferring to attend in person. As an event organiser, one of the best ways to ensure success is to leverage event videos.
In a social-first world, videos have become the universal language of attention and information. Fail to prioritise them, and you’re leaving reach (and revenue) on the table.
Ready to update your event video strategy? If you are an event organiser, marketer, sponsor, or videographer, this guide is for you.
You’ll learn:
The practical definition of event video
Different types by lifecycle and event
What event videography is and why filming matters
How to produce, shoot, and distribute event videos (with tips on using AI)
Let’s dive in.
Key Takeaways
✔ Use event videos before, during, and after to promote, elevate the experience, and keep the buzz going.
✔ Beyond engagement and reach, event videos amplify sponsor value, revenue, loyalty, and next-event attendance.
✔ Choose formats by purpose and event type, guided by our checklists.
✔ Treat event videography as a full workflow, so you can create multiple, well-planned assets.
✔ Turn event coverage into ROI with fast recaps and personalised attendee highlights.
✔ You can leverage AI at every stage, from briefs and shot lists to editing, captions, and distribution.
What is an Event Video?
An event video is any video content used for event marketing, promotion, experience, and documentation. It can be professional or user-generated footage, edited clips, or animations created and used before, during, and after a live event.
Event videos are a standout way to promote an event, enhance attendee experience, capture what happened, extend the buzz afterward, and create excitement for future events.
Now that you know what event videos are, let’s explore how they differ by timing and purpose.
Types of Event Videos
What is Event Videography?
Event videography is the end-to-end process of filming and producing videos from a live event -from pre-production (planning and shot lists) to on-site capture (cameras, audio, lighting) to post-production (editing and distribution). Not only is it for making a single video deliverable, but it covers the full workflow, crew, and systems to create multiple video assets.
Why Do We Film Events?
Capturing the event is as important as the event itself. Event videos turn a one-day (or multi-day) moment into ongoing momentum and measurable ROI. Here are the five biggest reasons event videography matters:
Engagement: During the event, video lifts energy from on-site screens, multi-cam feeds, and livestreams (e.g., Coldplay concerts and FIFA; industry conferences and the like). Meanwhile, real-time highlights posted on social media during and after the event spark sharing and conversation.
Digital visibility and reach: Event videos power social, email, and your website, extending reach beyond the venue and improving discoverability. This builds a strong digital footprint, which is a very important marketing and sales strategy. In today’s world: no video, it didn’t happen. More than 3 billion people watch videos every day! Tip: Did you know Google now reveals Instagram content in search results?
Sponsor value: Exposure via branded placements and co-created reels delivers trackable impressions, clicks, and mentions. They are proof of impact for sponsor renewals and upsells.
Event revenue: Monetise with virtual tickets, video-on-demand bundles, shoppable event recaps, or personalised highlight videos as digital merch or donation tool.
Memorable keepsakes: Combining sight, sound, and motion, video creates the strongest emotional connection of any event content. It gives attendees something personal to relive, share, and treasure. This keeps your brand top of mind, and turns happy attendees into loyal fans.
Future attendance lift: FOMO-driven recaps and testimonials convert viewers into next-event registrants. In fact, 82% of consumers say video builds trust and influences purchase decisions. Just imagine its impact on your future ticket sales.
8 Steps for a Successful Event Video Production
With the rising demand for video content, it is high time to adopt a video-centric approach to your event marketing strategy. Plus, AI now makes it easier. It helps at every stage of event video production—from planning and on‑site videography to editing, attendee engagement, and distribution.
Successful event videography follows a repeatable process. Here’s an 8-step workflow with AI that ensures you capture every moment, maximise your assets, and hit your ROI goals.
Define event video production goals, team, and resources
Treat event video production like a project. Create a plan that covers: SMART goals and KPIs, what you’ll deliver, who’s doing what (and how you’re resourcing it), the budget, key dates, quality bar, how you’ll communicate, and the top risks with mitigations. The expected output is a project brief, also known as a creative brief or production brief. This ensures your videography contributes to the broader goals of the event.
Planning to distribute personalised videos to attendees? Learn more in our ultimate guide for personalised videos for live events.
Where AI can help: Draft briefs, estimate runtimes, and prioritise shot lists.
Plan the video shoot ahead
Live events move fast, and moments do not repeat. Planning ahead gives you the edge to keep production seamless.
Referring to your scope, map the flow from live coverage to the recap video to distribution. Draft a capture plan with story beats, shot list, interview questions (if needed), sponsor frames or brand placements, and run-of-show (ROS) roles.
Tip: Browse for best-performing examples. Take note of their music, length, and other elements that make them successful.
Because events are unpredictable, add buffers in the ROS, make a list of must-get shots so nice-to-haves can drop if timing slips, and keep an if/then playbook (e.g., if people don’t like being captured individually, pivot to wider crowd shots with an 8K camera or an opt-in video booth).
Finally, set up your import-and-backup routine, such as giving files clear names, labeling cards/drives, and verifying backup copies. Learn the 3-2-1 rule. Make sure everyone’s aligned.
Where AI can help: Script polish, auto shot-list generation, caption files, graphic templates, music suggestions, and basic venue accessibility checks.
Pre-decide the onsite setup
Plan this with the whole team a few weeks out. Visit the venue (if possible) or get the floor map.
Once you know the venue’s layout, pre-decide camera positions or capture zones, booth placement (e.g., 360 video booth), lens choices, and fail-safe audio. Sort lights for capture zones, especially for background wall or step-and-repeat. Check power/media and backup internet.
If you’re livestreaming the event, run a tech rehearsal with lower-thirds/overlays and a failover test. Afterward, finalise your call sheet and gear list, including backups (extra audio recorders, spare cards/drives, and backup power).
Where AI can help: Checklist generation, timed reminders, and failover steps
Inform and prime your event attendees
Communicate your plan at least three days before the event to maximise participation. Tell people what’s being filmed, how to join in, and what they’ll get. Say if you’ll run a video booth, candid videography, or personalised videos.
Offer early incentives (e.g., share-to-win) to promote engagement.
Then, share a short “video content moments” schedule (or bake cues into the host script), so hosts, talent, and crew hit the same beats. Prepare what you need on-site to reinforce it, such as clear signage, push notifications, and floor decals for the video booth.
Where AI can help: segment reminder emails, generate social copy variants, localise consent/privacy microcopy, and schedule push notifications with booth directions
Capture the event as planned
On show day, run your capture plan. Vary coverage with wides, mids, hero close-ups of attendees and VIPs, while grabbing sponsor frames, candid moments, and plenty of B-roll. Film quick interviews between segments as needed.
For a same-day edit (SDE), park an editor (if you have one), time-stamp key moments, and offload files each break. If using CrowdClip, upload footage on the platform to speed up later personalisation.
Where AI can help: capture leads, facial recognition, live transcription/captions, instant highlight detection, noise cleanup, speaker/session auto-tagging, smart clip suggestions, auto sorting of videos, and personalised video generation and distribution.
Edit your event recap video efficiently
Typically, videographers or video editors start editing the recap video or event highlight once the event wraps. Some videographers can even do it mid-event to play the same-day edit video at program close. Keep a tight quality control checklist before showing or publishing.
Fortunately, AI tools now make event video editing faster with features like scene and subject detection, transcript-based editing, auto-reframing for social platforms, and multilingual subtitles.
With CrowdClip, you mainly refine a master template (event façade, general highlights, and sponsor/brand placements). Personalisation is automated, so you’re not scrubbing hours of footage to find each attendee.
Publish and distribute promptly
Don’t let the post-event high fade. Most successful teams push an SDE while excitement is peaking, or ship a recap within 24–72 hours, plus platform-specific cuts (9:16 for Instagram Reels/TikTok, 1:1 or 16:9 for LinkedIn/YouTube). In addition to social media, schedule across email and your landing page. You can also distribute a press/media kit with your highlight video. Consider personalised highlights or video-on-demand (VOD) bundles to extend reach and revenue.
Among AI tools for event videos, CrowdClip is a leading choice for personalised videos. With CrowdClip, distribution scales automatically. Every attendee gets their personalised highlight video delivered for on-demand viewing or download via the Share Hub.
Plus, keep momentum by following up with extra cuts posted on social media (can be stories, posts, or reels) based on top-performing moments and audience behaviour.
Measure and report
Close the loop with a clear KPI review: watch time and completion, plays and shares, clicks and sign-ups/donations, and sponsor value (mentions, frames, attributable reach). Pull data from UTMs, social platform analytics, and your CRM to compare targets versus actuals.
Package this into a simple sponsor or executive report with a KPI scorecard, top-performing clips, earned media highlights, and recommendations for next time.
Planning sponsor reporting or brand follow-ups? Or, measuring event success? CrowdClip produces sponsor-ready metrics straight from the Share Hub and Analytics Hub (for a more comprehensive overview of results).
Read our curated list of top-performing event videos on social media, packed with standout examples and quick, copy-ready tips.
Stay Ahead of the Curve
In the age of social media, event videos are one of the strongest marketing engines you’ve got. They are how people discover your event, lifts and extends the on-site experience, and turns moments into memorable souvenirs or takeaways that are shareable (and even sellable!).
So, use them across every stage of your event. Build buzz and boost registrations before the day. Lift the energy, capture the magic, and extend the experience beyond the venue during the event. Most importantly, keep the momentum rolling after with wider reach, extra revenue, and plenty of social proof to back your event’s credibility.
In short: if you want your live event to be found, loved, and shared, prioritise event videos.
We know that event videos have a reputation for being costly and time-consuming, with murky ROI. However, that’s changing fast.
With AI in the mix, you can plan smarter, capture more, edit faster, distribute at scale, and clearly measure ROI and event impact.
Turn Your Event Coverage into Personalised Videos
With CrowdClip, every event attendee walks away with their own personalised highlight video, delivered automatically.
It’s a smart way to drive at least 10x more shares and reach without piling extra work on your team.
Plus, you can even turn it into an extra income stream by offering the videos as pay-to-access to generate revenue or donations.
