Planning your next event? Whether you’re speaking at a conference put on by another company or you’re putting on your own event, like an expert panel series, a live demonstration, or industry meet-up, documenting your event on video is crucial if you want to get everything you can out of it.

Don’t worry - we know putting on events can be stressful, hectic, and likely harder than you ever imagined. Adding video creation to the mix has the potential to complicate things even more.

Recording your event does add another element that you *might* not necessarily want to deal with. (If that’s the case, consider hiring a video agency - more on that below!)

But what you should really ask yourself is can the right event video bring you better event ROI?

If you invest hundreds of dollars, thousands, or sometimes more, into your event, you should feel like you’ve got the optimal number of registrations, leads, and clients from it. We’re here to show you how an event video can help you do just that, and all without breaking the bank.

Why should you film your next event?

Think about the last conference or professional seminar you attended. Did you attend without knowing what to expect? Did you read long written event reviews with no graphic or video evidence to back up the writer’s opinion? Probably not!

Video provides the context users need to justify their purchase or attendance. Let’s take a look at a few specific ways event video does that and how you can get started.

1. More people will buy event tickets after they see an event video.

Video marketing can increase purchase intent by up to 97 percent. Imagine sending a potential ticket buyer a video of the same event you put on last year - showing happy event attendees, amazing speakers, and short testimonials. This video shows them exactly what to expect, and could be the key to nurturing their purchase.

Council on Foundations Event Video

2. Event video increases your distribution options.

Your event is limited by time and location. Let’s say you have 100 event registrants. Not bad, but you know there’s tens of thousands of people interested in your event who can’t come because they live hundreds of miles away or they simply can’t afford the price of a ticket. Whatever the reason, they’re interested, but they just can’t make it.

Recording your event gives you the opportunity to share it with more people, at any time and in any place. You can livestream it and send a live link out to your audience, or send a recap video via email to anyone who wants it. Making your event shareable means tons more people will not only get access to the information you share, but they’ll get to know your brand and help you gain credibility within your industry.

3. Event video helps build your audience.

Now, you have a much wider audience for your event. And, during the online web registration process, you gain a much longer list of contacts. That means you can now market yourself - your company, your content, your special promotions, and more - to all these people. Your event audience has grown, but so has your marketing audience, which is worth a lot more in the long run.

Galvanize, Inc. - Sizzle // Lemonlight from Lemonlight on Vimeo.

4. Recording your event gives you a lot of reusable video collateral.

Need more video content for your blog, your social media channels, or your email marketing? Recording your event means you’ve got tons of content to use for promotion, but also gives you a wealth of content for separate marketing initiatives you probably hadn’t even considered yet. Capture quick interviews, background footage, and more for various inbound marketing campaigns. Create more ads, send more emails, and raise your click-through and conversions rates thanks to the power of video (and the power of your forward thought!)

5. Video is easy to create and helps put you on the cutting edge.

Video is no longer the future - it’s the present. If you’re not using video in your marketing efforts, you’re falling behind. And, while most videos can take a lot of effort to make, an event video requires very little - just a videographer and an editor! A professional videographer will know how to blend in well and will capture your event’s most important moments on film. Once you have enough footage, you can hire an editor to create a short video that’ll bring it all together.

Hospice of Palm Beach County ( Preroll ) // Lemonlight from Lemonlight on Vimeo.

Getting Started

If you have an in-house production team, great! Let them handle your video production and rest easy knowing you’ll have an amazing video to use in future promotions.

If you don’t, that’s another story. You might not want to deal with planning, filming, and editing all on your own - nor should you! These are jobs best left to the experts. Instead, hire Lemonlight. We’re a creative video production agency that films events nationwide. Just tell us a little about your event, what you expect from your event video, and we’ll handle the rest.

Or, depending on your budget, you can also hire freelance staff to get the job done with no stress. Hire one or two videographers, let them know when the most important speakers or moments will occur during your event so they can get multiple angles, and then hire an editor to string your footage together and add any necessary color or sound corrections. This process will require a little more hands-on management from you, but the result will be a video you’ll be absolutely proud of!

Hope Horner, founder and CEO at Lemonlight, is a three-time entrepreneur that has been featured in Inc.'s Top 25 Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2017, Entrepreneur's 11 Marketing Experts that Could Change Your Business, and Pepperdine’s 40 Under 40. Horner is a regular contributor at Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., and multiple other publications where she shares startup insights and scalable solutions. She is currently working on her third startup, Lemonlight, an LA-based business that produces and distributes branded video content at scale.