Shotstack: Cloud Video Editing API for Automated Event Content

Transform event video editing with Shotstack—reduce time and effort by automating the personalisation and repurposing of your content delivery.

Explore Shotstack

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Impact Areas

Video Content Scaling
Productivity Amplification Systems
Content Production Scaling

Our Overview

Video production has always been the bottleneck in event content workflows. Capturing hours of footage is one thing, but turning it into engaging, branded content still means weeks of manual editing. Shotstack changes that equation by treating video editing as a programmable service rather than a creative craft project.

It is not about replacing video editors—it's about scaling the decisions they make. When you've got 50 speakers who need highlight reels, or you want personalised attendee videos, or your sponsors need their assets integrated across dozens of videos, manual editing becomes mathematically impossible. Shotstack's JSON-based API lets you encode those editorial decisions once, then execute them at whatever scale your event demands.

Initial Review of Shotstack

What makes this particularly relevant for event teams is how it fits into existing automation workflows. Shotstack plugs into that infrastructure through platforms like Make.com, turning raw footage and attendee data into potentially personalised and polished video assets without human intervention on each piece.

The platform handles the technical heavy lifting, such as concurrent rendering, format optimisation, and asset management, while you maintain control over creative decisions through template design. It's the difference between manually creating 200 videos (which you would never do) and defining the rules for how 200 videos should be created.

The real value becomes clear when you stop thinking about individual videos and start thinking about video as a scalable content format. Session highlights, sponsor integrations, personalised recaps. These all become automated components of your event intelligence workflow rather than post-event production bottlenecks.

Used For	Programmatic video production through a JSON-based REST API, particularly effective for personalised event content and large-scale branded video generation.
IAEK Fit	I - Information Exchange, E- Experience Enhancement
Primary CVI Influenced	Scaled personalised video content delivery with consistent branding across high-volume production workflows.
Primary CVO Outcome	Automated video operations that maintain quality whilst reducing manual production overhead and accelerating time-to-market.
Why It Matters	You can transform video from a resource-intensive bottleneck into a scalable content format, enabling personalised experiences and real-time content delivery without proportionally scaling production teams.

Key Advantages:

Generate consistent branded content at scale without manual template application.
Personalise videos for hundreds or thousands of attendees.
Create content in real-time during events, rather than waiting weeks for post-production.
Produce multiple output formats for different platforms without manual reformatting.
Integrate video production with existing automation workflows as part of a broader event intelligence system.

Use Cases

Automated Speaker Highlight Reels

A conference with 50+ speakers needs branded highlight videos delivered within 24 hours. Shotstack combines key moments from each session with consistent intro animations and sponsor overlays, transforming what was previously a week-long editing process into automated rendering that completes overnight.

Real-time Social Content Generation

Multi-track conferences need immediate social content across platforms. Session recordings become platform-optimised snippets—portrait for Instagram, landscape for LinkedIn, square for Twitter—complete with speaker graphics and event branding, enabling immediate social sharing with consistent brand presence.

Personalised Attendee Journey Videos

Virtual events can offer personalised video summaries by connecting attendance data with Shotstack's editing API. Each participant receives a unique highlight reel featuring clips from their attended sessions, scheduled meetings, and networking moments—creating a powerful personalised memento that drives future participation.

Sponsor Integration at Scale

Event series need hundreds of sponsor-branded video assets. Shotstack enables template definition once, then programmatic insertion of different sponsor assets, messaging, and calls-to-action. Last-minute sponsor changes don't require manual re-editing, and brand placement remains consistent across all video content.

Case Study Event Attendee Experience Enhancement

A Las Vegas event demo allowed attendees to create personalised highlight videos by uploading photos via QR code to a Google Form. The Make scenario linked form data with Shotstack to generate and email personalised videos that attendees could share on social media.

Case Study Daily Conference Newsreels

Another implementation created personalised "newsreel" videos sent to attendees each morning of a conference. Videos were customised based on attendee preferences and integrated content from various APIs. The entire process is executed daily in minutes.

Other Tips

Asset management becomes critical. Missing or broken URLs for images, videos, or audio files cause silent failures or incomplete renders. Establish robust asset management practices early, particularly when integrating media from multiple sources or cloud storage locations.

Visual positioning requires iteration. Without preview during development, getting elements positioned precisely often requires multiple test renders. Build smaller test templates first to establish timing and placement before scaling to complex videos.

Rendering queues can introduce delays during peak usage. Complex videos or high platform load can create queuing delays. Factor this into time-sensitive automation workflows, particularly on lower service tiers.