Founders Network IRL — San Francisco

About This Video

Founders Network IRL is the annual in-person gathering for Founders Network members — a community of startup founders that primarily operates online. The event brings the whole membership to San Francisco for a full day of programming: three panels, three keynote discussions, office hours, and over 100 investor meetings organized for members to meet with investors from within the Founders Network community. Kevin, the founder of Founders Network, describes it: "IRL is an opportunity to bring all of the Founders Network members together for one day in San Francisco in real life — to meet the people they've been interacting with online in the forums for a full day of programming that focuses on the most compelling content from the forums for the past year." For <span class="strong">event video production</span>, an event like this is an invitation video as much as a recap — the goal is to make members who didn't attend wish they had, and give them a specific reason to register for the next year.

How do you produce an event promo or recap video for a startup founder community?

Let the founder who runs the community make the direct case, then support it with specifics. Kevin's description — three panels, three keynotes, 100+ investor meetings — is the kind of concrete detail that a prospective attendee can evaluate. A video that stays at the level of 'come connect with amazing founders' gives no one a reason to book a flight. Specific content and specific numbers do. Film the organizer speaking directly to camera, then cut to the moments he's describing.

What should an annual in-person startup community event video include?

An explanation of what the event is for members who've never attended, plus the specific programming that differentiates it from other events. For Founders Network IRL, that's the investor meeting structure — 100+ organized investor meetings is a specific feature that sets it apart from a general conference. Anyone who came to meet investors needs to know that before they register. The video should name that feature explicitly.

How do you film a one-day conference with multiple simultaneous tracks?

Prioritize the moments that are hardest to replicate from the recording: the hallway conversations, the investor office hours, the energy of a packed room. The panels and keynotes will be recorded anyway. What the event video captures that the recordings don't is the sense of being in the room — the faces in the audience, the person who got their pitch heard between sessions, the conversation in the lunch line that turned into a meeting. Film those and build the video around them.

How do you produce a video that encourages online community members to attend an in-person event?

Show them what they're missing. The argument for attending IRL is not 'it will be good' — it's 'you've been in the forums with these people for a year and you still haven't met them.' Film the moment of recognition when two people who've been interacting online finally meet in person. That's the thing the online community can't replicate, and it's the reason the event exists. Make that the emotional center of the video.