For your team
Video for keynote speakers: a demo reel, plus a short clip every week
Event planners and speaker bureaus watch your videos before they book you. Say one idea to your phone and Cutroom returns a finished, captioned 9:16 clip in about a minute.
In short
- Keynote speakers need two kinds of video: a demo reel, plus short clips of one idea that planners can watch.
- A demo reel is cut from your recorded talks by an editor, once or twice a year.
- An idea clip is one idea said to your phone, under a minute, posted every week between events.
- Cutroom turns one phone clip of you talking into a captioned 9:16 video in about a minute.
- Your first video is free with no card. Lite costs $19.99 a month and covers about 11 clips.
- Longest clip you can upload
- 3 min
- One file for LinkedIn, Reels, TikTok and Shorts
- 9:16
- One finished 30-second clip
- ~110 CR
What video keynote speakers need
Event planners and speaker bureaus watch two kinds of video before they book a speaker.
- A demo reel is a produced video of you on stage, cut from event footage once or twice a year.
- Idea clips are short videos of your ideas that keep you visible between bookings.
- Many speakers have a demo reel and post nothing between events, because editing a clip by hand takes longer than filming it.
- Ask each bureau what it wants before you pay an editor: the length, and whether it takes a file or a link.
- The ideas come from your talk, your book and the questions people ask after every session.
Stage footage vs a to-camera clip
They are two different jobs, and they suit two different kinds of tool.
- Stage footage is long and filmed wide, full of audience moments. Finding the best 90 seconds is a clipping job.
- A to-camera clip is one idea said straight to your phone in about a minute, with nothing to search through.
- Many speakers do both, with the demo reel once or twice a year and the clips every week.
Two jobs a speaker's video has to do
Source
- Stage footage
- A full recorded talk
- To-camera idea clip
- One clip of you talking, up to 3 minutes
The job
- Stage footage
- Find the best moments and clip them
- To-camera idea clip
- Finish one idea as one video
Who does it
- Stage footage
- A clipping tool, or an editor for the demo reel
- To-camera idea clip
- Cutroom, in about a minute
Framing
- Stage footage
- Filmed wide, reframed for vertical
- To-camera idea clip
- Vertical 9:16 from the start
How often
- Stage footage
- After each event
- To-camera idea clip
- Every week, between events
| Stage footage | To-camera idea clip | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | A full recorded talk | One clip of you talking, up to 3 minutes |
| The job | Find the best moments and clip them | Finish one idea as one video |
| Who does it | A clipping tool, or an editor for the demo reel | Cutroom, in about a minute |
| Framing | Filmed wide, reframed for vertical | Vertical 9:16 from the start |
| How often | After each event | Every week, between events |
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
What makes a clip work for an event planner
A planner wants to see how you think and how you talk, in under a minute.
- The clip carries one idea, said the way you say it on stage, without the build-up.
- Captions let a planner follow it in a meeting with the sound off.
- Use the same caption theme on every clip so your profile looks like one speaker with one set of ideas.
- A planner is deciding whether you will hold their audience. Watching you explain one idea shows that better than a client list does.
Three clip formats for keynote speakers
Each format is one clip of you talking, and each one comes back from Cutroom as its own finished video.
- Post one idea clip or one audience question every week.
- Record an invite whenever a new booking is confirmed, and send it to the organiser.
Speaker clip formats
Three clips a speaker can film, what each one says and why a planner watches it.
| Format | What you say | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| One keynote idea | A single idea from your talk in 60 seconds, without the build-up | A planner hears one claim and the reason behind it |
| The question after every talk | The question people bring to the microphone or the book signing | Shows how you handle an audience that talks back |
| An invite for one event | 30 seconds: who you are, what the audience leaves with, the date | Gives the organiser something to share that sells seats |
Format: One keynote idea
- What you say
- A single idea from your talk in 60 seconds, without the build-up
- Why it works
- A planner hears one claim and the reason behind it
Format: The question after every talk
- What you say
- The question people bring to the microphone or the book signing
- Why it works
- Shows how you handle an audience that talks back
Format: An invite for one event
- What you say
- 30 seconds: who you are, what the audience leaves with, the date
- Why it works
- Gives the organiser something to share that sells seats
How Cutroom turns your clip into a finished video
Say the idea into your phone, in a hotel room or backstage, and upload it in a browser.
- You upload one clip of yourself talking, up to 3 minutes long, and the 9:16 MP4 comes back in about a minute.
- Cutroom cuts it, burns in captions timed to your voice, writes an opening headline from your words and puts b-roll on what you say.
- Delete the warm-up lines you would never use on stage and the edit rebuilds around them.
- Highlight the line that matters and a stock clip lands over exactly those words.
- Ask for a faster or slower pace and Cutroom re-edits the whole video for you.
- Cutroom puts an opening headline on screen at the start. If your idea fits in one line, keep that headline up for the whole clip.
The Cutroom editor: the idea as text, beside the finished frame
Delete the warm-up lines to start on the idea. The transcript sits on the left and the 9:16 frame on the right.
TAKE_01.mp4Straight cut00:26
B-rolls · 5
1
2
3
4
5Most face serums make one big promise, then quietly do nothing. This one has three ingredients, works in ten days, and costs less than your coffee habit. If your skin doesn’t change, you get every cent back.
highlight = b-roll · struck out = already cut
Most serums do nothing
most face serums
Serum9:16▸ 0:07 / 0:26 · shot 1 of 5
- 1B-roll on the exact wordsReal footage, placed where showing beats telling.
- 2The opening headlineWritten from what you said. Pick one it drafted, or write your own.
- 3Captions in 40 themesPick a theme, then its font and colour.
- 49:16, ready to exportExport renders one vertical MP4.
Video tools keynote speakers compare
Pick the tool by what you already have.
- OpusClip: cuts hours of recorded stage footage into many short clips.
- HeyGen: turns a script into a video presented by an AI avatar, so you do not have to film.
- Captions: a phone app for editing talking videos, with stylised captions and eye contact correction.
- Cutroom: one clip of you saying an idea in, one finished video back. Your first video is free.
Four video tools for keynote speakers, side by side
Prices as published on each vendor's own pricing page on the day shown. Plans change; check the page before you pay.
| Tool | Best for | Editing approach | Platform | Pricing from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 HeyGen | Avatar videos from a script in 175+ languages | Script to avatar video, with a text-based editor | Web, mobile app, API | Free plan; Creator $24/month, annual ($29 monthly) |
 Captions | Mobile-first AI editing of talking videos | AI edit styles applied to your video, with manual controls | iOS, Android, web | Free version; Max $24.99/month |
 OpusClip | Turning long videos into many short clips | AI picks clips from long video and captions them | Web, mobile | Free plan (watermark); Starter $15/month |
| Cutroom | One idea to camera finished as a 9:16 video | Upload one clip; b-roll, captions and a hook are placed for you | Browser | First video free, no card; Lite $19.99/month |
- HeyGen
- Best for
- Avatar videos from a script in 175+ languages
- Approach
- Script to avatar video, with a text-based editor
- Platform
- Web, mobile app, API
- Pricing from
- Free plan; Creator $24/month, annual ($29 monthly)
- Captions
- Best for
- Mobile-first AI editing of talking videos
- Approach
- AI edit styles applied to your video, with manual controls
- Platform
- iOS, Android, web
- Pricing from
- Free version; Max $24.99/month
- OpusClip
- Best for
- Turning long videos into many short clips
- Approach
- AI picks clips from long video and captions them
- Platform
- Web, mobile
- Pricing from
- Free plan (watermark); Starter $15/month
Cutroom
- Best for
- One idea to camera finished as a 9:16 video
- Approach
- Upload one clip; b-roll, captions and a hook are placed for you
- Platform
- Browser
- Pricing from
- First video free, no card; Lite $19.99/month
Prices and plans read from each vendor's own pricing page on 21 September 2026.
What a clip a week costs
Cutroom charges credits: 100 to edit a video, plus 20 per minute of finished video to export.
- One 30-second clip costs about 110 credits, and a full minute costs about 120.
- A clip a week plus an invite for each new booking fits inside Lite.
- Basic at $39.99 a month adds avatars, but planners book you for your own delivery, so most speakers can skip it.
- Your first video is free and needs no card, but you have to make it within 7 days of signing up, and it carries a Cutroom mark.
Cutroom plans
| Plan | Price | Credits | 30-second clips a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| First video | Free, no card | 600 | 1, with a Cutroom mark |
| Lite | $19.99 a month | 1,250 | About 11, no mark |
| Basic | $39.99 a month | 2,500 | About 22, plus avatars and generated music |
| Premium | $79.99 a month | 5,000 | About 45 |
Plan: First video
- Price
- Free, no card
- Credits
- 600
- 30-second clips a month
- 1, with a Cutroom mark
Plan: Lite
- Price
- $19.99 a month
- Credits
- 1,250
- 30-second clips a month
- About 11, no mark
Plan: Basic
- Price
- $39.99 a month
- Credits
- 2,500
- 30-second clips a month
- About 22, plus avatars and generated music
Plan: Premium
- Price
- $79.99 a month
- Credits
- 5,000
- 30-second clips a month
- About 45
Questions people ask
- Is a to-camera clip the same as a speaker demo reel?
- No. A demo reel is a produced video cut from stage footage, showing you in front of an audience. A to-camera clip is one idea said straight to your phone. Bureaus ask for the reel, and each has its own length and format, so ask first. Weekly clips keep you in front of planners between reels.
- Can Cutroom edit my recorded keynote?
- Not a full talk. Cutroom accepts one clip of up to 3 minutes, so a short excerpt fits but a 45-minute keynote does not. Use a clipping tool such as OpusClip for long stage footage. For one idea as a clean vertical video, say it again to camera.
- Where should a keynote speaker post short clips?
- Where your bookers scroll. For corporate events that is often LinkedIn. For wider audiences it is Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Cutroom exports one 1080x1920 MP4 with the captions burned in, and the same file works on all of them.
- How often should a speaker post video between gigs?
- Once a week is a pace most speakers can keep: one idea, one clip, one finished video. It shows a planner your ideas are current, which last year's demo reel cannot. At about 110 credits a clip, a weekly habit fits inside Lite at $19.99 a month.
- Should a speaker use an AI avatar for video?
- Not for the clips that sell your talk. A planner is booking your delivery and how you hold a room, and an avatar shows none of that. Avatars can suit a translated message or an internal update. Cutroom's Basic plan includes them.
- What should an event invite video say?
- Who you are, what the audience will leave with, and the date. Thirty seconds is enough. Record it once you are booked and send the finished file to the organiser. Captions and an opening headline keep it working in a muted feed.
- Who should not use Cutroom as a speaker?
- A speaker who only wants recorded keynotes cut into clips, or a produced demo reel with audience shots and testimonials. Those are jobs for a clipping tool or an editor. Cutroom finishes one idea said to camera into one clip.
Say one idea from your talk to your phone this week and get it back as a finished clip. Your first video is free.
Try for freeYour first video is free, no card, and you have 7 days to make it. It carries a Cutroom mark; Lite at $19.99/month removes it