Introduction

You’ve invested tens—or even hundreds—of thousands of dollars into high-end cameras, lighting rigs, and production crews to capture every moment of your event. Yet most of that footage ends up in a “hard-drive graveyard,” never to be seen again.

I’m Sam McDonald, and for over 15 years I’ve been in the trenches of event and video production. I founded echo (Event Content Hub Optimization) because I knew there had to be a better way to repurpose event footage and turn it into ongoing marketing value.

In this blog, we’ll dive deep into the hidden opportunity in your event recordings—why roughly 96% of raw video goes unused, how the 48-hour “one-and-done” mindset kills engagement, and what that means for your ROI. Plus, you’ll see how adopting a robust event content optimization strategy can flip those dusty files into year-long streams of blogs, podcasts, social clips, and more.