Startup Storytelling & Livestreamed Demo Days

Hugh Whitehouse
May 19
3 min read

A lady smiles as she talks to someone off camera

Client: UQ Ventures

Location: Brisbane, Australia

The entrepreneurial journey can be a rollercoaster of opportunities for anyone (even when backed by an organisation like UQ Ventures). I've been helping local entrepreneurs with engaging storytelling and assisting them pitch their businesses to the world with livestreamed demo days for over 10 years.

I love a demo day. From Advance Queensland to River City Labs to QUT and more, getting to see the latest showcase of cutting-edge innovations from Queensland's brightest entrepreneurs is one of those jobs where you leave work happy.

By specialising in multicamera production and live streaming i'm able to produce pitch and demo recordings alongside traditional event coverage and photos, giving you ample media assets for near unlimited promotional use. I tend to frame with a focus on people - shooting predominantly in medium-close to medium wide coverage. I like faces. I like conversations. I like diversity. I've also been doing this a looooong time. Ask around about me. There are reciepts for my startup storytelling & livestreamed demo days.

Quick Case Study: Startup Storytelling for Ventures Empower

In November 2024 I was approached by UQ Ventures to quote for photography at their Empower demo day. Immediately I replied back "I gotchu fam" and pitched a broader array of storytelling possibilities for an affordable price with me and my team. Startup Storytelling & Livestreamed Demo Days

Spending a half day on-site, both Maddi and myself (small team, small footprint, big coverage) recorded all pitches in a multicam setup.

The coverage map was pretty standard. Something like:

A Cam = Room Wide,
B Cam = Medium close on Presenter,
C Cam = Slides and animations,
D Cam = Room reverse for audience reactions,
E Cam = Dynamic, roaming coverage.
I also brought a 300D fresnel spotlight to allow us to supplement in-room lighting and ensure proper exposure in an unfamiliar space.

Before the pitches I worked the room shooting additional b-roll with a handheld camera setup. Maddi did the same but for stills. Then, after the demos were complete, I quickly built an interview setup and held improptu interviews with key participants from the cohort. I asked them about their experiences, how their business has grown or matured, and would they recommend UQ Ventures to other entrepreneurs.

It's this type of quick to execute content that often yeilds the great results and honest marketing promotional content, especially when you can make the interviewee relaxed and comfortable on camera.

One additional request UQ Ventures had was for us to provide assets for utilisation in their Digital Asset Management (DAM) system. To do this I delivered an additional folder full of over 300 cut, coloured, and conformed (LOG to rec.709) clips UQ can now use across any startup or entrepreneurial campaigns in the future. In summary, we produced:

12x startup demos / pitches
4x 1min social videos in 9x16 with captions burned in
2x event summary videos in 16x9 with .srt captions
Over 300 unique still and video clip assets for the UQ Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform; these will be recycled and reused in other marketing materials

Startup Storytelling & Livestreamed Demo Days

As mentioned, this is not my first rodeo. For the lols (and so I can find it again in the future) here's the Startup World Cup I livestreamed back in 2019 with a crew of 3 people (Me plus two). It gets good around the three minute mark.