Nobody has time for the briefing call, so make an internal briefing video
Quick Answer
An internal briefing video is a short video made for your own team before a meeting or event, covering each guest in turn: who they are, what they own, and what to ask them. It replaces the briefing call that half the attendees miss, and it gets watched on the way over.
Why does the briefing call before a meeting rarely happen?
It gets scheduled for the afternoon before, which is the worst half hour of the week to ask anyone for. A few people accept, fewer join, and the one person who has actually met the guest is usually the one who cannot make it. Whoever does join takes notes that stay in their own document.
The information is not hard to gather. Someone on the account team already knows the guest moved into her role in March, owns the renewal, and was promised a pilot in July. That knowledge has no format that survives a calendar.
Video survives the calendar because it gets watched in dead time. That is the argument we made in our post on internal communications video, and it applies with more force to a briefing, because a briefing has an expiry date on it.
What goes into an internal briefing video for each guest?
The same four segments in the same order, so the viewer always knows where they are and can skip ahead.
| Segment | What it covers | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Who they are | Name, title, how long in the role, how we came to know them | 15 seconds |
| What they own | The team, budget, or number they are personally responsible for | 20 seconds |
| Where we stand | The last conversation, what was promised, what is still open | 20 seconds |
| What to ask | Two questions worth their time, and one subject to leave alone | 25 seconds |
That comes to about eighty seconds a guest. Six guests gives you eight minutes, chaptered, and most people will watch the two chapters that matter to their seat at the table.
Who owns internal comms video inside a company this size?
Usually someone who owns something else as well. Here is how one person described her own remit when we asked what she covered:
I usually help with our internal communications as well as, some of our, well, like I run our LinkedIn.
a strategic communications specialist at a pharmaceutical company
Internal comms sits next to the social calendar, the town hall deck, and whatever landed that morning. Nobody in that seat is going to open a brief, book an editor, and chase a review cycle so four colleagues can be told who they are having dinner with.
So the format has to be cheap in minutes or it does not get made. That is the constraint teams miss when they buy video tooling for campaign work and never look at the internal comms use case sitting beside it.
How fast does an internal briefing video have to be?
Same day, because guest lists change the same day. Someone drops out on Wednesday morning and their replacement arrives with a different title and a different history with your company. If updating the video means a new production cycle, the video is already wrong by the time it lands.
The way to get there is to fix everything except the words. A motion design template holds the layout, the type, and the order of segments, so the only new work is what you say and which headshot goes where. Add captions, because a lot of this gets watched with the sound off. We have written more on what drives video turnaround time, and the format decision is what buys the speed here, not effort on the day.
What does an internal briefing video look like for a customer dinner?
Say you have a dinner on Thursday. Six guests across three accounts, four people from your side, and a private room booked for seven.
On Wednesday morning the comms person opens the briefing template and fills six chapters, eighty seconds each. She pulls the titles and tenure from the CRM, the last conversation from the account lead's notes, and the two questions from the person who owns each account. She records the voice herself in one take per guest, because it is internal and nobody needs a studio.
By noon the eight minute video is in the calendar invite. The VP watches guests one and two in the car. The account lead watches all six because he joined in June and has met none of them. The person who built it has spent about forty minutes and has not opened a single scheduling link.
At seven o'clock four people walk into that room already knowing which guest owns the renewal and which one has been asked about the pilot twice.
FAQ
How long should an internal briefing video be? About eighty seconds per guest, chaptered so viewers can jump to the people they will be sitting with. Six guests lands around eight minutes.
What should I include in a briefing video for a client meeting? Who each attendee is, what they personally own, where the relationship stands, two questions worth asking, and any subject to leave alone.
Who should make internal briefing videos? Whoever already owns internal comms, which is usually a person with a second job attached. That is why the format needs a template rather than a production process.
Can an internal briefing video be reused after the event? The guest chapters age quickly, since titles and open items change. You reuse the template and rebuild the chapters for the next meeting.