Obituary: The Sizzle Reel (1998–2025)

Once the Crown Jewel of Conference Recaps, Now a Bloated Montage of Lies

It is with equal parts relief and reverence that we announce the death of the Sizzle Reel—the over-hyped, over-filtered, often misleading video montage that once stood as the ultimate trophy of a well-funded event.

Born in the late 1990s amid the DV tape boom and raised on a steady diet of Adobe After Effects and royalty-free house music, the sizzle reel promised to “capture the magic.” Instead, it gave us slow-mo confetti shots, out-of-context hugs, and CEO walk-ons edited like Beyoncé world tours.

The cause of death? A potent mix of AI reality checks, vertical video culture, and planner fatigue. “It just didn’t reflect the experience anymore,” one event designer whispered. “It was more aspirational propaganda than documentation.”

For years, the sizzle reel thrived as an internal merchandising tool—a carefully airbrushed highlight tape designed not for the audience, but for the executives upstairs.

“It wasn’t storytelling. It was story-selling—to your own CMO,” one former agency creative confessed. “A looping ego loop.”

Its most loyal viewers weren’t potential attendees—it was the C-suite.

Executives who missed the event entirely would review the sizzle like it was a security briefing:

“Looks packed. Great energy. Good work, team.”

Meanwhile, the marketers knew the truth: if it took three music swaps, six “upbeat” selects, and a $5K color grade to feel exciting—it probably wasn’t.

The reel’s downfall was slow but visible. First came the attendee revolt: “That wasn’t the event I went to.” Then the brand reckoning: “Why are we spending $30,000 to film panels we didn’t even write summaries for?” And finally, the rise of raw content: TikToks, in-session story clips, behind-the-scenes snippets that felt… real.