Virtual Events Are Here To Stay – How We’re Investing To Build A Better Experience

Events have long been a way for professionals to build community, learn new things, and find inspiration. At a time when many of us are working in hybrid or virtual environments, we’re longing for these moments of connection more than ever.

We’ve seen this on LinkedIn as the annual creation of virtual Live Events has increased 150% YOY, with a 231% YOY increase in annual virtual event attendees. We’re seeing LinkedIn Live broadcast topics like overcoming communication hurdles, cybersecurity trends, goal setting for 2022, banking industry outlook, working smarter not harder, and more. 

We believe there’s a massive opportunity to help our 800M+ members worldwide create even more meaningful connections with each other by reimagining virtual events for professionals.

A new interactive experience

This month, we’re taking a big step forward and building on the success of LinkedIn Live broadcasts by launching an entirely new interactive events experience that allows our members to more actively participate in the conversation. 

Being an active part of the conversation at an event can help you make new connections, bolster your professional brand and inspire peers. In our new experience, you can participate in the live conversation by raising your hand and joining the speakers, “on stage” to help direct and add to the discussion. You can also see who else has joined the event, enabling real time connection opportunities – follow and message other participants during the event to foster relationships and keep the conversations going after the event has ended. 

Starting this month, we’ll be beta testing this new interactive experience with Audio Events. We’ll kick off with a few thousand creators who will host events across different topics and themes – any member can tune in and participate. We’ll expand the ability to host Audio Events to more creators in the coming months, and we’ll start rolling out our Video Events format later this spring.

Here’s a preview:

Like in-person events, people want to build meaningful professional relationships with the hosts and each other at events. Here is how LinkedIn is uniquely positioned to help you get the most from virtual and hybrid events: 

• Easily discover events for you: We have the professional context to recommend the most relevant events that can help you learn, network and be successful, and we’re investing more in surfacing these events to you. Whether an event by a creator or page you follow, or a topic you’re passionate about, we will surface the events that will help you reach your career goals.
• Connect and engage with the largest community of professionals: People attend events to meet and talk with speakers and other attendees. When you come to an event on LinkedIn, your full Profile “comes with you.” That means, you can easily learn more about other attendees by visiting their Profile, seeing their career journey and recently shared content.
• Learn from industry voices: Every successful event needs a great organizer to lead the conversation. We have a unique, diverse and rapidly growing community of creators who are using Events on LinkedIn share industry insights, trends and thought leadership. 

We’re so excited to be rolling out this new event experience over the coming months and encourage you to continue to find, join and participate in events on LinkedIn. Stay tuned for more updates to come soon!