After Years of Connecting People Online, LinkedIn Adds New Hub For Meeting In Person

October 16, 2019, 10:21 PM UTC

LinkedIn took professional networking online. Now it wants to help people network in person again.

The Microsoft-owned social media network for professionals announced Tuesday that it’s adding a new feature called Events that lets users organize in-person meetings. The new feature, which goes live in English speaking countries on Thursday, allows users to send out invites and provides attendees a place to discuss event details.

Hosts can use filters search to search their networks for people they want to invite, including by location, company, industry, and school. Users can also make their events searchable so that others can join the events as well.

“Our data says that the chances of people accepting connection requests on LinkedIn increase 2X if they have attended a face-to-face meeting,” LinkedIn India’s head of product Ajay Datta said in a statement.

LinkedIn Events is a free service that is available on LinkedIn’s app and website. It was first tested a year ago in cities across the world including, New York City and San Francisco.

LinkedIn Events competes with Facebook Events, which debuted in 2005.

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