LinkedIn rolling out ‘new’ clubhouse-like events platform

LinkedIn logo

LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn is following Twitter’s lead and rolling out a event platform that allows talking heads to gather like clubhouse, and that the video version they’ve been working on since March 2020 will follow in the spring — two years after the pandemic struck — but I’m not seeing alot that’s new. According to Techcrunch

Event hosts will be able to run the event straight from LinkedIn, and it will feature tools for online attendees and hosts to speak to each other in live conversations and to moderate discussions; and for attendees to communicate to each other both during and after events take place.

I expect this will be well received by LinkedIn’s 800 million professional users looking to build authority on the platfrom, and no doubt great for LinkedIn value rises with time spent on platform, but I don’t see a lot that’s actually new and I have LOTS of questions:

  • Will it allow people to move around and network freely authentically as we do on World Event Center?
  • Will it be truly inclusive/accessible/welcoming so everyone can and will participate, phone in service for those who struggle with bandwidth, clocking for those who for their own safety remain anonymous, captioning and other accessibility features?
  • Does it address the largest growing post-covid danger — mental health — by prompting us to start conversations with business associates that go quiet due to depression or providing support to users who are struggling with overwhelm or suicidal thoughts?

and the big one for me…

  • Although they joined Discord, Facebook, Inc., Google, Microsoft, Patreon, Pinterest, Reddit, Shopify, Twitter, and Vimeo, to collaborate and industry best practices, reviewed through internal and independent third-party assessments, to ensure member safety with the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership, these best practices are not yet in place, so how will LinkedIn enable broad range of human expression and conduct of it’s 150 million users, while working to identify and prevent harmful content and conduct?

Bill Gates has been preaching to the world about the danger of a global pandemic since his 2014 Ted Talk “The Next Outbreak? We’re not ready” and branding himself as a passionate tech visionary, who “changed the world while leading Microsoft to dizzying success” and claims to be “doing it again through his global philanthropic work that strives to reduce inequity everywhere” and I hope we see that in this their platform because the world needed it… back in March 2020 when the pandemic happened and we’ve been waiting.

There is no doubt that LinkedIn’s new platform will hit HUGE when it is launched, but I wonder how it will play out. Will this move solidify LinkedIn’s lead as World’s biggest business professional network, or will this landmark launch move users away from LinkedIn as they tire of the endlist invitations they receive and make room for a new innovative leader? Only time will tell I suspose.

What innovation would you like to to see in virtual conferencing?

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