LinkedIn 'Events' tool to ensure safe online conversations

Microsoft-owned professional networking platform LinkedIn is set to launch a 'Made in India' feature called 'Events' that will allow members create and attend events directly on both the app as well the web.

LinkedIn Events will be available on October 17 globally, starting first with English-speaking markets. It will roll out to non-English markets later.

The USP of the product is the ability to enable safe online conversations and offline events.

With the new feature, members would be able to meet and talk to a like-minded group of members with ease by having control of the attendee list, Ajay Datta, Head of Product, LinkedIn India told IANS.

"LinkedIn Events is the first product built out of the Bengaluru R&D Centre for a global audience. The Bengaluru R&D Centre has also conceptualised and built LinkedIn 'Lite' Android app in 2017, which has now scaled to 70-plus emerging markets across the world and supports 21 plus languages," Datta informed.

The catalyst for LinkedIn 'Lite' was a field research trip in Nashik where broadband challenges prevented page loading. To address this, LinkedIn Lite was developed for mobile web and rolled out in India first with significant impact.

With over 54 million users, India is LinkedIn's fastest-growing and largest market outside the US.

The 'Events' feature will help attendees meet, talk to one another, see updates in the event feed and who else is attending, and connect with them.

"LinkedIn has empowered every member with tools to report and block a suspicious or spam event or conversation. We are deploying proactive and reactive measures to ensure the conversations on 'Events' are safe and trustworthy," said Datta.

Apart from 'Events', the team is developing and testing other avenues to connect members using QR codes, business cards, and proximity-based beacons.