LinkedIn revealed a new push around creators last month to bring more original content (and engagement) to its platform, but that's not the only effort it is making to bring more activity to its networking site. Sources close to TechCrunch confirmed, LinkedIn is running another test: one around events — specifically, paid events.

We first obtained code related to the events test through an anonymous source: The code pointed to LinkedIn selling tickets, as well as those organizing the events having a dashboard where they could monitor how those sales are going, how much they are earning, and of course then run the events themselves. A LinkedIn spokesperson confirmed the information to us:

In the shifting nature of work and shift to a nearly all-remote workforce, LinkedIn Events has seen tremendous growth, as 21 million people attended an Event on LinkedIn in 2020, said Nicole Leverich, a LinkedIn spokesperson. "We continue learning from member and customer feedback and testing new ways to improve the experience. In this, we explore options for payment in the Events product based on feedback from event organizers.".

So these are likely to anchor the events service, which will all be rolled out in the coming weeks and months. From what we understand, this is a part of bigger overhauls the company would like to make around video and audio services. LinkedIn publicized in June of this year that it was one of the investors in Hopin; however, whether or not Hopin will engage with this process remains to be seen, as its last funding round had reported its valuation at $7.75 billion - and that was all the way back in August.

All of this makes sense given the fact that LinkedIn has been working on and around events for years, starting with its Events hub that it first debuted back in 2019, before the days of the pandemic and with a focus on in-person get-togethers. A few months into the COVID-19 pandemic it formalized some of the ways that it was being used in more virtual events scenarios with the launch of online polls and video events aimed at virtual engagement.

Because of this and its role as a social network for those professionally networking, LinkedIn already had a strong, pretty natural association with events — both larger industry expositions or conferences as well as smaller affairs. It is utilized by a host of major events as a means of handling log-ins for attendees; people share content from events on LinkedIn; and those who attend conferences use it to continue their networking once they have engaged in person (or these days, virtually). So it makes sense for LinkedIn the business to consider how and if they could be more proactive, and at the center of that process, owning and hosting the experience themselves, and maybe making a bit of money out of it in the process.