How LinkedIn Drove 2.5× Higher Social Engagement at SRE[in]con with SpatialChat

Riddhik Kochhar -

About SRE[in]con

SRE[in]con is a global virtual engineering conference hosted by LinkedIn’s Site Engineering community, bringing together reliability engineers and infrastructure practitioners from around the world. With 800+ registered participants, the event combined formal talks and panels with social and networking sessions designed to foster peer exchange.

While broadcast content performed well in traditional webinar formats, the networking experience required a fundamentally different approach.

The Challenge: Replicating the Social Fabric of In-Person Conferences

Previous virtual editions revealed a consistent gap. Social sessions struggled with low participation after the initial minutes, awkward breakout room dynamics, limited organic networking, and noticeable drop-offs once formal programming ended.

Yet networking is one of the core reasons engineers attend conferences. LinkedIn needed to recreate hallway conversations, post-session mingling, and informal peer learning in a virtual environment capable of supporting hundreds of participants simultaneously, without becoming chaotic or over-facilitated.

The core question: how can a large virtual conference deliver real networking value, not just content consumption?

Why LinkedIn Chose SpatialChat

SpatialChat was selected specifically to power the social and networking layer of the event.

Key decision drivers included:

  • Spatial audio and proximity-based conversations that enabled natural movement between groups
  • Multi-room environments supporting parallel social zones and themed discussions
  • Zero-install, browser-based access for global attendees
  • Scalable architecture allowing hundreds of participants to interact without forced breakout assignments

The spatial model mirrored real-world conference behavior—small clusters forming organically, dissolving, and reforming based on shared interests.

The Experience: Organic, Self-Directed Networking at Scale

During live social sessions, attendees self-organized into small discussion clusters, typically three to five people. Participants moved freely between conversations based on topic relevance, creating peer-led and dynamic exchanges.

Unlike traditional breakout rooms, the SpatialChat environment required minimal facilitation. Movement between groups was fluid, spontaneous interactions increased, and drop-off rates declined once attendees entered the social space. The experience more closely resembled a conference networking lounge than a scheduled virtual session.

The Impact: Measurable Gains in Networking Quality

Post-event analysis revealed a clear step-change in engagement compared to previous Zoom-based formats:

  • 2.5–2.7× higher average dwell time in social sessions
  • 65–70% of active conference participants joined at least one SpatialChat session
  • 3×+ increase in peer-to-peer conversations per attendee
  • 45–50% of participants connected with three or more new peers in a single session
  • 55–60% return rate across multiple social sessions during the event
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +40 to +45 for the social experience

Qualitative feedback reinforced the metrics: participants described the sessions as natural rather than forced, purposeful rather than performative, and cited the networking layer as one of the most valuable aspects of the conference.

Strategic Outcome

For LinkedIn’s Site Engineering team, SpatialChat shifted SRE[in]con from a content-first virtual event to a balanced conference experience that combined technical knowledge sharing with authentic peer connection. The result was higher perceived value, stronger community cohesion, and networking at scale that traditional webinar formats could not replicate.

SpatialChat enabled the conference to deliver what webinars alone cannot: real human connection in a virtual environment built for interaction.