I’m sure all of you reading this blog know that one of the key features of professional networking is “networking”. D’uh! You know? Attending events/conferences/tradeshows, etc… to make the right connections. Connections you then manage on a site like LinkedIn. So, the first part is finding the right events to network at and the second part is managing the connections thus accumulated.

Starting today, LinkedIn is gonna make the first part of that equation – super easy to do, with our Events feature. Check out the five reasons I think LinkedIn Events is game changing (after the jump). Before that, watch my colleague Christina Wodtke demo the feature:

Five reasons LinkedIn Events is game changing:

1. It’s on LinkedIn – the world’s largest professional networking site

Alright, I work there, but allow me to marvel at the vast network of professionals who can be found there, currently at over 30 million. So, in essence it’s the perfect demographic of networkers out there. I have over 500 connections and this would allow me to map events I attend with my connections’ events as well.

2. It’s about degrees of separation

Never before has it been easier to find out which of your colleagues and peers are attending events you’d like to go to. Or on the flipside, figure out which events to attend based on your peers’ recommendations.

3. It’s about network updates

The easiest way to stumble upon the wisdom of your network (from an event perspective) is to log into your homepage and see event updates from your colleagues/business partners, click through them and decide whether you’d like to attend them or not.

4. It augments your professional brand

Better still, when one clicks on your full profile, they can view the most recent events you’re (1) attending, (2) exhibiting, or (3) presenting at.

5. It’s got thousands of events – on day 1

Not only can any LinkedIn user add events, share and invite their colleagues and peers, but on day 1, we start of with over 8000 events brought together via event organizers such as TechWeb, HSM, etc… as well as event coordinators such as Eventbrite.

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What did other bloggers think about it?

• Read Write Web: LinkedIn launches powerful events feature
  

We like LinkedIn a lot here at ReadWriteWeb and we think Events is a great addition to the service. The events feature appears to be built on the OpenSocial platform, so there’s a good chance that these features will be available in other settings beyond LinkedIn in the future.

• Mashable: LinkedIn Events bring conference networking online
  

Smartly, LinkedIn Events pulls information from sites like Eventbrite and then builds features around it as opposed to re-creating the wheel by asking users to build a new event database from scratch.

• Venture Beat: LinkedIn launches events to help you schmooze in person
  

Given that LinkedIn is all about business networking and collaboration, this is obviously a useful feature to aid schmoozing. It is another example of the company trying to become more of a destination site for people, not just a place they log in occasionally to make connections.

• Chris Brogan: LinkedIn throws a little upcoming into the site

LinkedIn just announced a new event application. So it’s like Upcoming.org for businesses. I dig it. And then, I wonder what else we’re going to do here.

What do YOU think of LinkedIn Events? Try it here.