# LinkedIn for speakers: what the new network feed changes

Author: Marin Niehues, Stage Starter · Published: 2026-10-16
Topic: Visibility & Personal Brand (https://www.stage-starter.de/en/blog/topic/visibility-and-personal-brand/)
Source: https://www.stage-starter.de/en/blog/linkedin-network-feed-speakers/

LinkedIn announced on 15 October 2026, in a [post introducing new features](https://news.linkedin.com/2026/new-ways-to-build-meaningful-connections), that it is testing a dedicated Network feed showing posts from your connections and from people you follow. The test is rolling out in select markets, starting with the USA, India, the UK and Australia, and in the same announcement LinkedIn presents a creator dashboard that will roll out globally in the coming weeks. For speakers who want to reach organisers and programme committees through LinkedIn, this moves their own network to the front, because a feed of this kind shows your posts to the people who are connected to you or follow you. The announcement says nothing about a change to the main feed, and you can use the time until any wider rollout to build connections with the people who decide on the programmes of the conferences you want to speak at.

**Key points**
- LinkedIn is testing a Network feed with posts from connections and people you follow, starting in 4 countries: the USA, India, the UK and Australia.
- The creator dashboard is due to roll out globally in the coming weeks and is meant to show what is working in your content.
- Paid 1:1 advice through your profile, called Advice Sessions, is available for now to Business Premium subscribers in the USA.
- According to LinkedIn, the number of founders on the platform is up 70 %, and more than 80 % of creators are building content alongside another professional role.

## LinkedIn is testing a Network feed in four countries

According to LinkedIn, the Network feed is a dedicated feed with posts from your connections and the people you follow. The announcement places it among a set of features meant to help members nurture professional relationships and build an audience around their expertise. In the FAQ further down the same page the UK is missing from the list of test countries, which names only three.

The announcement leaves open whether the Network feed appears as an additional view alongside the existing feed, how it orders posts and when further countries will follow. LinkedIn gives no date for Germany, Austria or Switzerland. What was announced is therefore a test in four markets, from which no change to the algorithm for all members can be read.

For speakers based in Germany the test still matters. Many international conferences are organised in exactly these countries, and if you submit to calls for papers in the USA or the UK, you deal with organisers who may be among the first to see the Network feed. A call for papers is the public announcement with which a conference collects talk proposals. The programme committee decides on them.

## Alongside the feed, LinkedIn announces a global creator dashboard

In LinkedIn's words, the creator dashboard is meant to let creators understand more easily what is working in their content and find everything around it in one place. It will roll out globally in the coming weeks, and in the app you reach it through your profile picture at the top left. The announcement does not describe which metrics it contains.

Through the dashboard, eligible creators can also join a programme for in-stream ads and earn revenue when pre-roll ads run before their videos, meaning short commercials shown before the video itself. LinkedIn is testing this with select creators and advertisers in the USA. Advice Sessions are also limited to the USA for now: they let you offer 1:1 advice directly from your profile, with LinkedIn handling booking and payment and hosting the video call. They are open to Business Premium subscribers, with more markets coming soon.

Several smaller features, which are useful at conferences, are announced globally. A digital business card that you can add to your phone's wallet will arrive over the coming months. There are also private notes on profiles for Premium subscribers, in which you can record where you met someone, as well as pinned comments, with which authors can place a helpful comment above all the others.

**The figures from the LinkedIn announcement**
- 70 % | more founders on LinkedIn, with no time period given
- 26 % | more members reporting more than one ongoing position since 2019
- 80 % | more than this share of creators build content alongside another role
- 4 | countries in which the Network feed test begins

The figure on creators describes many speakers quite precisely, since anyone who speaks at conferences as a consultant or managing director writes on LinkedIn alongside their actual job.

## In the Network feed you are seen by those connected to you or following you

In the existing feed a post can also reach people who do not know you, because LinkedIn distributes it beyond your network. A feed of connections and people you follow draws that line more tightly. The organiser you met at a conference will only read your next post there if you are connected or she follows you.

Programme makers are rare in most speakers' networks. Most speakers write to organisers by email or submit through a portal without connecting with them on LinkedIn afterwards. How to approach organisers directly is covered in [Contacting conference organisers directly](/en/blog/contact-conference-organisers-directly/), and what a committee reads during selection is set out in [What a programme committee looks for](/en/blog/what-a-programme-committee-looks-for/).

## A sample calculation shows how often programme committees see your posts

Suppose that your LinkedIn network today includes 30 people who shape the programmes of conferences relevant to you, such as organisers, committee members or the leads of individual tracks. Suppose further that a post of yours appears in the Network feed of one in five of them, because not all of them open the app on that day. These 20 per cent are a working assumption, since LinkedIn has published no figure for this, and you replace it, like every value here, with your own.

You give six talks a year and write one post before and one after each, plus two expert posts a month. That makes 36 posts. With 30 programme makers and a visibility rate of 20 per cent, each post reaches six of them, which adds up to 216 touchpoints over the year, and on paper each of these people sees you about seven times.

Now the second scenario: after every conference you connect with ten people from the organising team and the committee whom you spoke to on site. After six talks you have 90 programme makers in your network. At the same visibility rate each post reaches 18 of them, and 36 posts turn into 648 touchpoints a year. You write just as much as before and meet the people who decide on programmes three times as often, because a Network feed looks only at your network.

**Sample calculation with open assumptions**
Value | Network today | After six conferences
Programme makers in your network | 30 | 90
Posts per year | 36 | 36
Visibility rate per post (assumption) | 20 % | 20 %
Programme makers reached per post | 6 | 18
Touchpoints per year | 216 | 648

The committee decides on a submission on the basis of the abstract, the short description of your planned talk. A name the members recognise from their feed does make a submission easier to place, however, and an invitation outside the call often comes about when someone thinks of you as a slot in the programme opens up.

## Posts before and after the talk reach organisers through your network

The post before the talk announces topic and date and links to the conference programme. It shows the organisers that you are promoting their conference, and it reaches people in your network who plan programmes themselves.

The post afterwards carries more weight. It shows what you spoke about and which questions came from the audience, and so demonstrates that your topic works in front of a room. With a pinned comment you can bring the link to your slides or the recording to the top, so that it does not get lost among the reactions. How such posts grow into a brand is described in [Personal brand as a speaker](/en/blog/personal-brand-as-a-speaker/).

## Use the creator dashboard to measure which speaker posts work

As soon as the dashboard appears in your account, make a habit of looking at it after every talk. Compare the posts before and after the event with your expert posts and note which kind gets more response. Since the announcement does not list the dashboard's metrics in detail, check what it shows when you first open it, and then choose two or three values to follow over the year. Alongside this, note after each conference how many programme makers are in your network, because that number is the starting value of the calculation above.

## Five steps speakers can take now to grow their LinkedIn network

1. Count the organisers and committee members you are already connected with, and write the number down.
2. Within a few days of every conference, connect with the people from the organising team and the committee you spoke to, and mention the occasion in your request.
3. Write one post before and one after each talk, tag the conference and pin the link to your slides or recording as a comment.
4. Set up the digital business card as soon as it is available in your account, so that contacts made on site land directly on LinkedIn.
5. Open the creator dashboard as soon as it appears, and after every talk compare your speaker posts with your expert posts.

**How Stage Starter supports you on the way to the stage**
Stage Starter supports experts on their way onto specialist conference stages. In the consulting programme we work with you on your path to the stage, from positioning to submission, with regular live calls with our Stage Experts and tools such as the Persona Explorer and the Relevance Explorer. With Managed Services we research the conferences that fit your topic and your ideal clients, write the abstracts, submit in your name and follow up. In the [initial consultation](/en/erstgespraech/) we work out which route suits you.

**LinkedIn is testing a Network feed in the USA, India, the UK and Australia and is bringing the creator dashboard to all markets in the coming weeks. Speakers who want to reach organisers and programme committees should now grow their network among these people, accompany every talk with a post before and after, and use the dashboard to measure which posts work.**

## Frequently asked questions

### Does the new LinkedIn Network feed apply in Germany?

Not for now. According to the announcement of 15 October 2026, the test begins in four countries, of which the UK is the only European one, and LinkedIn gives no date for the German-speaking countries.

### Is LinkedIn changing the algorithm for everyone?

What was announced is a test of a dedicated feed with posts from connections and people you follow in four countries. A change to the main feed for all members is not part of the announcement, and LinkedIn does not describe how the Network feed orders posts either.

### What is the LinkedIn creator dashboard?

The dashboard is meant to show in one place what is working in your content and to help you manage it. It will roll out globally in the coming weeks and can be reached in the app through your profile picture at the top left.

### Can I offer Advice Sessions as a speaker based in Germany?

At present Advice Sessions are only open to Business Premium subscribers in the USA. LinkedIn says more markets are coming but names neither countries nor a date.

### How do I reach programme committees on LinkedIn?

Connect with the people from organising teams and committees you meet at conferences, and accompany every talk with a post before and after. In a feed of connections and people you follow, the number of programme makers in your network decides how often they see you.