Manuel started as a freelancer in software development in 2006 and founded the digital agency Bright Solutions in 2011. In his company, he has been consistently using remote employees since 2012 to strengthen his local team and since 2018 he has been using globally operating virtual teams.

The year 2020 was associated with a great deal of uncertainty and completely new challenges for many organizations and companies.

Collaboration, interaction and communication had to be redesigned very abruptly. Presence work had to be transformed into remote work instantly, and a large proportion of the so-called "knowledge workers" are still at least partly in the home office.

For many entrepreneurs and freelancers, however, the whole issue is still not a permanent and desired situation. But how can we adapt to the changed circumstances and make the way we work together more sustainable and meaningful?

Saloua is a finance professional specialised in tax and law and founder of Freeluancer - a job platform for finance freelancers to get matched with exited job offers. Saloua will share the main tips to gain control of your freelance finances.

Does the word Budget scares you? She will explain how to create your own budget so that:

• You get to see where your money is going so you can plan what you can and cannot do with your business.
• You'll see where you're overspending or underspending each month.
• You get a better idea of how much income you need and/or how many expenses you can cut out.

Matt Saunders is a web develop and business coach for freelancers. He empowers creative freelancers to build better, stronger and more enjoyable businesses. He has found much success by specialising rather than working across sectors.

He also runs Charity Box, a company that empowers charities to do better with digital. He found his niche by focusing on community benefits

Join his session to learn what it means to niche, the benefits of niching and crucially, how you can find a niche that fits you perfectly.

Join Bhaskar, who after 10 years with IBM, started his own freelance business and now a technical writer and researcher for a number of organisations.

In this session Bhaskar will share:

• Sector in which there is high and evergreen demand and freelancers should focus
• Future sectors that would reshape the software industry and freelancers should start to build their skillsets
• Skills in demand

Hourly rates are dead. Working for free is dead. But creating package, retainer, and value based pricing models is very much alive. This is how freelancers will earn their worth and change the way our clients work with us. The change starts with us!

Marie Rachelle is an award-winning freelancer and community builder. Over the years, her consultancy has taken many forms from social media to copywriting and now PR and marketing strategy. Her background is in business building, she's passionate about connecting and helping others, and she always goes above and beyond. In addition to her successful freelance business, she's a speaker, coach and founder of Convergence Coworking.

Maxine is an investment banker turned economist, turned environmental economist, turned startup founder and CEO of Pick My Brain.

She has helped over 300+ people package, price, market, and sell their knowledge in totally new, creative, fun and rewarding ways using Pick My Brain as a starting point. She has realised that not only that everyone has something of value to offer, but everyone needs support to find it, test it, and launch it. So she developed a custom, interactive, and high-energy workshop that was built and designed to help people share their knowledge in new and powerful ways.

Topcoder is the world's largest technology network and on-demand digital talent platform, with more than 1.6 million members worldwide. It allows companies to easily tap into hard-to-find technology skills through their on-demand community of freelancers.

Join Adam, VP of Community and Marketing as he explains:
1. What is Open Talent
2. The evolution of the Open Talent model
3. How brands are solving tech challenges with Open Talent communities and how you, freelancer, can benefit from it.

Barry Matthews is an experienced digital business leader, with a track record of leading and transforming technology consulting firms, as well as enabling open talent models within global enterprises. As CEO, he sets the vision and strategy, and supports a team of globally distributed subject matter experts in the future of work and the power of the crowd.

Before merging with Open Assembly, Barry was the Managing Director of Re-source, a consulting firm he founded, which helped enterprise clients tap into the open economy. Barry was also the Managing Partner for Northern Europe at the global technology research and advisory firm ISG, MD and Head of Europe at Alsbridge. He has been recognized by the Management Consulting Association (MCA) and the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) for expertise in business consulting and outsourcing.

Slava Mikhailov is a senior solution architect at DataArt with almost a decade of experience in IT. His main passions are Software Architecture, Finance and Gaming domains. His main role in the company to invent new products for clients, design and develop it. Main technical expertise is in the field of Microsoft related technologies like .NET and Azure.

DataArt is a global enterprise software development company that helps clients design, build, and support unique custom software to drive their business.

In this session we will talk about trends and opportunities related to the technology development so that freelancers can get prepared, update their skill set to be able to win new customers.

Freelancing has changed a lot over the last 5 years but we've seen a huge change since 2019. In this session we are going to dive into the way that the market is shifting in favour of freelancers and how you can make sure that you are getting yourself ahead of the crowd.

We'll talk about the introduction of Talent Platforms and there benefit, how to utilise them and how they actually work? Questions are encouraged!

Gigged.ai is a digital sourcing platform that brings top talent and clients together. As a freelancer, you can leave recruitment agencies and job search stress behind by letting clients find you and your skills. If you are looking for independent professionals for your business, save time, cut costs and reduce risk by using Gigged.AI to source, screen and onboard on-demand tech talent.

During this lunch break you can join a special crash course on breaking into data science for software engineers with Alexey Grigorev from DataTalks (taking place 12:20 - 12:50 CET)

Piret has been leading the Engineering Team at Xolo since 2019. As a leader she's a firm believer in a people-first management style where a culture of autonomy and personal responsibility is prized above all else. Her background in communications has taught her the importance of transparency, clear expectations and creating a candid and kind feedback culture.

Join Piret as she explains what is important from a customer point of view when working with remote software developers.

In a world of technology are we losing the human element in our business relationships? This short presentation introduces the concepts of the human element in digital communications and what we have forgotten or never learned about human interaction.

As freelancers we mostly work closely with clients, building a business relationship that often becomes a friendship. The use of technology in the self service environment of the internet, has been broken in automated digital communications.

What can be done to restore the relationship building? This is the question that we try to answer in our short presentation.

Nigel T Packer is a Digital Customer Experience Trainer and Consultant. He is also an author and digital business speaker. For over twenty-five years he has used his extensive knowledge and broad range of experiences to engage, educate and entertain business owners and audiences across the UK and Europe.

His subject expertise includes customer experience optimisation, customer experience journey mapping, e-Business strategies, effective website development, and International digital business strategy. He heads a consultancy practice PelaTis Online Ltd.

There are so many new technologies appearing every day in today's world, especially in software development. One person can't learn everything. Vaclav would like show how to learn new technologies well and how to find the right technologies to learn. What are the key questions to ask about technologies and fundamental principles to follow when deciding what to learn?

Vaclav is a SW developer and consultant who believes in open, honest, trustworthy relationships. He has got a master's degree in computational mathematics in 2015. Since then, he has gathered 5+ years professional experience on international projects. Currently he makes a living as a freelance software developer working mainly on web projects for British and Czech customers.

This will be the last meet-up of the event (and the year!). Join this last session to share your feedback, ideas or suggestions, meet someone new and find answers to your questions.