Meet the freelance experts

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.

Investment banker turned economist, turned environmental economist, turned startup founder and CEO of Pick My Brain.

Senior executive with more than 15 years of experience in the freelance platform domain. 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.

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.

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.

Harvey started working in recruitment at 16, after 2 years of long hours, difficult processes and hard to work with hiring managers he joined Gigged.ai as employee no.2 and Growth Manager. Since then he's been working directly with the community of freelancers, all while building his knowledge of the gig economy. Love everything about the growing global community that is freelancing.

Piret has a strong engineering experience with a Master of Arts (M.A.) focused in Communication Management. She has worked in the public sector, corporation, enterprise and in a start-up. This experience has given her a wide experience of how to make things work. Join Piret as she explains what is important from a customer point of view when working with remote software developers.

Jennifer is the Account Executive for Gigged.AI, working with existing clients but also winning us new business. Her background is within IT recruitment for a global organisation with a recent gap to welcome her little girl. She's loving the change of pace working for a start up that promotes the freelance movement.

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

Matt Saunders is a web developer and business coach for freelancers. He helps individuals and teams build a business doing what they love by coaching them on finding ideal clients, managing projects confidently, generating more leads and sales and more.

His work helps create more fulfilled people, who do better work for happier clients. As a result, the freelance software industry can more positively impact the world.

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.

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.

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.

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.