Freelancing at a Crossroads - Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

Thomas Maas has been leading freelancermap, the largest platform for freelancers in the German-speaking world, since 2011. As a voice of the industry, he advocates for freelancing to finally receive the societal recognition it deserves as the backbone of the future world of work. Through the annual Freelancer Compass, the most comprehensive study on the state and trends of freelancing, he highlights the challenges and opportunities in the sector and brings fresh momentum to the public discourse on the future of work.

Manuel is a web developer and founder of Uplink, the network for IT freelancers. After working as a freelancer for 8 years and experiencing the IT recruiting market, he founded Uplink as fair and simple alternative to classic recruiters. Since then, the community has grown to over 5,000 members and has helped more than 600 companies to quickly find the right freelancer.

Matthew Mottola has led the freelance economy for over a decade, offering a comprehensive perspective from various angles within the industry. As CEO of Human Cloud, alongside Jon Younger, he empowers freelance leaders to excel in the $6.2 trillion freelance economy. Under his leadership, Human Cloud published the Human Cloud book, built the #1 global freelance podcast, and launched the Freelance Trend Tracker. In addition to his role at Human Cloud, Matthew speaks, invests, guest lectures at Georgia Tech, and contributes to Forbes on the freelance economy. His previous experience includes founding Venture L, leading the Microsoft 365 freelance toolkit, and early involvement at Gigster. Matthew's expertise has led him to speak at 50+ international stages, earn recognition as a top 50 remote work expert, and be featured in Fortune, Bloomberg, YPO, and Yahoo Finance. In his own words, his career revolves around freelancing, assisting enterprises in hiring freelancers, and developing software that connects the two, providing insights into strategic workforce scaling through freelancers and freelance programs.