The annual Nordic Freelance Seminar gathered this year some 120 freelancers in Stockholm for a weekend on September 3-5th, 2010. The seminar moves from one Nordic country to another every year and has been organised since early 1990's in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. It is the major gathering of journalists on the Nordic level.

This year the theme of the seminar was cooperation: cooperation between freelancers, journalists from neighbouring countries and networking with other professionals.

The seminar started with matchmaking, short prebooked business meetings between participants to create own networks and find colleagues intrested in same topics as you are. This was found succesful, as there are not too often possibilities to discuss on possible cooperation with freelance journalists from other countries.

Other parts of the programme included themes like how to find and use tools for cooperation, how to develop a production company and how to find new ideas. Awarded photojournalist Pieter Ten Hoopen told the meeting about his methods to work and collaborate with writing journalists.

Participants also heard how Swedish freelancer Fredrik Gertten got sued by a large American corporation Dole due to his documentary film Bananas. It tells the story of 12 workers in Dole fields in Nicaragua. Gertten presented the film, the reaction it created and actions to support the film maker.

The next Nordic Freelance Seminar will be held in Helsingør (Elsinore), Denmark, 13-15th May 2011. The seminar is open to all and the working language is English. The actual information can be found on the seminar web page: www.nordicfreelance.com.

Heikki Jokinen
The Nordic freelance coordinator