September brought several meaningful updates to gigBench, all focused on making the platform more useful throughout the freelance experience.
Finding the right project remains at the center of gigBench, but a strong freelance career involves more than the moments when you are actively looking for work. Staying connected to your professional community, continuing to learn, maintaining relationships, and keeping up with new opportunities all matter too.
That is why two of the biggest additions this month are Webinars and Community. Both give gigBench members new reasons to stay involved between projects.
We have also rebuilt messaging, introduced refreshed freelancer and firm dashboards, added new ways to explore the gigBench network, and continued improving matching and mobile access.
Here is what is new on gigBench this September.
Learn and connect without leaving gigBench
One of the biggest changes this month is that gigBench is becoming a place to do more than search for opportunities.
Webinars and Community are now live, creating two new ways for freelancers to learn, participate, and stay connected between projects.
Join webinars directly inside gigBench
Live webinars can now take place directly inside the gigBench platform.
Our first sessions went live in September, and recordings can be published afterward so members who cannot attend live can still catch up. The webinar experience includes features such as screen sharing, polls, reactions, hand-raising, and picture-in-picture.
The new Sessions area makes it easier to see what is happening. When a relevant webinar is live, members can see the session, preview what is happening, and join from inside gigBench.
For freelancers, that creates a simple way to continue learning and participating even when you are between projects. A session might introduce a new topic, bring in an industry speaker, or create an opportunity to hear from other professionals working across AEC.
And if the timing does not work, published recordings can be watched later through gigBench.
Join the conversation in Community
Community is also now live.
gigBench has separate spaces for freelancers and firms, with support for posts, polls, surveys, and events.
For freelancers, Community provides something that a traditional job marketplace usually does not: a place to stay connected when you are not actively pursuing a new opportunity.
You can join a conversation, respond to a poll, participate in an event, or simply see what other professionals in the gigBench network are discussing.
That means the relationship with gigBench does not have to begin when you need a gig and end when you find one. Community gives freelancers another way to participate in the network throughout their careers.
As Community continues to develop, gigBench is also building toward more focused conversations around areas such as expertise and geography.
Communicate more easily with rebuilt messaging
Messaging has also been rebuilt from the ground up.
The updated experience brings more of the communication around a project into one place. Freelancers and firms can share files, search media within conversations, pin important information, archive conversations, and review the history of edited messages. File uploads also include antivirus scanning.
Meeting coordination is built into the experience too. You can schedule a meeting while viewing availability or move directly from a conversation into a video call.
The benefit is simple: fewer tools to manage. Instead of using one platform for messaging, another for file sharing, and another to arrange a call, more of that communication can happen inside gigBench.
Explore a refreshed gigBench experience
September also brought a major refresh to the platform itself.
The freelancer dashboard brings together the tools members use most, including messaging, favorites, profile management, gigs, matches, settings, and Community. Freelancers can also preview their profile from the perspective of a firm.
One of the most visual additions is the new interactive map.
Freelancers can explore firms using a 3D globe or flat map and apply filters while browsing. Firms have their own version of the experience, with a talent map that helps them explore professionals by metro area.
The map gives members another way to understand the size and reach of the gigBench network, rather than experiencing the marketplace only as a list of profiles or opportunities.
You may have noticed gigBench looks different too
The technology is not the only thing that changed this month.
gigBench’s refreshed visual identity is rolling out across the platform, website, social channels, marketing, and content. The new direction is intended to feel more confident, modern, credible, and precise, while remaining focused on meaningful professional relationships.
Inside the platform, that includes the new visual system as well as dark mode across the gigBench experience.
The goal is for the way gigBench looks and the way it works to feel like part of the same experience.
Matching keeps working as the marketplace changes
gigBench’s matching system continues to help connect freelancers with relevant opportunities as new gigs are added.
Every open gig is compared with freelancer profiles using defined matching criteria. Certain requirements, including licensing, cross-border consent, and on-site location, can determine whether someone qualifies for a particular opportunity. Qualified freelancers are then evaluated using additional fit factors and grouped into Strong, Good, or Weak match groups.
Matches refresh regularly and also update when new gigs are posted.
For freelancers, that means gigBench keeps looking for potential opportunities as the marketplace changes. It also makes keeping your profile complete and current an important part of getting the most from the platform.
More reasons to stay connected between projects
The common theme across September’s updates is that gigBench is becoming more useful beyond the search for the next gig.
Webinars create opportunities to learn and participate. Community gives freelancers a place to connect and continue the conversation. Messaging makes it easier to communicate with firms and manage project conversations. The refreshed dashboard and interactive map provide new ways to navigate the platform and explore the network. Continued work on matching and mobile is helping build a more connected gigBench experience over time.
Whether you are actively searching for a new project or simply staying connected until the right opportunity comes along, there are now more ways to make gigBench part of your professional routine.
| Log in to gigBench to explore Community, check out Sessions, and see what is new this September. |
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