The tech industry is suffering from a talent gap largely created by stale employment models. The professional talent is out there, but many desire different ways of working. As we sit at the dawn of a new decade, winners and losers and tech may be decided by the ability to close the skills gap by using flexible employment models, including incorporating highly skilled in-demand distributed talent into their organization. This is NOT the gig economy, which is based on undifferentiated skills. This is about a growing number of professionals in the tech industry who, for a wide range of reasons, have consciously decided to shun the traditional office model in favor of using their skills and talents to help companies achieve specific goals. In this model, the location of the company and the employee are largely irrelevant. It’s about closing a skills gap as fast as possible. This is the talent economy. This is a fascinating model that is set to explode. It comes with challenges and rewards for both the professional and the company. This podcast will cover many issues related to remote work and distributed talent, from both the talent and company perspective. Some of the topics we’ll explore include: • How to incorporate distributed talent into your workforce. • Lower costs and faster results with distributed talent. • Getting started as a distributed professional. • The impact of potential "gig economy" legislation on distributed professionals. • The distributed agency model. • Tools and resources for distributed talent. These are exciting times. I predict that by the end of this coming decade, in households with two professionals, at least one of them will not work in a traditional office environment. This journey will have many ups and downs that I hope we can explore together. Let me know if you have topics around distributed talent to explore.