Now available on demand · 10€ single-session access · Free for CommsCOM.org Pro members

The comms job market has massively changed. Full-time roles are harder to find and more contested than they were even two years ago. Fewer permanent positions, more applicants per opening, and AI now doing work that used to justify a headcount. If you have felt that squeeze, you’re not alone. That is the dominant shared experience in many conversations happening in CommsCOM.org, the growing community of around 1,000 communicators from around the globe.

What is replacing many of the former full-time comms jobs in organisations and companies? Fractional roles, retainers, part-time freelancers, and boutique consultancies, working sometimes solo or with small, agile teams. This new reality in the comms sector in 2026 is pushing many professionals to pivot away from full-time, in-house roles. Those of us who want to keep working in comms need to build resilience, nurture creativity, and be open to new ways of working and collaborating.

Getting freelance and retainer work is not easy either. The market is under strain, competition is high, and nobody hands you a manual on how to become a successful freelancer. Most of the times, work opportunities don’t come to you; you have to find them, apply, and win them!

Requests for Proposals (RFPs), tenders, and bids are how a big share of this work actually gets allocated by international organisations, NGOs, corporates, and public institutions alike. Yet, unless you’ve done it before, the process can feel opaque and too complex. Finding where these opportunities are even posted, what a strong response looks like, and how to compete against larger agencies and consultancies who have been doing this for longer can all make for a high barrier of entry for those trying to get into public tendering.

CommsCOM.org’s First Monthly Expert Talk

On 18 September, we opened the CommsCOM.org Expert Talk series with a live, practical session on exactly this: How to Get Clients With Tenders & RFPs.

Âli Okumuşoğlu, founder of Dante Media and a communication consultant who has built his own brand & communication consulting agency in part through winning RFPs and tenders, walked through the essentials: where to find these opportunities, what makes a proposal competitive, and how to apply with a realistic shot at winning. The session was live, with real-time Q&A, and moderated by Mariana Castaño Cano, founder of CommsCOM.org and 10 Billion Solutions.

What’s covered in the recording:

• The core terminology — RFPs, EOIs, RFQs, and MEAT (Most Economically Advantageous Tender) — and which of them actually matter to you
• Where tenders and RFPs really get posted: LinkedIn searches, aggregator tools, organisations’ own procurement pages, UNGM, and regional/national portals
• How to scope an opportunity before you spend time on it — qualification criteria, budget fit, timeline realism, and whether you can actually compete
• Building a proposal template and case-study system that compounds over years, instead of starting from scratch every time
• Using AI responsibly in the process, and where it visibly backfires
• A live, screen-shared walkthrough of an actual sourcing-to-proposal workflow, start to finish
• Open Q&A: why the market is this competitive right now, how to think about disclosing AI use, and practical advice for solo freelancers with no team to lean on

If you missed it live, the full 90-minute recording is now available on demand.

How to Watch

CommsCOM.org Pro members already have full access to this recording, along with every past and future Expert Talk, at no extra cost. It’s part of the membership.

If you’re not a Pro member yet, you have two ways in:

• Watch this session only: a single Expert Talk Pass unlocks the full recording for 10€.
• Become a CommsCOM.org Pro member: The fee is 25€/month and it gets you this recording, every future Monthly Expert Talk, the daily curated job board, a free 30-minute career growth consultation, weekly momentum check-ins, the resource library, the member network, and CommsCOM.org’s thematic tracks. If you think you’ll want more than this one session, Pro is the better value from your second Expert Talk onward.

Questions? Send then in and we will answer them fast!