I’m Steve, a freelance writer/editor/communications consultant/etcetera. I am based in Amsterdam but work worldwide.
My background is journalism, as a happy generalist writing for a general audience. I’ve also won prizes as copywriter, editor-in-chief and screenwriter. My specialties have evolved over time. It mainly began with food, drink, travel, and culture. This eventually morphed into including the (mostly) separate subjects of sex and AI.
You can say I’ve been around the block.
For the past five years, I have been primarily busy as a thought leadership (ghost)writer and content strategist for organisations focused on AI and innovation in the life sciences and manufacturing. A generalist writing for a general audience can add a lot in an area that needs to get a rainbow of radically different people on the same page before they can accomplish amazing things. Naturally, the actual end-users – and the general public – should also be included in the conversation.
It all comes down to interviews. I love people and finding the stories most worth sharing. As I like to say: ‘I live to ask the right dumb questions to the right smart people.’
You don’t need jargon or fancy words. You just need to cut to the chase.
Background
Our Man In Amsterdam…
I came to Amsterdam in the 1990s to reverse the journey my parents made as immigrants to Canada. After years as a carpenter, B-actor and doorman, I became a freelance journalist and editor/writer of guidebooks. I’ve contributed to such publications as New York Times, The Guardian, Time Out, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Conde Nast Traveller, Wallpaper, The Globe & Mail and Atlas Obscura covering travel, food/drink, design/architecture, Yuri Gagarin, Slavic gangster kitsch, the-idea-of-Europe, and all-things-Amsterdam.
Columnist… What do sex and machines have in common?
My first column was back in the 1990s as Time Out London’s ‘Our Man in the Gutter, Amsterdam’. Not wanting to be typecast, my next column ‘Eel-Advised’ explored how some of the stranger aspects of Amsterdam’s history can still pop up in the present day. ‘In This Issue And…’ was my weekly musings as Editor-in-Chief of the cultural paper Amsterdam Weekly.
I peaked as a columnist with over 200 editions of ‘Sex in the Press’, a weekly news round-up on sex & relationships for global sex ed platform Love Matters. (Read all about it here: ‘What I Learned From Googling “Sex” Every Day For Four Years’).
Fun fact: I would later use the exact same format for a monthly column for the AI unicorn Augury.com: ‘Manufacturing – The News’. It’s true that with this column, I became less of a hit at dinner parties: I talked less about the latest in orgasm research, and more about how AI and innovation is transforming all aspects of manufacturing. Regardless, sex and AI are more related than most people think: they’re both ultimately about the end user.
Copywriter: one-liners and more
In the advertising world, I’m usually a smartass-for-hire who gets called when someone says, ‘We need something funny.’ (But yes, I’ve also long learned the art of self-editing to be compatible with more serious-minded target audiences.)
I’ve worked on international communication campaigns and projects for Affordable Art Fair, Amnesty Netherlands, Amsterdam Economic Board, Amsterdam Science Park, Augury, City of Amsterdam, City of The Hague, Converse, Diesel, DSM-Dyneema, European Cultural Foundation, ECCO, Fatboy, Heineken, IDFA, IKEA, Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, TomTom and Zoku.
I’ve also worked with creative agencies such as DEPT, EdenFrost, Grrr, KesselsKramer, Natwerk, Sowiesohelder, StrawberryFrog, Super Stories, Tribal DDB and Wink.
Editor: leading creative teams
Starting in 2005, I was Editor-in-Chief of the cultural paper Amsterdam Weekly for 175 printed issues and 14 European Newspaper Awards. Attracted to more varied deadlines, I returned to my freelancing roots in 2009 – which means I’m always ‘up for new opportunities and challenges’.
For example, between 2012 and 2017, I was a founding editor and columnist at the multiple-award-winning online platform Love Matters – which, thanks to mobile tech, brought sex education to those youth who most need it. This experience also got me up to speed in the online world of multimedia, UX, SEO and analytics.
In 2018, I travelled the world – France, China, Tunisia, etc. – for Book of Denim, Vol.2 (Amsterdam Publishing, 2018), to write in-depth features on individuals and companies working to transform the notoriously dirty textile industry. This experience jump-started a new fascination with how things are made…
On AI and thought leadership…
Some years ago, I was seduced by the hopes and dreams of using traditional machine learning to improve healthcare outcomes. Suddenly, I found myself engaging with all these inspired individuals/organisations/companies and writing about them for Elsevier, the Amsterdam Economic Board, the Amsterdam Science Park, and The City of Amsterdam. Many of these articles were ghostwritten for the thought leaders establishing Amsterdam as a hub for AI and the life sciences. My brain expanded – and only expanded more when GenAI appeared.
It turned out that being a generalist writing for a general audience has much to offer this sector. It’s about uniting a whole bag of cats – monied funders, perfectionist academics, restless entrepreneurs, measured regulators, and the actual end-user of the AI product. Only by aligning all these diverse personalities can cool shit happen. I help by connecting with the right people and finding the best stories to support this process. Often, my job here resembles that of an in-house journalist/editor. And I did this in varying situations.
For instance, this approach was a significant part of my half-time job as blog editor for four years at the AI-for-manufacturing unicorn Augury. The strategy was inspiring: the blog was not a place for direct marketing but where content was king, and people came to gain industry insights, for example, via my monthly column ‘Manufacturing – The News’. The tone was another differentiator: engaging, people-first, and unafraid of humour.
Meanwhile, I continue to ghostwrite for AI leaders in other fields. I feel blessed that I have front row seats to observing the differences how AI is applied between manufacturing and the life sciences, and between the US and Europe. Yet now, as AI only becomes increasingly complex, the differing challenges are merging. Everyone has a lot to learn from one another… And I hope to continue making a contribution to untangling the wacky times we live in. (For more on my experiences writing about AI & innovation: ‘What I learned from talking to yet another AI genius every week for six years’ and ‘12 things AI tech experts wish you knew‘.)
Workshops and teaching
Having reached that “desperately experienced” career phase, I am often asked to teach classes or lead workshops. I love it: it keeps me sprightly. Subjects have included ‘Journalism 101’, ‘How to nail story’, ‘Ask a writer anything’, and ‘Make a magazine in a day’. The groups have also varied: communication students, team-building colleagues, the press corps of the Model UN, or innovation teams who want to tell better stories to convince their decision-makers why they should adopt a particular emerging technology.
In short…
I’m passionate about having my mind blown by new perspectives, and juggling projects both long-term and short. You can also LinkedIn or message me for my CV.
Reach out. I’m generally friendly and always interested. Let’s chat!
Steve Korver
stevekorver[@]gmail.com
