After succesful meetings in Minnesota, California, Washington and Calgary the CEO of Specialist People Foundation, Steen Thygesen, was featured on the national Canadian TV channel, CTV.

See the interview here (starts with commercial, the interview with Steen starts at 4:50)

I had the pleasure to take part in the first Ashoka Support Network Global Summit which took place in Miami May 9 to 11.

The Summit was base for an intense exchange of ideas, concepts and contacts between members of the support networks, staff and fellows from very many countries.

The Ashoka Support Network Miami did a fantastic job as hosts.

The ASN concept is a membership organization of business leaders who want to make a change by helping Ashoka fellows strengthening and scaling their concept.As such the ASN groups bring important business knowledge and contacts in play where it is much needed.

The ASN concept is growing at a global scale and can make a true difference for in particular Ashoka Globalizer Fellows.

After a number of great meetings in New York and Connecticut we headed down the North East Corridor to Delaware to meet with local stakeholders in Wilmington.

This weekend we hosted our first Specialisterne US Coordinator Workshop with representatives from Delaware, New York, Minnesota, Virginia, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

We had a great and very constructive weekend at the Delaware Community Building in Wilmington and have established the foundation for a collaborative network of coordinators driven by the same mission and values as ourselves - to make a major change in the US for people with autism and similar challenges.

We had the pleasure of meeting the Delaware Governor Mr. Markell, who is very supportive of a Specialisterne unit in Delaware - The First State.

I had the great joy to take part in the First Championship 2012 in St Louis, Missouri, April 27-29, upon invitation from my friends in the LEGO Company.

It was so encouraging to experience the joy of playing and competing in four disciplines of robotic challenges.

I am really amazed with the creativity and dedication of these youngsters. The corporate sector can look forward to a lot of talents within Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and ICT.

In particular it was fantastic to see the best of 19.000 teams who have competed using LEGO Mindstorms locally and regionally in First LEGO League competitions to participate in the finale world festival in St Louis.

I was invited to speak in the panel 'Activating Untapped Talents' at the European Business Summit. The theme of the conference was 'Skills for Growth' and the focus was on the dilemma of high unemployment (25m) in Europe while high shortage on employees in certain types of jobs within science, technology, engineering, math and IT. This is exactly the area where high functioning people with autism and similar challenges can contribute given the right understanding and accommodation. I invited all stakeholders to work with us to enable jobs and thereby help Europe getting into a better balance in the labour market.

I had the privilege to meet Princess Mathilde and Prince Philippe. The royal highnesses showed a great interest in our one million job goal.

I was in the panel with Kristin Skogen Lund, President of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO). I hope we can find ways to develop and demonstrate a Nordic model for how stakeholders can work together in the Nordic region to provide employment for people with autism and similar challenges.

In the panel I also talked with commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission, Mr. Andor. I hope to host a visit from Mr. Andor at Specialisterne in Denmark.

After the summit I had the pleasure to meet MEP Ole Christensen for dinner. He is very engaged in the theme of employment of people with challenges and member of the parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.

We had a great showing last night on Danish TV, 5 minutes prime time spot on Specialisterne as part of the program 21 Sunday at the main national network, just when the coffee and cakes are bring served in homes across Denmark…

Everyone from Specialisterne around the world, who attended the bootcamp, was on TV, short interviews with Mary-Ann, Russ and Stephan.

Christian Andersen, one of our consultants, was the main feature, and he was super. The producers linked the international interest with the situation back in 2009 when the last main spot was made on Specialisterne – it was very nice and sober.

See the broadcast here

The bootcamp for Specialisterne coordinators was a great success. We learned, shared and networked and I'm proud to say that this group will make a difference in Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Minnesota, New York, Poland, Spain and Turkey for high functioning people with autism and similar challenges.

For 5 days we went through and discussed the Specialisterne concept, the vision, mission, values, operational model, planning mode, positioning platform and much more. We build strong personal and professional ties which will be important in our effort to establish great localized units in the next wave of Specialisterne countries.

This week Specialisterne coordinators from Canada, Austria, Spain, Turkey, Ireland, Germany, Minnesota and New York are in Copenhagen to learn from each others, Specialisterne Denmark, Switzerland and Specialist People Foundation in order to be prepared to launch Specialisterne in their locations.

It's a fantastic Specialisterne community of dedicated people who want to collaborate and share knowledge and make a change in their country.

April 2 is UN Autism Awareness Day.

All over the world organizations and individuals are doing a great and important job to create  awareness about autism spectrum disorder and to pinpoint the challenges for individuals and families to achieve meaningful and productive lives for people with ASD.

There is a lot to be done. The US Centre of Decease Control (CDC) estimated recently that the number of autistic kids in the US has skyrocketed by 78% since 2000. Nowadays, one in 88 American kids has autism, according to the new figures, and one in 54 among boys. Those are facts we cannot ignore, and calls for decisive action. You can read more here

And we will be active.

We contribute to raise awareness - check the links below

Spiegel Online

RTE Radio One Business Ireland (March 24 - 20 minutes into the podcast)

Irish Times

Make Change TV

Social Enterprise Academy

Rippling - How Social Entrepreneurs Spread Innovation Throughout the World

April and May will be very active months for our efforts to spread the Specialisterne concept internationally and to contribute to a world where people have equal opportunities in the labor market.

Stay tuned.