The Swiss Connection

Hi all

Recently I had a great pleasure to speak in front of a group of like minded professionals in Zurich, Switzerland. For some time they have been trying to organise themselves in a similar way to what we do here in Australia. So I was asked to share our Australian experience founded on our work around ASOP.

After a summary of our journey so far and lessons learned, we spoke for a while in an open Q&A forum. It was great to see so much interest and motivation to organise our professional diaspora and help each other further our careers. Very soon several participants have realised that people sitting next to them are not only working in the same industries but are also looking for ways to collaborate. First professional relationships were forged. However, the most refreshing moment was the introduction of www.helse.ch, a business and culture exchange centre. This very successful project has been founded by Evica M. 15 years ago. It perfectly combines business with cultural promotion of Serbian movies, theater and stand up comedy. Evica was able to establish her customer network across Europe and is now starting to do the same in Australia! Bit of trivia: the name Helse is a word play, combining words Helvetia (old word for Switzerland) and Serbia. This strongly acknowledges the local presence of Serbian culture in Switzerland.

Personally I feel very honored to be part of this small yet passionate and global journey to organise and connect Serbian professionals around the world. We are also currently working with similar networks in UK and USA. If you are interested in joining the journey, feel free to contact us.

Kind regards

Nik Mijatovic

President

ASOP Inc.