Full Hearts and High Hopes
Thoughts from last week’s annual Autism At Work Summit at SAP Silicon Valley
In celebration of Autism Awareness Month, we’re having a month-long series highlighting the voices of SAP employees participating in the company’s Autism at Work program. The finale of this series is written by Carrie Hall, who wrote the first installment in our series. To read rest of the series, click here.
Last week I attended the Autism At Work Summit, which was attended by at least 30 companies and included panel discussions by four companies: SAP, HP Enterprise, Microsoft, and Ernst & Young.
Day One
The three-day summit started at Stanford, with Jose Velasco, who heads the Autism at Work program at SAP North America, and SAP’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Anka Wittenberg kicking off the summit on Wednesday night. The first night included networking and an expert panel moderated by SAP’s V.R. Ferose. The panelists included authors and autism activists John Elder Robinson, Dr Stephen Shore, and Steve Silberman.
During breaks, I socialized with a few folks from SAP’s Autism At Work program and several in the same group I trained with in 2015 at SuccessFactors. Not only that, but I was able to connect with trainers and vendors that work with people that have autism such as EXPANDability, Evolibri Consulting, AASCEND, and several others.
Day Two
Thursday, on the other hand, had a completely different vibe. As opposed to being a couple of hours long, it took up an entire day. Plus, I offered to help out as a volunteer and I was tasked with being at the registration desk first thing in the morning.
Even with my volunteer status, I knew I was going to be busy at the summit — with at at least one interview and my participating in a panel discussion later in the afternoon. After the first panel discussion, I was approached by Melanie Stevens (SAP) about doing an interview with two other SAP Autism At work co-workers around lunchtime. This group interview has since been published in the Silicon Valley Business Journal and the San Francisco Business Times.
I knew that immediately after having lunch, that Mark, another co-worker hired through the Autism At Work program, and I would need to prepare for our presentation and panel, Planning, Building, Running and Sustaining of Autism Hiring Programs, which we actually presented twice that afternoon.
Other panelists during our session included Jose Velasco (SAP, Autism At Work North America and Worldwide), Stephanie Nennstiel (SAP, Autism At Work Germany and Worldwide), Michael Fieldhouse (Dandelion Program, HP Enterprise), Thomas Cory (TheArc), and Thorkil Sonne (Specialisterne).
As a group, we can as individuals with Autism, become our own advocates for Autism At Work Program.
I didn’t talk or say much during the first time on the panel and only answered one question. However, the second time around, I became a bit more comfortable on stage, and talked about that as a group, we can as individuals with Autism, become our own advocates for Autism At Work Program. This was the only time I talked longer than five minutes!
Day Three
The final day, which only lasted until 1 p.m., actually had more concurrent sessions than the day before. There were three tracks of concurrent sessions that also had two more that followed, which totaled up to nine sessions. Friday held more sessions than the previous day, but there was a more relaxed and subdued energy.
I went to the first track, centered on Thought Leadership, for two sessions. At the session, there were Autism At Work co-workers, and a few trainers that I already knew and a few I met during the summit. There were also individuals from different HR departments with SAP, Microsoft, and other companies. The first session was about Dandelion Research project and how the program works with people that have anxiety and/or depression. The second session was facilitated by a psychologist who works with people on the autism spectrum. It focused on how to deal with people that are on the autism spectrum...and while it was informative, I didn’t agree with many views shared by that presenter.
I went home with my heart full and with hope that I’ll see everyone again at next year’s Autism At Work Summit.
Mark and I decided to skip out on the last session of the same track and joined other folks from the Autism At Work program that weren’t able to attend that day for lunch. After eating and hanging out with them, I networked with various individuals that I’ve known for a while or just met.
I went home with my heart full and with hope that I’ll see everyone again at next year’s Autism At Work Summit.
