The first-ever Seattle Sweden Week, the brainchild of Swedish Consul to Washington Lars Jonsson, kicks of May 2 to pay tribute to the long shared history between Seattle and Sweden and to strengthen the current relationships between the two uniquely similar places.

Sweden Week includes both private and public events, such as a fashion show spotlighting Swedish designers, a VIP dinner recognizing six northwest Nobel laureates, a three-day business conference uniting Swedish and American business leaders, and a celebration of the centennial birthdays of both Swedish Hospital and the Scandinavian Department at the University of Washington.

Jonsson said the two major anniversaries – Swedish Hospital and the U.W. Scandinavian Department – created an appropriate opportunity to tell the story of the strong Swedish presence in Seattle's past.

"It's important to keep your heritage alive," he said.

Jonsson said Scandinavian influence was strong in the formation of Seattle. Nordstrom was founded by a Swedish immigrant and Swedish immigrants put up the money to start Swedish Hospital, he said.

"People don't know that Swedish Hospital actually had a Swedish origin," he said.

Jonsson said the presence of Swedish immigrants in Seattle and their experiences help explain why Seattle is the way it is today.

Thanks to a law passed in 1909, Swedish is the only language besides English that is required to be taught at the University of Washington, he said.

"If you move out from Scandinavia, you feel instantly at home here," he said.

He said Seattle is different from other cities in that way and it would be a pity to see that connection lost.

Jonsson started working on Sweden Week about a year and a half ago. He said the hope is to be able to get enough publicity that people take notice and pay attention to the history in order to lay the foundation for future relationships.

He said two of the aspects of Sweden Week he is most excited for are the business conferences, called Swedish-American Entrepreneurial Days (or Edays), and the Nobel laureate dinner.

With Microsoft leading the way in I.T. in the United States and Sweden's Ericsson as a world-leader in mobile telecommunications, Jonsson said there is a great deal of potential for cooperation in that area.

He said other areas for potential cooperation are clean technology and sustainable development, where Sweden is a frontrunner in Europe and Seattle is working to be the frontrunner in the United States, and global health.

Those are all areas where hundreds of companies in Seattle can forge relationships with organizations in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia, Jonsson said.

Few people in Seattle know that it is home to the most Nobel Prize winners in medicine and one of the highest numbers of Nobel laureates in the world, he said. He said credit for that belongs with Seattle institutions, such as the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Because the Nobel Prize is Swedish, Jonsson said Sweden Week seemed like a good time to celebrate the Northwest's laureates.

He said they are trying to replicate official Nobel ceremonies as closely as possible. Swedish royalty will be in attendance, as will the chairman of the Nobel Committee, Princess Madeleine, diplomats and dignitaries.

"We're even bringing in the real chefs who do the Nobel Prize dinner from Stockholm," Jonsson said.

For more information about Sweden Week events, including a handful at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard, a neighborhood Jonsson called Seattle's Scandinavian stronghold, click here.