How can you be a part of the solution in the fight against human trafficking and the promotion of social justice globally? Join me, Dr. Celia Williamson with conference co-host Anna Schramm, to explore the exciting line-up of our 20th annual International Human Trafficking and Social Justice Conference. Mark your calendars for September 20th to 22nd, and join us in making a difference!
How can you be a part of the solution in the fight against human trafficking and the promotion of social justice globally? Join me, Dr. Celia Williamson with conference co-host Anna Schramm, to explore the exciting line-up of our 20th annual International Human Trafficking and Social Justice Conference. Mark your calendars for September 20th to 22nd, and join us in making a difference!
You know the why human trafficking work is needed To fight for the freedom of modern day slaves. But love, passion, commitment isn't all you need to be an effective and successful anti-trafficking advocate. Learn the how. I'm Dr Celia Williamson, director of the Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute at the University of Toledo. Welcome to the Emancipation Nation podcast, where I'll provide you with the latest and best methods, policy and practice discussed by experienced experts in the field, so that you can cut through the noise, save time and be about the work of saving lives. Welcome to the Emancipation Nation. This is episode 182. I'm Dr Celia Williamson And today I have the beloved Anna Shram to talk about our upcoming conference. So, hi, Anna, hey Celia, thanks for having me on. And so what's remind the people? what's the name of our conference?
Speaker 2:Our conference is the International Human Trafficking and Social Justice Conference, and this year is our 20th annual conference.
Speaker 1:So boom, mic drop, because we are barely 20 years old ourselves. So I don't know how we pulled that off, but anyway we have 20 years. This is our 20th coming up. So for people who haven't been to the conference and I can't imagine you haven't been, but if somebody hasn't been to the conference, can you tell them kind of how you know what the conference is about, like how it goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So, just overall, our conference mission is to unite the global community to learn, connect and collaborate to combat human trafficking and then promote social justice. So, as you heard, in our name we are a human trafficking and social justice conference. We changed the name to include social justice, i think back in 2014 or 2015. But we've just really focused more on having various social justice topics, as we know that a lot of those topics also kind of coincide and correlate to the issue of human trafficking. So that is our mission And we do that through a three day conference that we have multiple breakout sessions that happen every hour, every every other hour of the day, and now I think we're up to between like eight to 10 different breakout sessions every hour.
Speaker 2:And we are a very diverse conference. So we are not just a research conference or we're not just a practitioner conference. We have something for everybody at the conference. So there's topics that range from we do have research, we do have ones that are for, like, direct service providers, but also we have topics about healthcare professionals, law enforcement, the latest legal issues and laws surrounding trafficking. We have survivors who will come and share their story.
Speaker 2:We do have some more like art and conceptual type pieces or presentations.
Speaker 2:We do have a lot of like internationally focused presentations as well, and so along with that is we do have not only are we diverse in our topics, but we're diverse in knowledge levels.
Speaker 2:So we have topics that range from beginner levels So if you're kind of just getting introduced to human trafficking you just heard about it and to intermediate you've been working on this for a couple of years but you want to sharpen your skills, learn a bit more and then all the way to advanced. So you know, you've been working in this field for a long time and maybe you kind of want to like deep dive into something or learn about the latest research or the latest tools and practices. So I think one thing that I love and that is truly unique about our conference is that there really is something for everybody, and because there are so many sessions and topics to choose from, no two people are going to attend the same conference. So it's a very diverse, very inclusive, and it's kind of just grown into being more and more people attending from more and more parts of the world and more and more different disciplines.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i think it really like it meets Almost everyone's needs. I mean, if you want to come to a conference and you want to hear survivor stories, you could literally hear survivor stories almost every hour throughout the conference. If you want to come because you're a researcher and you really want to learn the latest cutting edge research, what is happening, you could attend a bunch of research sessions. If you're interested in programs and how you might bring programming to your community, i mean, there are sessions that you could. So it's true, you don't, you know, no one person will probably have the same experience, and this is all virtual, so we've been doing this virtual for a few years.
Speaker 1:Now what if you are someone I would say I'm intermediate in terms of tech savvy, certainly not superior. But what if you're a beginner? like tech savvy, like I mean? you can be a little intimidated coming to a virtual conference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can be a lot, especially if you're not very familiar with, you know, working online. But you know it's kind of become more and more a part of life as post COVID world. But really the only requirement is you just need to have internet access And after that I take you through step by step of how to access everything. So as long as you have access to the internet and can get your email, i will I pretty much send out instructional documents on how to access everything. I should send little how to videos, so what we've developed over the past several years.
Speaker 2:We call it our conference web app And it's basically just the home base for everything related to the conference. You can learn about each different session. So click on a session and read about what it's about, learn about who the presenters are, you can see, like, the topic and the knowledge level, like I mentioned, and so after you look through the schedule, you then get to RSVP for the sessions you want to attend And then it like builds out your own personal schedule for you And then on there you also have a way to submit your evaluation, so you can make sure you're getting continuing education. We also have other little areas in our conference web app where you can check out our virtual vendor booths and our virtual art exhibits. And then we do have a direct messaging feature where you can see where other conference attendees are from what they do, and then send messages to them back and forth.
Speaker 2:We try to make it as interactive and collaborative as possible, even if it's still on a virtual platform. So it's a pretty user friendly platform. Silly. I feel like you've been able to get the hang of it and it's really cool. We're able to build it out year after year and add new things to it, so it's nice that it's just all in one space.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've seen beginners come and really navigate it very well. I mean, what you're saying sounds, it sounds intimidating, but with your videos, with your directions and the days of the conference, i mean you say several times hey, remember, this is how you do this and this is how you navigate that. And people can always message and say wait, how do I miss that, what you know? so you've been very attentive in terms of helping everybody get used to it and get where they're supposed to be And it's just very user-friendly. So you also mentioned so I can choose eight different sessions, which is almost overwhelming. So I mean I'm not crazy about that. What if I wanna go to two sessions they both at the same time? Then what do I do? You know, i don't need that stress.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i know there's some pros and cons to having so many sessions to choose from. As we've expanded our conference, we now have over 115 sessions to choose from And that can definitely be very overwhelming. But what we do is that we have the recordings of each live session and you are able to watch those for three weeks after the conference. So, yeah, if you are kind of having that dilemma of which session do I wanna choose to go to A couple of them sound interesting.
Speaker 2:Choose the one that you wanna go to live And then, for up to three weeks after, you can go back and watch the recordings of as many that you want to. There's no limit on how many that you want to watch. So treat it like a podcast, put it in while you're driving or taking a walk or cleaning the dishes, so you can listen to as many of these sessions as possible. And that's a lot of content that we are providing you, because we do understand that it is very important and that it is hard to make those choices of which one that you wanna attend Exactly.
Speaker 1:It's like when I watch Sopranos or whatever I might watch on Netflix, I wanna see all four or five seasons. I could binge it. So this is sort of similar to that I love after the conference, taking a walk or as I'm driving, I'm listening to the session that I didn't get to listen to. So if I can have access to 115 different quality presentations, what are we charging at the conference for that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have the three day rate for the conference is $250, and that does include continuing education credits, so you do have the chance to earn up to 12 CEUs. So, yeah, you can watch 115 sessions for $250. So that's a pretty good deal. And then, if you do only wanna attend one or two days because your schedule doesn't allow it, there is a $90 option, or I think the two day one is like 175 or something like that yes, 175. And then we do have cheaper options for college students, because we do understand that you're living life on a budget.
Speaker 2:So, whether you're an undergrad, grad school, a PhD program, this information we feel like is very important for you to know as you are working and getting into this field, and so we wanna make it accessible to you. And we do also have a group discount rate. So if you are working with an organization or even a group of your peers or friends who wanna come to the conference, if you have four or more individuals, you do get 15% off. So every little bit helps when you're trying to afford to attend a conference. And then, finally, we do offer free registration to survivors of trafficking. So if you are a survivor of trafficking, we just have you reach out to us. I provide you a code that you can register for free, because we do this work for you and we want you to be able to access this information.
Speaker 1:That's right. So I mean we challenge you to go out and find a comparable conference, find one with the quality that we provide, and check out the prices. Compare the prices, because what we're trying to do is charge enough so that we can put on a quality conference, but not gouge you because we can. So compare our conference to other conferences and you'll see that what we're offering is phenomenal and we try purposefully to keep the costs down. So but, anna, you said 115 sessions and I get continuing education credits, but how many continue? Can I get 115 continuing education credits?
Speaker 2:That is a good question. No, you can not get 115. I think that the board would be auditing us very quickly if they found out about that. So you can only earn up to the amount of continuing education credits that you register for. So let me break that down. So if you register for one day of the conference, you can earn up to four continuing education credits. If you register for two days, you can get eight continuing education credits, and then if you register for all three days, you can get 12 continuing education credits. So that's all that we have been approved for. That's all that.
Speaker 2:You're able to get anything extra that you want to watch, that would just be on your own time for learning, for the sake of learning. But I will say that if you registered for the three day conference, you were only able to attend 10 sessions live because a work meeting came up or something happened. You are able to watch two sessions on recording in those three weeks. So then, to get up to your 12. So your CEUs do not have to be live. We just can't give you more than that. Four, eight or 12s, depending on what days you signed up for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense. And so which CEUs do we typically get approved for?
Speaker 2:Yes, we have not only our sessions diverse, our CEUs are diverse, so we offer up to 10 different ones in various disciplines. We have social work, counseling, marriage and family therapy, chemical dependency, department of developmental disabilities, public health, health education, nursing, occupational therapy and law. So all 10 of those we have and we have them listed on our website. So if you wanna keep up, i believe currently the only ones that we have gotten approval for so far are health, education and chemical dependency. All the other ones, applications are in. they're just pending. We have never not received approval. Sometimes it just takes throughout the summer. So if you're waiting to see the status of it's pending or is it approved, go on, check our website. We always update that with the latest information.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and our website is traffickingconferencecom. So go and look over past conferences if you've never been to one and see what it's like. But so, other than sessions that we offer, we also offer networking opportunities. So can you explain those?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so another way that we've wanted to make the conference just connecting and collaborating in this virtual space is offering networking sessions during our lunch hours. So these are what you typically think of as like a Zoom meeting, where you can get on, see other people's faces, hear other people talk, and we break them down into various disciplines. So we have, you know, if you're a direct service provider, you can get on with other direct service providers. If you're a researcher, get on with other researchers If you're in the healthcare field. So we kind of do it based on that, and then you have an hour to kind of network with each other.
Speaker 2:There's, you know, questions that are posed if you're wanting to try to be like okay, well, we do it this way in my state, how are you doing it? Or you know, you can learn from people who are doing things in different countries. So really want to make it a way for people to be able to talk to each other, see each other meet each other. You know, have initial conversations at the conference now, but then maybe swap information and have conversations after the conference, keep those relationships going, because that's really I always say this but the work doesn't happen at the conference, the work happens after the conference and what connections and conversations are had. So we want to provide those spaces for you to be able to make those connections to further the work that you're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'm thinking, oh my gosh, you know I'm going to be going to these sessions and then lunchtime, oh my God, I got a network too. But you got to think that we're bringing you a world-class conference into your space. So what you personally look like in your space is up to you. So that's what I love about the conference is, you know, i don't even have to get dressed. I can be in my pajamas and I can be listening to something that's very compelling to me. But I'm comfortable, i'm relaxed, and then I can go get my food at lunchtime and I can come in. Hopefully I'm dressed by then, but I can come into, like, the networking Zoom meeting And I can talk to people about issues that are important to me. So I think that's so very cool. So, getting back to you know, the whole day in front of the screen, what are we doing to kind of keep people engaged and make it a little bit fun, even though some of these topics can be pretty dark and destructive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it is a long day of sitting at your computer listening to a lot of these sessions, which can be overwhelming. It is a you know it is a very heavy topic, so we do have. Before getting to the fun part, i do want to mention that we do have safe people volunteers that are licensed professionals, who are available during the entire three days of the conference. So if you are triggered or retraumatized by a session that you're in, we have these volunteers, who again, are licensed professionals who have been doing this work in the community with victims of trauma, who are there to talk to you and process what you are going through. So we, you know we're not just going to throw you into these situations, make you listen to all of these topics all day long and then say bye, like we want to give you the resources, give you the support that you may need. Now, on the other hand, of trying to keep it light and fun, we have a couple times throughout the day where we have big group sessions where everybody comes together and me and Celia are on the screen and we show videos sometimes, and the most fun part to me is our giveaway prizes that we do. So we have amazing vendors who provide items that you know for free to us that we raffle off to people at the conference. It's a great way to win some prizes and then a great way to promote our amazing vendors.
Speaker 2:So we do prize giveaways, which is always fun, and we do like polling questions to see where people are from. We give people the opportunity to you know, chime in and be like. You know hi from wherever and what do you do. That's another great way for people to network. You had mentioned, you know, bringing this world class conference into the comfort of your home.
Speaker 2:To me, i always have to just like sit back and realize when I'm posting this conference in my room in Toledo, ohio, i am on a call at the same time as people from Australia and Kenya and the United Kingdom and Canada and Mexico, california, washington DC, like we are all here at the same exact time, maybe not the same location, but like all here in one virtual space, you know, with one purpose in mind. And it's just so cool that you know the technology provides us this, you know space to be able to do it And I just think it's really cool just to see where everybody's from. I just have to like, be like, oh, wow, like this is really cool. I'm talking to somebody halfway across the world right now And we are working together on the same mission.
Speaker 1:Right, with the same passion, the same heart, and it just makes the world a very small place and friends from all around the world that kind of are on the same page in terms of helping other people. It is way cool. So, also with some of the prizes, given that it's our 20th, we have some special prizes, so can you talk about it?
Speaker 2:Yes, so we can have a 20th anniversary without recognizing that in some way. So we have created special 20th anniversary t-shirts that have our logo on them and celebrating 20 years. So we will be raffling off I don't even know how many yet, but a good amount of these throughout the conference. If you are not a lucky person like myself I usually never win in these kind of giveaways and you don't want to press your luck We are selling these t-shirts. When you register for the conference and you're going through your registration to your cart, before you check out, there's an add-on item and you can add on a t-shirt and we will ship it to you. The t-shirts are $20. That includes shipping. So no matter where you are in the world, we will ship that t-shirt to you for $20. Again, we're not trying to make money on the oneness. We're trying to get you this as cheap as possible for us, while still being ethical.
Speaker 2:I wanna give a shout out to our t-shirt providers. They are worthwhile. Wear, celia. I believe you had them on your podcast several episodes ago, so go back and listen to that and hear about what they do. They are a great organization and so they were getting our t-shirts through them. So buy a t-shirt when you are registering for the conference and then if, for some reason, you do enter the raffle giveaway and you win a t-shirt, then just give it to someone else and spread the word for the conference. But really excited about these t-shirts since it is just a special 20th anniversary one, we're only going to be selling them this year, so now is your time to get one of these t-shirts.
Speaker 1:That's right. So save up your money, because we will be happy to take it. Once you pay for the conference, you'll get your continued education units, but that enables us to use the money all year long back into human trafficking focused research, back into helping local programming to support survivors. So none of our money goes to waste. We use our time in the right places and we will use your money in the right places. So where you spend your money is important. So spend your money on the right things. Give them to your family and friends, educate them about human trafficking and about what we do, and invite them the following year perhaps to the conference.
Speaker 2:So you didn't think Absolutely yeah. But question for you while we're talking about money, because I've heard you say this before, that sometimes for you time can be more precious than money because you can't be everywhere at once. So let's say, if somebody didn't have time to come to the conference but had the financial capacity to sponsor, what can you tell them about our sponsor opportunities?
Speaker 1:Oh well, that's my favorite. I do that all the time because there does come a time in life when time becomes more important than money. I know a lot of people might be listening right now and think money is pretty important, but in my world, time is pretty important. So there are causes that I believe in, that you can't ask for my money and my time, but I'd be happy to give you my money, and so we have sponsorships available on the website traffickingconferencecom and you can go there and write a check so that we can enable this conference to continue going, and there are different amounts there available that you can support, but sponsorships definitely help us and help us to keep the conference going.
Speaker 2:Anything you wanna mention about sponsorships Anna, no, i think you covered it. Yeah, we have different levels and they do come with different perks and free tickets. If you wanted to give them to someone else, then we will market your logo on our website and our program. Give you your proper shout out. So yeah, all of the money, the profits that we do get from the conference do not go back into our pockets, do not go back into presenters pockets. It goes directly into supporting the programs that we do at the Human Trafficking Institute, and we also give a portion to our local coalition. They have a survivor emergency fund, so your money is really going to a good spot.
Speaker 1:That's right. And so the other thing that you mentioned way back was about vendors. So can you talk about vendors, like, how do you even do that virtually?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it took a little creativity, but we have virtual vendor booths and we have two different types of vendors. We have resource vendors, so, as the name suggests, these are organizations who typically are just providing services and they want to get information out about their programs, about what they do. They have pamphlets, brochures, referral sheets, so they'll get a vendor booth, put all of that information up there, things that you can download, websites that can take you to there. We also have retail vendors, and so those are organizations that are selling products, and we usually favor organizations whose profits are going to support vulnerable populations, because we want to give back to the cause, and a lot of the organizations have products that are made by survivors or whose proceeds are going back to support survivors and programming, so it's a great way to do a little shopping. That's another good way to like kind of get your mind off of all of the you know, in between sessions and these difficult topics, to go and check out our vendors and look and see what products, because, you know, put your money where your mouth is and support these organizations who are doing great work. So, if you are an organization that would like to be a vendor, check out our website traffickingconferencecom. Apply to be a vendor.
Speaker 2:We again try to keep our vendor rates really low. If you see, with some of these virtual conferences I feel like vendor boosts are like hundreds and hundreds of dollars. But we have our resource vendor is $60 and our retail vendor is $80. And that includes the entire three days. So go to our website, check that out. Also, within our same like virtual vendor space, we have art exhibits. So we have survivor artists, we have youth artists, we have artists from the mental health field, and then we have some research based artists, and so these art exhibits are another way to kind of see what people are doing in the field and kind of look at some art, kind of I don't know, give yourself a little brain break and look at some nice things in our virtual art exhibits.
Speaker 1:That's right And you know, buy yourself a little bling bling by yourself book scarves, whatever they might be selling because we know, you'll know that a portion of that money will go back to some organization or some type of programming that supports survivors and survivor healing. Is there anything else that we need to mention, anna, that we didn't mention yet about the conference?
Speaker 2:Well, one last thing. With it being our special 20th anniversary, we wanted to do something big, something different. So for this year's conference, we are launching our high school online program, and so if you've been to the conference before, maybe you remember we've always talked about our high school day that we have usually typically the day before of the conference. It's a mini version of the conference where students come and learn. It's always been live in person, sometimes virtually, but always on one day, and since COVID was not really working, it didn't really have as much engagement as our main international conference. It's very difficult for students and teachers to take the time out of their busy schedule on one day of the year. So we kind of went back to the drawing board at the beginning of this year and we're like how do we make this work? How do we make it successful and usable for these students and educators? So we came up with the idea of doing this high school online program, where we're going to have a series of short modules that will be free and available all year long for students and teachers to watch at their leisure, whenever they want. Teachers can incorporate it into their curriculum. So we are currently working on those modules right now, but there'll be topics about human trafficking, sexual assault, healthy relationships and consent. We're going to do ones about social media safety. We'll have some survivor stories, so all these different little excerpts. And then, since it will live online, we're going to try to continue to add to it every year, so there'll be new and fresh content for high schoolers, who come back year after year.
Speaker 2:But I'm really, really excited about this. I think we're going to be reaching so many more youth in this capacity instead of how we're doing it. So we're going to be launching that the week of our conference in September, and I just realized, when I said September, that we never even said the dates of our conference. So let's do this. If you, cecilia, and I get so excited talking about the conference, we kind of forget the main important information. So our conference is going to be held September 20th through the 22nd, that's a Wednesday through Friday. So check that out. It'll be our 20th annual. Go to our website, traffickingconferencecom. Also. If you have any questions, my email address is traffickingconference at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, critical information. But like, yes, i'd love to come if you would tell me When, and you'll hear more about the high school, the online database and things that you'll be able to access. You'll hear more about that. And before we go, there's something we're doing the night, the evening before the conference, correct?
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, yeah, there's so many things this year, with it being the 20th annual, we're trying to do so many fun things. So we are going to be doing a kickoff event the night before the conference. So it'll be Tuesday, september 19th, at 6 pm Eastern time. We'll just get online for an hour. Celia and I will kind of probably do a lot of reflection back over the last 20 years. We are going to have some special montage videos of pictures from the previous years. We're working on one of. Survivors have sent us their videos and stories about what the conference has meant to them, so really excited about that. And then we, of course, we will be giving away a lot of t-shirts during that kickoff event. So we hope that you join us for that. It'll kind of just be gearing up for the next three days. Let's all get together and kind of get in the headspace to be ready to have a great, a great 20th annual conference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you're like me and you listen to this episode and you're like, oh, that's way cool, i'm going to go in that conference, and then you finish your walk or whatever and you go back in your house and you forget the register We are going to come back on.
Speaker 1:Well, we're going to be running commercials. So if you listen to episodes you'll hear the commercials. But we're going to come back on a little closer to the conference and do this again and just let you know where we're at, what's happening, remind you of what's going on and hopefully get you excited and inspired about what we're going to be doing. So you know, you haven't heard the end of this yet before, so don't worry, we're going to come back. But be the early bird and get yourself registered. Is it cheaper if they register before a certain date? Anna?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the registration prices increased on August 29th. So you do still have through the end of next month, but let me tell you, summer goes by really quickly. So, yeah, you'll want to register now, before the end of August, so prices increase. And then, yeah, you make sure that you can join us. Join us for the virtual conference.
Speaker 1:Right, And after you attend the conference, you will understand and say with me. That is why I say until next time, the fight continues. Let's not just do something, Let's do the best thing. If you like this episode of Emancipation Nation, please subscribe and I'll send you the weekly podcast. Until then, the fight continues.