Get ready to embark on a journey with the extraordinary conference planner, Anna Schramm. We delve deep into the intricacies of the upcoming Human Trafficking and Social Justice Conference, a historic event that is marking its 20th year. Anna gives us the scoop on the registration rates and deadlines, and emphasizes that affordability doesn't compromise quality. A special mention to all college students and survivors of human trafficking - there are discounts and free access for you. But hurry, prices are set to increase in a week. If you haven't registered yet, circle August 29th on your calendar to save money on this enlightening opportunity.
Let’s raise a toast to the 20th anniversary of this impactful conference. To commemorate it, we're releasing exclusive 20th Annual Conference t-shirts from Worthwhile, a Fair Trade company. Not just a keepsake, the proceeds from these t-shirts go directly towards supporting programs for survivors. Save the date for the kickoff event on Tuesday, September 19th, from 6-7 pm Eastern time, to be followed by the three day Program with 110 various presenters. Did we mention the conference also offers a variety of continuing education credits for professionals in fields such as social work, counseling, and the legal field? Tune in as we uncover the potential of this conference and how your participation can make a real difference.
Get ready to embark on a journey with the extraordinary conference planner, Anna Schramm. We delve deep into the intricacies of the upcoming Human Trafficking and Social Justice Conference, a historic event that is marking its 20th year. Anna gives us the scoop on the registration rates and deadlines, and emphasizes that affordability doesn't compromise quality. A special mention to all college students and survivors of human trafficking - there are discounts and free access for you. But hurry, prices are set to increase in a week. If you haven't registered yet, circle August 29th on your calendar to save money on this enlightening opportunity.
Let’s raise a toast to the 20th anniversary of this impactful conference. To commemorate it, we're releasing exclusive 20th Annual Conference t-shirts from Worthwhile, a Fair Trade company. Not just a keepsake, the proceeds from these t-shirts go directly towards supporting programs for survivors. Save the date for the kickoff event on Tuesday, September 19th, from 6-7 pm Eastern time, to be followed by the three day Program with 110 various presenters. Did we mention the conference also offers a variety of continuing education credits for professionals in fields such as social work, counseling, and the legal field? Tune in as we uncover the potential of this conference and how your participation can make a real 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 episode 187. And today I have Anna Schram, a conference planner extraordinaire, back to talk one last time about the human trafficking conference that's coming up. It's actually the Human Trafficking and Social Justice Conference, and this is how many years we've been doing this, Anna?
Speaker 2:We are celebrating our 20th year this year.
Speaker 1:One of you and you know what 20 year olds look like.
Speaker 2:Right, they look great, they are grown adults, I mean maybe not all the way mentally, but you know, in the eyes of the law they are considered full adults, that's right.
Speaker 1:And this is going to be a full adult version of the conference. We have arrived.
Speaker 2:We are grown.
Speaker 1:We are grown up and so tell us. I mean, why are we doing this? You know, talk on the conference. Now there's a particular reason. So why are we talking about it today?
Speaker 2:Well, besides, you know everybody wanting to hear my voice again, we just come on the podcast and have you listened to me one more time? We are getting closer to the conference, but in one week from today, prices increase. So if you still have not registered, that's okay, but you only have one more week to get your ticket at the current rate. So on August 29th prices do increase. So if you want to save a little bit of money, you know every dollar counts.
Speaker 2:So make sure that you register before August 29th and then, if you are listening to this later or don't get around to it, you can still register after August 29th. But registration the last day to register is September 12th, so that was a very firm cutoff date. Unfortunately, we can't let in any late attendees, so make sure that you do register before August 12th or before August 29th if you want those discounted, those early bird rates. And you know, I know you might have been putting this off, as we've all kind of been in summer mode and on vacation and not wanting to think about anything that happens in the fall. I know that's kind of been me, but now we are getting into, you know, back to school mode and kind of back into our normal schedules. So now we got to think about. Think about September and think about registering, because you do not want to miss this 20th annual conference.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You know, even if you're our BFF, you're in our family album. You know you are a homey, our day one. We still cannot Let you in straight if it's after the deadline. So please, you know, pay. So tell us, anna, what are the different rates Like? What are the rates now and then after the deadline? What are the rates gonna be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we do have several different types of registration, just to let you guys know that off the top. So, excuse me, we do have. It's a three day conference, so you can come for all three days. That's $250. Next week it will be $275. So we're only increasing it by $25. We don't wanna, you know, gout you for money, but you know we do want to.
Speaker 2:You know every dollar counts, like I mentioned so we save 25 bucks, but we do have options if you only wanna attend two days or just one day because of work or other things going on. So our two day rate is $175 currently and a week from today it'll be $200. And then our one day registration is $90 and increases next week to 115. So yeah, I'd increase by 25 bucks, you know, but 25 bucks can get you a lot.
Speaker 1:And save some money. I mean, I don't I'm sorry, I don't really know anybody that you know, $25 still doesn't mean anything to them. I think it very much. Still means people. I think so too.
Speaker 2:I think so too, but then we do have college student registration rates as well. Those are very discounted rates for anybody who's in undergrad, graduate, doctoral programs, anybody who's a current college student. We know that your education is very expensive, so we want to make this affordable to you, this great information. So our one, two and three day college rates are $40, $65 and $90 respectively, and then that also does increase by 10, 15 and $20 next week. So yeah, but if you're a college student, you just want to come to one day of the conference. You'll still get a lot of out of it, and it's only 40 bucks right now.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and it's still free for survivors of any form of human trafficking, correct?
Speaker 2:That is correct. So, yeah, the early bird deadline in a week does not count for our free attendance for survivors. So I've been having so many survivors reach out to me asking for the free registration. I'm so excited to see that there are networks out there that are spreading the word and we're getting a lot of survivors who have never heard about the conference before and heard about it from a friend, or even survivors that have come the last handful of years and they're like and are you still giving free registration? And I want to come again this year. So, yes, if you're a survivor of trafficking, you can email me at traffickingconferenceatgmailcom and ask for that free code and I will send you that so you can attend the conference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that free code is for survivors of any form of human trafficking. So I want to make sure that we make clear. When you hear these prices and you compare them to other conferences, you will clearly see that this conference is very reasonably priced. But I don't want you to confuse a lower rate with lower quality. Indeed, that is exactly the opposite. We have over 110 presenters. These are world-class presenters. These are presenters from across the US and around the world who they've done their work. There are people presenting in areas of research. There are people presenting their lived experience and then went on to perhaps develop programs or Support groups. There are people that are presenting because they do run programs or they run agencies and they want to share what they've done. There's people that are presenting on their activism or their political work, legislation, those types of things.
Speaker 1:So do not confuse the fact that we are trying to not hit your wallet as hard as these other conferences. Don't confuse that with a lack of quality. And even if you missed the deadline and you pay the higher rate, best believe we would love to take your money because your money is going to be used to further the cause. We are not going to spend your money frivolously. We'll spend it on the technology that we need to run the conference, and then the rest of the money will go in places that help other survivors in our community or that help fund our institutes projects so that we can continue to do the research and evaluation we do. That helps further the cause. So, either way, your money is going to a good place and you are going to get excellent quality Programming. So tell us. And People can also get continuing education units if their professionals correct. So what kind of continuing education can they get and how many can they get?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so not only does your money go towards your registration, but it also Helps us to provide continuing education credits that a lot of professionals in the field with licensures and accreditation need to keep up and have so many continuing education hours every year. So we offer several different types of continuing education and you can get up to 12 CEs for attending the entire conference. So the different ones that we have if you are one of these professionals, you can get up to 12. So it's social work, counseling, marriage and family therapy, and then we have a chemical dependency, health education, occupational therapy, public health department of developmental disabilities and legal the legal continuing education credits. So that's a lot of types of professionals.
Speaker 2:Like Celia mentioned, we are a very diverse conference, so I know that continuing education can get expensive. So you know this. This conference you want to give you 12 CEs for your low registration price and while learning about very important human trafficking and social justice topics from the leading experts in the world and the latest information about trafficking. So you know you get killing two birds with one stone here. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And I know they can get 12 up to 12 continuing education credits, but they can also watch sessions they miss, because some of the frustration that I have when I go to conferences is like man, I can't pick. You know, I have there's three of them going on at the same time. I want to go to these two, but they're happening at the same time, so we've worked to resolve that. So can you talk about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we do record all of the presentations at the conference. So then you have the ability to rewatch the sessions that you have missed for three weeks after the conference. So you have access to all of that content until Friday, october 13th. So you have three weeks and, like you said, if there is a couple of sessions during the same time that you can't choose between, you can watch some of those sessions later.
Speaker 2:Also, if something comes up with work or with life with family, we know that life can throw things at you and you got to be flexible. So if you have to miss a session because of something, then you can always go back and rewatch. So you can even earn your continuing education by watching the recorded sessions on demand. It doesn't have to be live, but we can't give you more than 12, because that's what we have been approved for. We've been approved to give because there's four sessions each day. So that's how we get to 12. So you have four each day, but if you can't watch them live each day, you can watch those recordings and get your full 12 CEs after the conference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so over expected to be over 110 presentations. You're paying $250. I don't even math, but that's probably like $2, $3. Yeah, for a presentation that really will advance your knowledge and advance your skill level. And many of these people, you've heard their names, maybe you've seen them in YouTube videos, maybe you've read their books, read their published articles, and so you are going to be in the virtual room with them, right? And so that's a big deal for some of us who are like fangirling Like I will do sometimes if I see somebody who I've read a lot about and then I finally get to ask them a question or or something like that, just cut through the noise and get straight to the heart of the matter, and that's really what I love about the conference. So Talk about what we're doing this year. That's a little bit different, even from what we've done the past 19 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we wanted to make this year special because it is our 20th anniversary two whole decades of the conference so we have to do something to recognize that. So the first thing that we're doing is we have worked with a fair trade company called worthwhile where to create exclusive 20th annual conference t shirts so very excited about these. We just did an interview with WIWARE on the podcast a couple months ago so you can go back and listen a little bit more about what they do. But these are ethical, organic t shirts that are fair trade and the proceeds go back to support programming for survivors. So it's going. These are the shirts that we're getting them from and it has our logo on it. It's a celebrating 20 years only offering these shirts this year. So if you're like, oh, that's cool, I'll get one in the future, no, I'm sorry, this is the only year.
Speaker 2:It's our 20th annual or t-shirt for our 20th annual conference and you know, along the lines of 20, the t-shirt is $20. So that is also includes free shipping and that is free international shipping. So if you're listening to this and you do not live in the United States, you can still get your shirt for $20 and not includes international shipping. So we want to make this affordable for everyone, and everybody can just rock out with their 20th annual t-shirt. So if you are registering for the conference, before you check out, there is an option to add a t-shirt to your cart. So make sure you do that if you don't want to miss out on this. And then I will let you know that we are going to be raffling off some of the shirts throughout the conference. So if you missed your opportunity or are feeling lucky and want to see if you can win, we are going to be giving them away throughout each day of the conference and sending them out afterwards. So I'm excited about the, about the t-shirts, and it'll be sent right home.
Speaker 1:I love the t-shirt idea because you know who are. You Say who you are. I mean, spend your money and make a statement in the places you spend your money. What you wear on your body makes a statement, so does it make the statement that you want it to make? I mean, when you buy a t-shirt and you wear it around, it's a conversation starter. It gives you an opportunity to talk about human trafficking and the fight against trafficking and about the conference and about who you are as a person. I mean I think that and $20, of course, to ship internationally. I mean we are not. We're not making money on that, we're losing money. But it's important that everybody have equity, that they have a chance to wear this t-shirt, to be proud that they're in the fight against human trafficking. So what else are we doing that's different for this 20th?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we are also hosting a kickoff event on the Tuesday before, so still virtual, but just a time for everybody to come together and kind of just prepare and have a little bit of fun. So it'll be on Tuesday, september 19th, at six to seven o'clock pm Eastern time. So hopefully that works out for most people's schedules, even our international friends. Maybe it'll be very early in the morning for you, hopefully you can catch it, but we're just going to get together online for an hour.
Speaker 2:We're going to kind of take a little look back down memory lane of where we've been over these last 20 years. We got a couple's fun videos that we've put together, some old pictures that we've scrounged up and look back, and then we're also going to play a couple games. We're going to give away some of those t-shirts that I mentioned and we're kind of just going to take a little bit of time to prepare ourselves for the next three days. It can be very. It's a great conference, but it's some heavy topics, and listening to these heavy topics hour after hour for several days, it can be a lot. So we're kind of just going to ground ourselves beforehand and kind of put us in the right mental space to just receive all of this information over the next several days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you know with the pre-event, I mean it's only an hour, but I think come together, say hello like people you are our people, like we are one world and it's going to be a very small world when you come in and you start saying hello, even at the conference, you'll see people from all around the world who have the same type of passion that you have, and it's just an amazing experience. And you know, if you're interested, stop in, say hello to us. Like I said, we are your people, you are our people.
Speaker 2:So stay hello and yeah it's a great way to network too. If you're wanting to connect with more people, or maybe you're a recent grad and looking for a job, or you just want to get connected to a group of like-minded people, come to this. It'll just be one extra way to connect and, yeah, say hi to people over the world.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so what is the third thing that's different?
Speaker 2:Yes, you did mention three things. So the final thing that we're doing to celebrate our 20th anniversary is we're launching a new high school online program. If you are familiar with our conference, you have heard that we've done a high school day always the day before the main international conference. Excuse me so, since COVID, we have also done this high school day online, but it has not been as successful as our main international conference. We have not seen the growth just because, you know, the school system got really impacted by COVID and you know teachers have been doing a lot to keep their students on pace and interacting with them and we just could not keep up with that because there's so much going on in school every day for people to take time, a specific time, to come to this one live event. That only happened once. So we wanted to make it more accessible to students and to teachers to be able to access this at any time of the year, whether students want to access it on their own in their own free time, or teachers want to incorporate it into their curriculum and watch some videos 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there but not have to take an entire day off of school. So we came up with this idea and we're calling it our high school online program.
Speaker 2:We have a series of various modules that are going to cover topics from just like human trafficking 101. What is it? What are signs to look for? What do healthy relationships look like? What is consent? We're also going to touch on different social justice topics that we believe intersect with trafficking, like sexual assault, gun violence, drug use. So well, youth will be learning about this, and then they'll also learn about survivor stories and then kind of like next steps.
Speaker 2:So what do I do now that I've learned about this? How do I get involved If I'm interested in this in a career? So I'm very excited about this. Like I mentioned, it's going to be free and accessible at any time of the year, just to students and educators, so we want to keep it in that high school arena. If you're looking for, if you're a professional and not in high school, we have Celia's podcast that you can listen to every week. We also have modules on our Emancipation Nation that are more geared towards you, but this this is just only specifically for high school students and educators. I'm very excited about it. It's starting to all come together, and so we're going to be launching it and giving a couple of previews and sneak peeks throughout the live international conference and then that week after the last week of September, we'll actually be launching it. So yeah, very exciting stuff.
Speaker 1:That is so exciting. And you know you mentioned the Emancipation Nation. If people are interested in getting involved in that, you just simply Google Emancipation Nation Network, get free membership. You can watch. You know, we have a phase one, which has a series of webinars that teach you about different various aspects of human trafficking. You can take phase two, which goes more in depth in various aspects of human trafficking taught by experts all across the US and around the world, of course, for free. And Anna, how much is it for some for schools to participate in the high school program all year?
Speaker 2:It is free. They do not have to pay anything. We are making this free, accessible, do you hear this, people.
Speaker 1:I'm saying if you want to be educated, I mean, there is no real excuse. And I like to. I did a whole podcast on fast, good and cheap. It's like you can't have all three of them, right. You can. You can have it fast and you can have it good, but it is not going to be cheap to get that education and that skill level. Or you can have it cheap and fast, but I promise you it will not be good.
Speaker 1:There is no trust and believe. I've been in this for 30 years. There are many people around the world that have been in anti-trafficking work for several decades. If we would have figured out how to do it and do it well Very early on, we would have done that. So there are no shortcuts. But here's a way for you to get in and begin this journey. And there are gaps in your education. So take those sessions that fill those gaps so that you can advance your knowledge and increase your skills, and that's the way you become good at what you do and that's the way you become effective.
Speaker 1:If you wanna jump out there and just do something, just do anything. This is the saying I hate the most. Well, lisa, I'm doing something Because you don't accept that in your life, if you tell the truth, like I say, when you go to your physician, you don't want that person to just be doing something. You want that person to be doing the best thing. When you go to your mental health provider, you don't want them just doing something that they felt in their gut to do. You want them to do the best thing, based on what's best practice and what's effective. At least provide the same to the people that you profess to care about. Provide them with the best. And that means that you have to increase your knowledge and you have to increase your skills. And here's the way to do it. Some of the options all year long, free, the conference, very reasonably priced. There is no reason why you shouldn't be highly skilled and highly competent if that's what you want to do. So any last minute words, anna, that we need to tell the people.
Speaker 2:I was just thinking about your analogy with the fast, good and cheap, and I think that we it might seem like what we're doing has been fast, but we are really doing it cheap and good. We're trying to make it as least expensive as possible, if not free, and do it good. And it might seem like it's fast, especially if you're coming for the first time or just heard about us and you get access to all of this great information and it's right there at your fingertips. But let me tell you we, and mostly Celia, has been working on this for decades and we it's a culmination of all of this great work that Celia and a lot of other wonderful researchers and service providers have been putting together over the last several decades, and so it's all really exciting because it's culminating at the conference, and especially at this 20th annual conference. That's just gonna be a celebration of, I think, like where we've been over the last two decades of anti-trafficking work and then really looking forward to what we've learned and how to move forward in a better and effective way. And yeah, like you said, don't just do something, do the best thing. You can really learn. Other people have done the work and you can learn from these people at the conference. So just encouraging you to attend the conference, get it at that early bird rate If not register before September 12th.
Speaker 2:Our website is traffickingconferencecom. Go there, check it out. We have our full schedule up there so you can even look at the sessions before deciding if you want to even pay to come. So look at it and if you have any questions, email me at traffickingconference at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:Hey, and until next time the fight continues. Let's not just do something, let's do the best thing. If you liked this episode of Emancipation Nation, please subscribe and I'll send you the weekly podcast. Until then, the fight continues.