With face-to-face meetings and events and business travel increasingly returning, it remains more important than ever for industry professionals to keep up their battle against human trafficking. Cindy Wallace, CMP, CMM, PMP, director of strategy & business development, Oregon Convention Center; and Betty Ann Hagenau, founder and executive director, Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition Airport Initiative, are two of those presenting on the topic at MPI's WEC in San Francisco. We reached out for some insight on their session, “Human Trafficking: Evolution & Impacts for the Meeting Industry.”
What do you hope attendees to “Human Trafficking: Evolution & Impacts for the Meeting Industry” will take away from it?
Wallace: We hope that attendees learn what’s evolved for anti-trafficking efforts over the course of the pandemic, hear stories about where and how exploitation is happening and learn from experts about how the hospitality industry can equip employees to recognize and report incidents.
Has the pandemic affected the anti-human trafficking initiatives of meeting professionals?
Hagenau: Yes, in some key ways. MPI chapter meetings that ceased to meet in-person during the pandemic did not focus on the topic of human trafficking in a major way because it’s difficult to engage local experts, and especially those sharing their lived experience through Zoom. Special chapter events featuring the intersections of human trafficking with the hospitality industry were almost entirely postponed until the time when MPI chapters could meet again in-person. There is also new information about how anti-trafficking efforts have changed since the onset of the pandemic, and localized events, such as the WEC, are among the first to share the learnings. We would hope this panel is an inspirational and informative time for meeting professionals to re-engage with such an important matter that they can help combat as they go about their day-to-day work.
What are some of the greatest challenges to getting hospitality/meeting industry professionals engaged in the fight against human trafficking?
Wallace: Some of the greatest challenges are bringing awareness to the decision makers within the hospitality/meeting industry so that they will invest in resources for training front-line staff, to make this conversation and initiative a common component of RFP language and contract negotiations and that meeting professionals exercise their buying power with organizations that are committed to stopping human trafficking and with whom are open to supply chain evaluation.
Additional resources for meeting professionals in the fight against human trafficking.
