Midwest Company Planning Corporate Conference on Sex Trafficking

It’s a question I’ve been asking a lot since reporting on the sexual exploitation of children.

I asked Molly Hackett what she or her colleagues knew about the issue prior to getting involved.

“We did not; when we started this we did not have any concept.”

Hackett is co-owner of Nix Conference & Meeting Management.

The St. Louis based corporation helps its clients coordinate conferences and meetings anywhere in the world.

Hackett says they’re owned and operated by women.

“Many of us have children and really delving into the statistics of this, I would say it kind of rocked the fabric of who we are. We were like, really.”

So now Nix has taken up the issue of combating sex trafficking and is planning a corporate conference on the issue.

Besides, law enforcement, religious organizations and other advocacy groups, Molly Hackett says there’s another group to target.

“But the next step really was to bring in corporations and say to corporations you are not in the travel and tourism industry but you support that and there’s a lot that you can do with your business travelers to educate them on signs to look for. You have people that travel for the majority of their work that work with you and they are probably seeing things. ”

Since they are new to addressing sex trafficking, Hackett says they’re reaching out to law enforcement, special task forces and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

The conference will also provide resources for hotels managers to set policies and train employees on ways to spot victims of trafficking.

The conference is not scheduled until 2014, but Hackett hopes to include not only Georgia corporations and advocates, but those from every state.