To make sense of this important issue and its relevance to today’s business sector, Matt Friedman offers a comprehensive update on this topic.  His talk explores the changing human trafficking paradigm and the relationship between human trafficking and modern slavery.  He puts this in the context of global trends and patterns for slavery and updates the audience on emerging legislation.

For the business sector, he gives a detailed description of the relationship between human trafficking and business risk, showing the relevance of this issue to the private sector.  Further, he gives a summary of modern slavery typologies used to identify red-flags for big-data searches.  This includes a description of tangible, practical tools and approaches used by corporations around the world to help identify and address this potential problem.  

Matt Friedman hails from the United States and was educated at New York University.  He is an international human trafficking expert with more than 30 years’ experience.  He is CEO of The Mekong Club, an organisation of Hong Kong’s leading businesses which have joined forces to help end all forms of modern slavery by using a ‘business-to-business’ approach.  He previously worked for United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations, in over 30 countries. 

Mr Friedman advises numerous governments, banks and corporations and is the author of 12 books on slavery.  In 2017, he won Asia’s prestigious “Communicator of the Year” Gold Award.  He is frequently cited in the news media on issues related to human trafficking and slavery in Southeast Asia, particularly on CNN, BBC, New York Times and International Herald Tribune, and speaks at major conferences around the world.  

 

  Members of the RGS, their guests and others are most welcome to attend this event, which is HK$150 for RGS Members and HK$200 for guests and others, including a complimentary glasses of white or rose wine.  This event is free of charge for our Student Members.

 The Royal Geographical Society – Hong Kong wishes to express its thanks to Bonhams as our Venue Sponsor for this talk.