Dame Sara Thornton, Giles Bolton and Leon Reed to speak at annual Modern Slavery Intelligence Network (MSIN) Conference in October
The Modern Slavery Intelligence Network (MSIN) has announced it will host its annual conference on 15 October 2026.
The conference will be held at G’s Fresh, in Ely, Cambridgeshire, and will receieve sponsorship and support from specialist food and agriculture industry recruitment firm, MorePeople, food company Pilgrim’s Europe, supply chain risk management firm Verisio and M&S.
It will bring together professionals from across the food, horticulture and agriculture sectors to share insight, strengthen collaboration and support the industry’s collective response to modern slavery.
The non-profit network, which works across the UK food and agriculture sector, was created in 2020 in response to the findings of Operation Fort, the UK’s largest ever modern slavery investigation.
Experts will share practical advice on how to find and disrupt labour rights abuses in the supply chain and understand how MSIN can aid disclosure.
2026’s theme, titled ‘Actions Speak Louder Than Words’, reflects MSIN’s commitment to practical and collaborative solutions outside of policy and third party audits.
This year, the event welcomes Dame Sara Thornton, Professor of Modern Slavery at the University of Nottingham and former UK Independent AntiSlavery Commissioner. Dame Thornton will chair key panels throughout the day.
Giles Bolton, executive director of Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and Leon Reed, CEO at Verisio, will both also be speaking at the conference.
Other attendees will include Marie Mannion, new operations director of the Fair Work Agency, Iain Ross, tactical policy advisor and subject matter expert at the Metropolitan Police, and Nick Dale, director of intelligence and prevention at STOP THE TRAFFIK.
Since being founded, 14 member companies have been engaged in a pilot to develop an innovative and proactive intelligence-sharing mechanism to enhance their effectiveness in disrupting modern slavery and labour exploitation in the UK.