What Europe’s New Data Protection Law Means for Meetings and Events
Photo Credit: The 2014 Open Knowledge conference in Berlin. European data security laws will soon impact meeting planners around the world. Flickr / Open Knowledge
Skift Take
U.S. meeting planners expect the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation to have a major effect on how they manage data. While the giant meetings firms are prepared to comply with it, smaller companies and related meetings vendors may lag behind.
If you haven't been paying attention to privacy and data security, now is the time for meeting and event planners to start. For some, it may already be too late.
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), set to take effect May 25, promises to have far-reaching effects on how meeting planners on this side of the Atlantic manage data.
The EU’s robust response to data security and privacy concerns governs the collection of EU citizens’ personal data. That means that U.S. meeting planners (and U.S. companies) who host events in Europe, or have European attendees regardless of the meeting’s location, must comply or face stiff penalties.
The new rules apply to all industries, but the meetings industry is particularly data-intensive.
The use of personal registration data (name, address, citizenship, age, etc.); attendee data for marketing purposes; educational session data for analytics and future conference preferences; individuals’ data on frequen
