The increased access to data spurred by virtual events has been an exciting and promising development for the events industry, and it has also prompted important conversations about data privacy and ownership. This will continue to be a topic of discussion as the industry implements more event tech solutions — and therefore becomes responsible for managing more attendee data — than ever before.
The topic of data privacy and management is a nuanced one, but we were interested in digging a little deeper into the specific privacy implications of event platforms collecting and sharing attendee meeting data with organizers. Is this information they should have access to, and do attendees want that data being shared?
A potential concern around this is the type of speculation that could stem from platforms and organizers knowing that, for example, several executives from one company met with executives from another. Of course, there are appropriate ways to handle this data and any resulting speculation, but it may make some organizers and attendees uncomfortable all the same.
Sharon Bonner, President & CEO of Bright Ideas Event Agency, shares that she generally isn’t comfortable with platforms’ data policies, and that her agency always makes them sign a legal document stating that they will not use their data or their attendees’ data without written consent.
Additionally, she makes a point to prioritize platforms that are solely processors of event data rather than controllers/owners. “[These types of platforms] are our first-line options and we give this feature high marks on our checklist of platform benefits when comparing platforms,” she says.
Bonner recognizes the potential privacy concerns with platforms collecting any type of attendee data, but “if the data collection process is shared with the organizer up front and then the organizer shares it with the attendee, there shouldn’t be any issues as everyone involved is being transparent and attendees are aware of how their data will be used,” she says. “A discloser when signing up will give the attendee the opportunity to not sign up if they do not agree with the data collection policies.”
Platforms like ExpoPlatform and Grip are firm believers in organizers retaining sole control and ownership over attendee data. “You should look at Grip in the same way as an organizer putting all their data inside an AWS server, for example,” says CEO and Founder Tim Groot. He notes that even in our everyday lives, we are continuously handing over data to Facebook about who we’re messaging, or to Google about who we’re booking meetings with on Google Calendar.
“However, there is a difference between what is the technical legal basis and what is expected user behavior,” he says. “Different organizers will look at this differently, but our general stance is that the fact that two people have met and the status of that meeting is part of what we provide to organizers in our platform for them to export and analyze because it's a core part of how they can make their show better as well. And to be honest, it's generally accepted by exhibitors.”
Luke Bilton, Chief Growth Officer at ExpoPlatform, which operates under a similar philosophy, explains that ExpoPlatform shares all available behavioral data points collected on the platform with the organizer, including any meetings arranged through the platform — whether they’re self-organized or part of a hosted buyer program.
This enables organizers to see “who met whom on the platform, at what time, and how the participants rated the meeting. This is the same level of information that hosted buyer programs have been receiving for years, and is useful in shaping the event overall,” he says. “What we don’t do is track or share the actual content of their messages or video calls on the platform. This is private information between the two participants only.”
Groot agrees: “Where we draw a line is with any messages related to meetings or any messages between users. We let organizers know that we don’t share any chat messages between participants on our platform.” He adds that technically, if an organizer insisted on receiving certain messages, they may be able to obtain them since they own the data, but Grip would be diligent in ensuring that they are not in breach of any applicable privacy policies or terms of service and that the organizer understands the importance of maintaining the trust of their stakeholders.
It’s also important to note, says Groot, that in certain highly regulated industries like finance, specific meeting data about which analysts met with whom, etc. needs to be recorded for compliance reasons. “That information is legally required to be stored and to be shared back with the organizer and potentially federal institutions,” he says, to prevent things like insider trading.
In general, Bilton says that the team at ExpoPlatform believes that knowing which companies meet is very useful information for organizers when it comes to shaping their event for future editions, and as a participant, whether a visitor or exhibitor, it’s useful to be able to keep track of who you met with for use post-show. “Used in this way,” he says, “we don’t believe there are any privacy issues. If this data were commercialized in some other way — for example selling that information on to a rival sponsor — then this could be a problem.”
Bonner echoes this sentiment — she notes that the biggest issue with platforms collecting specific meeting data would be their ability to sell it. Attendees and exhibitors having access to their meeting data is regular business, and organizers need to have access to general data at the very least in order to assess and improve in their event. This could be, for example, that over 50% of the planners visited the booths for hotels with spa facilities, as opposed to the hotel properties without spa facilities.
“The part that I am not in favor of, she says, “is disclosing exactly who met with who and then selling that information. I feel that that is a violation of our attendee privacy. Say for example a planner came and only met with hotels who had golf courses. To use this information to distribute it to other hotels with golf courses that could market to this planner is unethical.
“It’s a bit of a slippery slope,” she continues, “because I know that trade show vendors often receive a list of all planners that visited the trade show (whether or not they visited their booth), and then they market to the planner. To me this is common and acceptable.” However, she emphasizes that “it’s when the platform then turns around and uses/sells this information to other business or platforms that becomes unethical to me, unless consent was given.”
As with most data, “it's all about being 100% open and transparent,” adds Brandt Krueger, Owner of Event Technology Consulting. “If you're burying it in the terms and conditions, you're not doing that. You need clear, easy to read and understand language that says exactly what you're using the data for, and not just on an ‘I Agree’ splash screen at purchase time.”
He continues, “Attendees should be able to look at the T&C at any time, opt out of any portion of it, be given their data if they request it, and have it deleted if they desire.” These are the basic principles behind GDPR, although the US in general is much laxer when it comes to data privacy laws.
“In Canada where we are based, but more so in the USA, privacy is a big deal to individuals,” says Bonner. She explains that for all of the events that her agency produces, she and her team encourage their clients to publish the data collection process on the sign-up page, which spells out what they plan to do with the collection of personal data, how it might be used, and what they will do with it after the event.
“If we are working with a platform that does not give us the option to approve or disapprove how the platform is using both the event data, as well as attendee data, we may walk away from that platform,” she says. “This is a very sensitive topic and platforms are best served to disclose their data usage policies upfront.”
Krueger adds that one of the easiest ways to get people to opt in is to make that same data work for them. “If you're keeping track of who they met with, you should provide them with a post-event report that summarizes that data,” he says. “If they get value out of the data, they're less likely to take offense at it being shared with event organizers, sponsors, and exhibitors.”