privacy notice

Last Updated: 06/24/2024

Venue West Conference Services Ltd. (“Venue West”, “we”, “our”, “us”) is a Professional Conference Organizer (“PCO”) with operations across the globe. We recognize the importance of transparent and responsible use of your Personal Data. This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) outlines how Venue West collects, stores, discloses, processes, and protects your Personal Data.

WHO DOES THIS NOTICE APPLY TO?

This Notice applies to Personal Data that Venue West collects about you if you are:

  1. A visitor to our website.
  2. A user of any service that we manage on behalf of our clients.

Please note that any links to websites from our corporate or conference clients and event websites are governed by their own privacy notice.

WHAT IS PERSONAL DATA?

For the services that Venue West provides and the regulations that we need to comply with, “Personal Data” refers to any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual. Relevant examples of Personal Data include name, email address, home address, phone number, occupation, and payment information.

PRIVACY REGULATIONS COMPLIANCE

Because Venue West provides services globally, we comply with different privacy laws worldwide such as the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) in the EU, the Data Protection Act of 2018 (“UK DPA”) in the UK, and the Personal Data Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) in Canada, among others.

We respect your privacy rights and take reasonable steps to protect your Personal Data according to the expectations of the laws of where you are located. 

OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Some privacy regulators classify organizations depending on the role they play in processing Personal Data. A Data Controller is an organization that determines how they collect and process Personal Data. A Data Processor is an organization that processes personal data on behalf of a Data Controller.  

Venue West is considered a Data Controller when we process Personal Data from visitors of our website or from prospective/active clients who are interested in our services.

Venue West is considered a Data Processor when we process Personal Data under the direction of our clients for the purposes of organizing a conference or managing a membership association.

PERSONAL DATA COLLECTION AND PURPOSE OF PROCESSING

PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT AS A DATA CONTROLLER

The following describes the Personal Data we collect and process directly from you, and the purpose for processing when you visit our Venue West website.

Contact Form
For direct communication with any of our representatives through our website contact form, we collect your name, email address, and message. We do this to acknowledge and respond to your contact request.

Job Application Submission
For job applications submitted to Venue West through our recruitment channels, we collect your name, email address, resume, cover letter, and any other information you choose to provide. We do this to evaluate your qualifications, contact you regarding your application, and manage the recruitment process.

PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT AS A DATA PROCESSOR

We collect various types of Personal Data directly from you when you use or register for services that we manage on behalf of our clients. The specific Personal Data collected during this process varies depending on the requirements of the client we are representing. The Personal Data that we collect on behalf of our clients includes:

  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Personal and Business Email Addresses
  • Work and Cell Phone Numbers
  • Work and/or Home Address
  • Employment Details
  • Professional Background and Qualifications
  • Payment Information (e.g., Credit Card Details)
  • Travel and Accommodation Details
  • Dietary and Accessibility Requirements
  • Gender/Pronoun
  • Conference Submissions (e.g., Abstracts, Workshop Proposals, Full Papers, etc.)
  • Password
  • Emergency Contact Information

We require your Personal Data to be able to:

  • Create your member or conference account.
  • Login to your member or conference account.
  • Manage conference registration.
  • Provide access to mobile conference apps.
  • Book hotel accommodations and make travel reservations.
  • Review and approve abstract submissions.
  • Communicate information via email.
  • Acknowledge and respond to contact requests.
  • Share information with emergency services or hospitals if you cannot do so yourself.

PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT AUTOMATICALLY (COOKIES)

Some of the websites we manage on behalf of our clients use cookies. The cookies on these websites are mainly used to track information such as which browser software and operating system you are using, the date and time you accessed one of these websites, which pages you visited on the website, how long you spent on each page of the website, what country you’re accessing these websites from, and what language your computer is set to. We use this information to gain insights into how our visitors navigate these websites to provide you with a better web experience.

LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING

To comply with different privacy laws worldwide, specifically with GDPR in the EU and the UK DPA, we are required to provide a legal basis for the processing of your Personal Data. Venue West will not process your Personal Data unless we have legal justification to do so. We will only process your Personal Data if:

  1. We have obtained your explicit consent prior to processing your Personal Data.
  2. If we need your Personal Data to perform a contractual obligation.
  3. If we need your Personal Data to fulfill our legal and regulatory obligations.
  4. If we have a legitimate interest that will not put your rights and freedoms at risk.
  5. If we need to use your Personal Data to protect your vital interests, for example, during a medical emergency.

PERSONAL DATA DISCLOSURE

Venue West will only disclose your Personal Data to the following parties under specific circumstances:

  • To Venue West employees, if required, to fulfill your requests.
  • To contracted service providers assisting with our business operations, including but not limited to conference management, payment processing, and technology services.
  • To law enforcement, regulatory bodies, or courts when we are required to do so under applicable laws and regulations.
  • In the event of an emergency, to your emergency contact and emergency response providers.
  • In connection with the sale or reorganization of our business, as permitted by applicable law.
  • Any other third party where you have provided consent to such disclosure.

PERSONAL DATA FROM MINORS

We do not knowingly directly collect Personal Data from anyone under the age of 18. In rare instances, Personal Data from people under the age of 18 may be provided by their parent/guardian for the purposes of bringing them along to a conference social event or tour.

If you are a parent/guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us at dataprotection[at]venuewest.com. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without the verification of parental consent, we will take the necessary steps to remove that information from our servers.

PERSONAL DATA SECURITY

We take the security of Personal Data very seriously and commit to protecting the Personal Data we collect, store, disclose, process, and protect about you. We maintain appropriate safeguards and take reasonable steps to protect your Personal Data. Some of the security measures we have implemented take a multi-layered security approach, including physical security, access controls, IT security, SSL encryption, and authentication protocols. We also restrict access to Personal Data to employees and third parties only with a legitimate need to access such information.

We ensure that all the parties that we disclose your Personal Data to, both internal and external to Venue West, have contractual obligations to protect the security and the confidentiality of your Personal Data.

PERSONAL DATA TRANSFERS

The Personal Data that we collect from you for the purpose of our services resides in Canada, the EU, and the US. We ensure that your Personal Data is safeguarded by closely working with our partners to ensure that the risks to your privacy are minimized. We take appropriate steps to ensure that transfers of Personal Data across borders are in accordance with privacy laws, and we only transfer Personal Data to partners and other third-party organizations where we are satisfied that adequate levels of protection are in place to protect your information.

For Personal Data transferred out of the EU or UK into countries that are not considered to have an adequate level of Personal Data protection, we obtain contractual commitments from the organizations we transfer your Personal Data to in order to ensure that your Personal Data will be safeguarded at a similar level as in the EU or UK.

PERSONAL DATA RETENTION

We are expected to retain your Personal Data for an established period of time for regulatory, legal, tax, or business requirements. 

We retain your Personal Data for no longer than reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it or to comply with the law, to prevent fraud, to facilitate an investigation, to defend against legal claims, or to exercise our legal rights.

RIGHTS YOU CAN EXERCISE ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL DATA 

Subject to any exceptions provided by law, you have the right to request access to, update, or delete your Personal Data.  You also have the right to request restriction of or object to the processing of your Personal Data, and you have the right to request to have your data transferred to another organization in a commonly used format.

For each case, we will inform you of the consequences of your request and if there are any exemptions to honouring your requests based on legal or contractual requirements. To submit any request about your Personal Data, you may contact us via email at dataprotection[at]venuewest.com.

EU AND UK RESIDENTS – RIGHT TO LODGE A COMPLAINT WITH A SUPERVISORY AUTHORITY

If you reside in the EU, or the UK, and want to lodge a complaint with a Data Protection Authority, you may do so in the country where you reside, where you work, or where you may have experienced an issue with the processing of your Personal Data.

For a list of all Data Protection Authorities in the EU, please visit the following: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm  

If you reside in the UK, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) here: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

CANADIAN RESIDENTS – RIGHT TO LODGE A COMPLAINT WITH A SUPERVISORY AUTHORITY

If you are in Canada, we ensure our practices align with the Fair Information Principles stated in Canadian privacy laws.

For any complaints, questions, or inquiries regarding these principles or our practices, please use the contact information provided at the end of this Notice. You may also make a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada here: https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/contact-the-opc/

If you have a complaint, we would appreciate it if you gave us the opportunity to handle your complaint internally before contacting a Data Protection or Privacy authority.

CONTACT US

If you have any further questions regarding the Personal Data that Venue West or any of our partners collect and process, or if you have feedback regarding this Notice, you may contact us at dataprotection[at]venuewest.com.

CHANGES AND UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE

This Notice may be updated from time to time to reflect changes in our Personal Data processing practices. We will make a reasonable effort to notify you of any significant changes and indicate the date of the latest revision using the “Last Updated” legend at the top of the Notice.