Advantage Travel Partnership Meetings and Events Privacy Policy

1. What this policy covers

Advantage Travel Centres Ltd (Advantage, we, our or us) is responsible for the personal information described in this policy. It covers our conferences, meetings and other events, including registration, accommodation and travel arrangements, event activities and follow-up. 

This policy explains how we use information, rather than asking you to consent to every use by accepting booking terms. Essential event administration, optional networking, marketing and sensitive requirements have different purposes and choices. Our main Privacy Policy covers other Advantage services.

2. How we collect information

We collect information when you register, update your booking, contact the Events team, use event features or give feedback. We may also receive it from the person booking for you, your employer, our membership records or a supplier arranging an event service. Registration and event apps may be provided through CrowdComms. Some activity bookings may use Eventbrite. 

If you provide information about another delegate or an emergency contact, please tell them and share this policy with them. An emergency contact’s name and telephone number are used to contact them if an incident requires it.

3. The information we collect

Information may include your name, company, job title, contact details, booking and attendance details, payment or invoice information, and the choices you make about sharing. Depending on the event, it may also include travel and accommodation details, an emergency contact, dietary or accessibility requirements, and information you choose to add to an app profile, survey or activity. 

Where an accommodation, transport or other event provider genuinely needs identification details, we may need relevant passport details or date of birth. The requirement depends on the service and destination. We explain the purpose and recipient when requesting this information. Please do not send passport images unless specifically requested for a justified requirement. 

Dietary, accessibility or other requirements can reveal health information or religious beliefs. Please give only the information needed to make the arrangement. We use information revealing health or religious beliefs to arrange your requirements with your explicit consent. You can withdraw that consent by contacting the Events team or the Data Protection Team. 

Required booking fields allow us to reserve and administer your place. Without necessary information, we may be unable to arrange the relevant service. Dietary and accessibility fields are optional, but we may be unable to arrange support we have not been told about. Refusing optional networking or marketing does not prevent attendance.

4. How we use information to deliver the event

Registration and event administration 

We use booking information to reserve your place, send practical updates, manage attendance and answer questions. Names and company details may appear on badges, place cards, seating plans or schedules. Invoices are sent to the nominated finance contact. 

Accommodation and travel 

We provide the relevant venue, hotel or transport provider with the information needed for your arrangement. This may include a rooming list, travel details or necessary identification information. Excursion and activity providers receive the information needed to deliver that activity. 

Dietary and accessibility arrangements

Relevant needs are shared with the venue or other provider responsible for meeting them. Sensitive requirements are not part of general delegate lists or networking profiles. 

Event interaction and appointments 

Your name and company may be displayed when you use an audience-interaction feature or take part in a scheduled networking session. Appointment services may send practical meeting requests and reminders. Where available, app profile settings let you edit or remove information you have chosen to display. A digital business-card exchange is initiated by you. 

Prizes and awards 

We use the details needed to administer a prize or award, including sharing information with a prize provider. An award winner’s name and company may be announced, displayed, engraved on the award and included in communications about it. The relevant activity information explains any additional use. 

Feedback 

We use survey responses to understand and improve events. Publishing a named testimonial or a quotation that identifies you is a separate promotional use, for which we ask your permission.

5. Optional networking and promotional uses

Delegate lists 

Where you choose to be included, we may provide your name and company to attending partners or delegates for event networking. These lists do not include your email address, job title, travel details, emergency contact or dietary and accessibility information. Sharing information with a supplier so it can deliver your booking is different from inclusion in a networking list. 

Partner invitations and marketing 

If a partner wishes to contact you for an optional invitation or promotion, the relevant choice must identify what will be shared and why. Attending an event does not by itself give partners permission to use your details for unrelated marketing. You decide what business cards or contact details you share directly with other attendees. 

Photography and video 

Event photography or recording may be used in Advantage’s printed and digital communications, including social media. You can make a separate choice about identifiable promotional photographs and video of you. Please tell the Events team if you do not wish to appear, or if you later want to withdraw permission. We explain any different recording purpose before it takes place. 

You can update sharing choices through the registration form where available or by contacting the Events team. Withdrawing consent does not affect earlier lawful use. We may not be able to retrieve copies already distributed, such as printed publications, but can explain what further use can be stopped.

6. Our lawful bases

Event delivery 

Where you personally enter the booking contract, we rely on contract for processing necessary to fulfil it or take steps at your request. Where your employer or another organisation books, we rely on legitimate interests in organising and delivering the event and managing that business relationship. This includes practical communications, ordinary attendance administration and necessary supplier coordination. 

Sensitive requirements 

For dietary or accessibility information that reveals health information or religious beliefs, we rely on consent, including explicit consent for the sensitive information. Withdrawing it may mean we cannot continue the arrangement that depends on that information. 

Optional uses 

We rely on consent for optional delegate-list inclusion, identifiable promotional photography and video, and named testimonials described above. Optional marketing that requires consent is separate from service messages. Each choice can be withdrawn. 

Other event records 

We rely on legitimate interests in improving events when analysing ordinary feedback, and in administering awards and prize activities where no contract with you applies. Required accounting records and responses to legal obligations rely on legal obligation. Necessary records for complaints or legal claims rely on legitimate interests in resolving them and protecting legal rights. 

Legitimate interests require us to assess necessity and balance the use against your interests, rights and freedoms. In an emergency, information may be used or shared to protect someone’s vital interests where the legal conditions are met.

7. Who receives your information

Information is used by the Advantage teams who need it for the event and the relevant service. External recipients may include registration and app providers, venues, hotels, transport and activity providers, destination management companies, event production suppliers and payment providers. Professional advisers or authorities may receive information where necessary. 

Recipients receive information relevant to their role. A venue arranging dietary support has a different need from a partner receiving an optional name-and-company networking list. Photographers and media partners may receive the material relevant to the agreed recording or promotional use. 

Some suppliers process information on our behalf and must follow our instructions and relevant data-protection terms. Others, such as a hotel or transport operator meeting its own legal duties, may be independent controllers. Their privacy information explains their own uses and retention.

8. Security and international transfers 

We use technical and organisational measures intended to protect event information. The appropriate access and sharing arrangements depend on the sensitivity of the information and the recipient’s task. 

Events and suppliers may involve processing outside the UK, including access by an overseas organisation. Where UK law restricts a transfer, we rely on applicable UK adequacy regulations or put appropriate safeguards in place, unless a permitted exception applies. Contact the Data Protection Team for the countries and safeguards relevant to your booking, including how to obtain a copy of applicable safeguards.

9. How long we keep information

Routine registration, travel and event-working records are kept while needed to organise the event, resolve practical follow-up and reconcile the arrangements. We remove sensitive dietary and accessibility details sooner once the arrangement is complete and there is no continuing need or other valid reason to retain them. 

App access, stored app records and working spreadsheets are different records. Closing an app does not itself mean all its data or exports have been deleted. The relevant event information explains any available app-access period. Necessary finance, consent, complaint and incident evidence is kept separately for its own legal or business purpose. 

Identifiable feedback is kept while needed to check and use the results. Genuinely anonymous findings may be retained for future planning. Any longer-term attendance history must be limited to the information needed for that purpose. 

Our retention rules apply to personal information in working spreadsheets, shared files, system exports, downloaded copies and relevant emails, as well as our main systems. We review these records and delete or genuinely anonymise information when it is no longer needed, retaining only what is necessary for a continuing lawful purpose.

10. Your rights and complaints

Depending on the circumstances, you may ask for access, correction, erasure, restriction or portability of your personal information. You may withdraw consent without affecting earlier lawful processing. Contact us to exercise these rights or to discuss how a choice affects a particular event arrangement. 

You can object to processing based on legitimate interests. You have an absolute right to object to direct marketing at any time. 

You have the right to complain to Advantage about how your information is used. Email dataprotection@advantagetravelpartnership.com. We must acknowledge a data protection complaint within 30 days and investigate, respond and explain the outcome without undue delay. 

You may also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. Where applicable, you can also contact your local data protection authority.

11. Contact us and policy updates

Email: dataprotection@advantagetravelpartnership.com 

Phone: 020 3794 5034 

Post: Data Protection Team, Advantage Travel Centres Ltd, c/o Regus, Eagle House, 167 City Road, London EC1V 1NR. 

We update this policy when event processing changes and publish a revised date. A change to this policy does not by itself provide consent for a new use. Any specific event notice should be read alongside this policy.