The Professional Conference Organisers Association Inc. (PCOA) collects and processes personal information only where it is necessary to deliver our services, administer membership and partnerships, and support our events and professional development activities.

This Privacy Policy applies to our operations across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, including Australia and New Zealand.

What we collect

We collect only the personal information required to administer PCOA activities, including membership, partnerships, professional development, events and related services.

Personal information will collect may include your name, organisation, job title, contact details, membership or affiliation, event participation details, dietary or accessibility requirements for events, and payment and transaction information.

Information you may have provided in surveys or during enquiries.

How we use your information

PCOA uses personal information only for purposes related to our activities. These purposes include:

• administering PCOA membership and Associate Partner relationships
• providing access to member services, resources, and event systems
• managing registrations for conferences, webinars and other events
• communicating important information relating to membership, partnerships or events
• supporting professional networking and engagement opportunities within the PCOA community
• complying with legal, financial, and administrative obligations

We do not use personal information for purposes unrelated to PCOA activities without consent.

Event and conference application visibility

For our conferences that use an official mobile event app, attendee information is visible to support networking and engagement.This includes:

• Your first name, last name and organisation

This will be visible within the official conference application. Profile visibility and information sharing settings can be adjusted by you within the application.

Attendee data is not sold, rented, or provided as a bulk contact list to sponsors or exhibitors.

If sponsors or exhibitors are permitted to collect attendee information, this occurs only where you actively provide your details to them or explicitly opt in.

Third-party Applications

We engage specialist service providers to operate or host parts of our services including (without limitation) to:

• Customer relationship management software providers for the purpose of providing services, information or direct marketing to you
• Sponsors and partners of our education program and annual conference
• IT service providers, data storage, web-hosting and server providers, marketing or advertising providers and payment systems
• Credit reporting agencies or regulatory authorities, in the event you fail to pay for goods or services we have provided to you
• Regulatory or legal authorities

These providers:

• process data only on our instructions
• are bound by contractual confidentiality and security obligations
• implement appropriate technical and organisational security controls

PCOA does not permit secondary use of attendee data by providers.

Overseas processing

Where technology providers process data outside Australia, PCOA take reasonable steps to ensure protections consistent with Australian privacy law are maintained.

Data retention

Personal information is retained only for as long as required to:

• administer membership, partnerships and events
• or for the purpose it was collected
• meet financial and taxation record requirements
• respond to legitimate enquiries or operational needs

When data is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymise it.

Marketing communications

PCOA may send communications about events, programs, industry updates or member opportunities.

Individuals may opt in to receive these communications and may unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link or by contacting PCOA.

Marketing consent is not a condition of membership or event attendance.

Withdrawal of consent

If you withdraw consent for information that is strictly necessary to deliver membership services or event participation, we may be unable to provide those services.

Withdrawal of marketing consent does not affect membership status or event attendance.

Security measures

PCOA implements reasonable technical and organisational safeguards to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure.

Access and correction

You may request access to the personal information PCOA holds about you and request corrections where necessary.

Requests can be made by contacting PCOA admin@pco.asn.au.