When you organise an event, you will often want to know in advance who will attend. In that case, it is convenient when visitors can register through the Internet. Pay attention then to the following things, in any case.
Security
The data of the registration form must be sent through a secure connection.
Quantity of data
Do not ask for more data than necessary. Do you only want to know the number of visitors and make name badges? Then asking for the first name, last name, position and organisation is usually enough.
Another example: registering the age is not necessary if you only want to know if someone is an adult. In that case, you can ask if someone was born before a specific year.
Informing
Explain properly why you collect the data. You can do this in your privacy statement. But explaining this in the form often provides more clarity.
Retaining data
Do not retain the data longer than necessary. This usually means that you have to remove the data after the end of the event. Do you need the data longer, for example for collecting payments? Then you must remove the data immediately after you have done this.
You are allowed retain aggregated, anonymous data, though. For example, that a total of 10 people had registered for your event.
Newsletter
Do you want to send visitors a newsletter about your products or services? This is only allowed if visitors state clearly in advance that they want to receive that newsletter. For example, by ticking a box. You must also offer the visitors the option to unsubscribe in every newsletter you send.
External registration system
Do you want to use a registration system that is offered by another organisation? This is possible, but you will have to conclude a processing agreement with that organisation in this case. In this agreement, you have to set out, among other things, that the organisation will not use the collected data for its own purposes and secure the data properly. In this case, the points for attention described above will also apply. You remain responsible for the data processing.
Sharing a list of participants
Do you want to share the list of participants of your event among your visitors, to facilitate networking by them, for example? Then ask the visitors in advance which contact details they want to share. Maybe they want to share a business telephone number, but do not want to have their private number placed on the list.
You can simply ask for consent at the time a person registers for the event. This consent must be given freely and unambiguously. You must be able to demonstrate that you have obtained consent.