Personal safety and security at events and trade shows have never been more in the forefront of our thinking than in recent years. Attendees and exhibitors alike are often out-of-towners staying in local hotels where they can fall into the trap of thinking that they are on a vacation. They can often let their guard down and find themselves in uncomfortable or unwanted situations.
With the advances of technology in the event space, there are new safety and personal information security issues to be thinking of when you’re at a trade show. But let’s start by covering some of the basic old-school safety tips to keep you and your personal info safe and secure.
1. Arrive During the Day
If you’re flying or driving into a new city, try to schedule your arrival in the daytime. This isn’t always possible with busy work schedules but figuring out where you are and where you need to go in the dark can lead to wasted time, wrong turns into less than stellar areas, or worse, lengthy conversations with your Uber driver about their up-and-coming DJ career. Traveling with a colleague is always preferable to traveling alone. Think the buddy system.
2. Use the Buddy System
The buddy system also works like a charm after the trade show is done for the day when there is often after-work mingling and networking. When you are sharing personal contact information or are networking over dinner or drinks, it’s important to make things clear that this is a business meeting and not a casual date or possible romantic rendezvous. Bringing a colleague along helps make this clearer. Whether you are heading directly from the event to your hotel or from an evening’s networking, an important piece of info you should never share is your hotel and room number.
3. Protect Your Contact Information
In the days of old, you’d travel to these trade shows with as many business cards or brochures as you could carry. They were your lifeline to connect with prospective business partners, customers, or vendors. This is no longer necessary thanks to some amazing advances in trade show smart technology with systems like Visit and Poken by GES. This Smart Badge technology, for example, empowers attendees and exhibitors to take control of their event experience and how they share information. These products contain all of the attendee’s business and contact information, so attendees can simply scan their badge at an exhibitor’s booth, giving themselves a detailed history of their trade show experience. It can also give additional online exhibitor product/service information along with more show details. In turn, the exhibitor now has a digital profile of the attendee that was potentially interested in their product or service. So, now the big question is how is your digital profile information protected?
The good news is that Visit and Poken by GES are compliant with the new European GDPR’s (The General Data Protection Regulation) very strict rules defining what is considered “personal data” and how it must be handled and protected. This data includes names, emails, phone numbers, images, and more. And all of this data must be given with very explicit consent on how it will be used. When you are scanning your Smart Badge or collecting Smart Badge information, you are entering into a very specific relationship and any additional steps in that relationship will require additional consent.
So, wear your Smart Badge confidently knowing that your information is being handled properly, but remember to keep your badge safe and to take it off when you leave the trade show.
Because DJ driver doesn’t need to know where you work or your job title.