A trio of Shropshire companies hosted a seminar aimed at bringing businesses up to speed on the implications of new data protection laws which come into force in May.
Ascendancy Internet Marketing, based in Shifnal, Kay Heald HR and Severn Business Solutions ran the event for more than 50 client representatives at Patshull Park Hotel and focused on the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
GDPR legislation is aimed at strengthening and unifying data protection within the EU and is the biggest and most important change in data privacy in the last 20 years.
Helen Culshaw, Ascendancy managing director, said while there had been a lot of talk about GDPR, actual information about what people were supposed to do to comply with the new law was not very clear.
“Most of the information has been rather generic, unspecific and appears to be designed to scare you into feeling like you probably ought to be doing lots of things, but you’re not quite sure what,” she said.
“Over the past few months lots of clients have asked me about GDPR in relation to their digital marketing – what changes do they need to make, what should they do with their email list and what Google is doing about GDPR.
“After months of talking to a range of people who know about GDPR, we reached a point where we felt we could give some useful and practical advice to our clients.
“Ian Ross, from Severn Business Solutions, spoke about GDPR generally and the implications for business technology while Kay Heald, from Kay Heald HR, spoke on the implications for HR, and I addressed the subject of what GDPR means for online marketing – in particular email, mailing and websites.”
The seminar covered a range of issues, including the background of GDPR and some of the terminology involved, how to lawfully use personal data in business, how consent works under GDPR and practical steps to take towards compliance – looking at technology, HR and marketing.
“As well as addressing all these issues we felt it was necessary to put things across in a way people could understand – making it different from other seminars and various website information out there which can be really difficult to get your head around,” added Helen.
“We were also able to give examples of real-life privacy notices, GDPR action plans and so on that clients could look at and take away with them. We also included some practical exercises on the day so clients could get started on their own GDPR action plan – if they hadn’t already.”
Shropshire Live is regulated by 