Download a copy of MEA's Privacy Policy here

 

MEA PRIVACY STATEMENT

Meetings & Events Australia (MEA) is committed to protecting the privacy rights and personal information of our members, suppliers, supporters and business partners. 

This policy sets out how MEA manages personal information and how MEA aims to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) and the Australian Privacy principles (APP's). 

"Personal Information" refers to the meaning given in the Act which is 'information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable: 

  • whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
  • whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not'. 

 

Kinds of Personal Information Collected and Held by MEA 

MEA collects and holds personal information about members including names, addresses, email addresses, employer details, telephone numbers, dates of birth, membership categories, professional qualifications, details of products and services purchased from MEA (Member Information). 

MEA also collects and holds personal information about persons who are not members. This personal information may be of the same types as are held as member information (Non-Member Information). 

 

How MEA Collects and Holds Personal Information

MEA usually collects personal information directly from the individual or a person authorised by the individual via membership application or renewal forms (online), member detail updates (online), or event registration forms (online). 

Sometimes, personal information may be collected by and from third parties contracted to provide goods or services to MEA or its members, such as conference facility and conference suppliers (for example, through conference or event registration processes). 

In addition, occasions may arise where information is collected by and from third parties who, in the ordinary course of business provide goods or services to MEA or its members. 

Personal information may be held by MEA in either written format on paper files, or in electronic format, or both. Personal information is held on the MEA electronic accounting and financial reporting system, the MEA electronic conference and event registration system, and other internal MEA electronic systems including the member database. 

 

Quality of Personal Information

MEA aims to ensure that the personal information it collects, and holds is accurate, up to date and complete. At each annual renewal of membership, members are asked to check that their personal information on the membership form is correct, and to modify that information if it is incorrect. In addition to this, members are able to update their personal details at any time by logging in to the secure membership area of MEA's website and update their details electronically. 

MEA communicates with former members (and other non-members) on a regular basis and in the course of that communication process the opportunity is made available to update personal information or have personal information removed from the electronic database of membership. 

 

Why Does MEA Collect, Use and Disclose Personal Information?

By joining MEA, members consent to the use of their personal information for the purposes of direct marketing by both MEA and by business partners and affiliates (following disclosure of Member Information to such entities by MEA) whose products, services or benefits may be of interest to members, while they are members and for the period of five years after they cease to be a member of MEA. 

MEA Collects, Uses and Discloses Personal Member Information for the Purposes Of: 

  • maintaining registration and membership records (including holding an electronic database of members);
  • effective management and administration of MEA; 
  • communicating with members (including communications relating to MEA and MEA affiliates/business partners' activities, products, services, publications, events, membership and governance);
  • providing services to members;
  • the organisation and management of MEA conferences and events;
  • the promotion of networking and discussion among members and other persons in attendance at MEA conferences and events;
  • research and analysis in order to identify features, trends and characteristics of the MEA membership and the industry; 
  • performing its function of representing members in relation to issues concerning the Australian meetings and events industry; and
  • the conduct of MEA elections of directors and other officeholders.

Some of the information we may collect may be 'Sensitive Information' such as age, etc. MEA aims to collect Sensitive Information only where this is explicitly consented to by you and reasonably necessary for our business activities, or if collection is required by law. 

Non-Member Information about a former MEA member, or Non-Member Information about persons who are not, and who have never been a member of MEA, is used and disclosed for the purposes of: 

  • staying in contact with and communicating with former members and non-members (including communications relating to MEA and MEA affiliates/business partners' activities including MEA conferences and events, products, services, publications, events, membership and governance);
  • the organisation, promotion and management of MEA conferences and events, activities, products, services, publications and events. 
  • the promotion of networking, discussion and collegiality among members and other persons in attendance at MEA conferences and events, and involved in MEA's activities; 
  • research and analysis in order to identify features, trends and characteristics of the industry beyond the MEA membership; and
  • performing its function of representing members in relation to issues concerning the Australian meetings and events industry in general.

 

Disclosure of Personal Information

MEA discloses personal information to: 

  • MEA staff, officeholders and other MEA members conducting activities for MEA to enable them to carry out their duties and responsibilities for MEA; 
  • other members and attendees at MEA conferences and events for the purposes of networking and discussion amongst attendees;
  • external service providers (for the purposes of the function which MEA has contracted out) such as:
    • IT and financial or accounting software professionals;
    • research and analytic professionals;
    • printing, publishing or mailing houses, or distributors of MEA publications;
  • MEA's professional advisers;
  • business partners and affiliates whose products, services or benefits may be supplied to members as part of their membership of MEA (including information which verifies whether an individual is a member of MEA);
  • business partners and affiliates whose products or services may be directly marketed to members and former members of MEA following the consent to the same by a member; and
  • government and regulatory bodies as set out in this policy or as required by law.

 

How Long Does MEA Retain Your Data?

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. 

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information. 

 

Security of Personal Information

MEA takes reasonable steps to protect all information held by MEA (including your personal information) from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. MEA applies a range of technologies (including access control passwords and procedures differentiated according to authority, network firewalls, encryption and physical security) to protect your privacy. MEA will destroy, or permanently de-identify any of your information which is no longer needed. 

We may contact you by telephone, electronic messaging or other appropriate means. If you do not wish MEA to use or share your Personal Information as described above, you should advise us by contacting admin@mea.org.au.

Your Personal Information will always be securely stored under our control, other than if it has been shared as indicated above. By providing us with your Personal Information you agree that we may store and/or process that information.

Subject to applicable data protection laws and as otherwise indicated in this Privacy Statement, you may request access to your Personal Information and may request that we amend or delete it, which we will endeavour to do in a timely manner. You may lodge a complaint if you believe we have breached an applicable data protection law or any provision of this statement by contacting our CEO. 

 

Payment Information

When you make any financial transactions through the website, we process these payments through a third-party payment processor. We don’t store your credit card details, and instead any payment you make on the website is done through the third-party payment processor, e-WAY, to securely process your payment details. All relevant payment information is provided directly to our third-party payment processor e-WAY and your relevant personal information is governed by e-WAY’s Privacy and Anti-Spam policies at https://www.eway.com.au/legal.

Any online financial transactions on the website comply with Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards.

 

Social Media Widgets

Our website includes social share buttons where you can choose to share a page to a given social media platform. This feature may collect information such as which page you are visiting from and will take you to that platform’s content sharing window, page or service. Your interaction with this share feature is governed by the privacy policy of that platform, and we recommend you view their privacy policy and how they use your information via their page.

 

Cookies Policy

MEA uses ‘cookies” on its website www.meetingsevents.com.au (the service).  By using the service, you consent to the use of cookies as described in this Cookie Policy. We may change this Cookie Policy at any time, and we recommend you look at the date it was last updated which is noted at the end of the Cookie Policy. If you have any questions, please contact admin@mea.org.au

Our Cookies policy explains what cookies are, how we use cookies and your choices regarding cookies.

 

What Are Cookies?

To improve your experience on our site, we may use ‘cookies’.  Cookies are an industry standard and most major websites use them.  A cookie is a small text file that our site may place on your computer as a tool to remember your preferences.  These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

Cookies can be "persistent" or "session" cookies. Persistent cookies stay on your device such as your computer, tablet or mobile when you go offline. Session cookies on the other hand are deleted when you close your web browser.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

 

How MEA Uses Cookies

When you use and access the service, MEA may place a number of cookie files in your web browser.

We use cookies for the following purposes:

  • To enable certain functions of the service;
  • To provide analytics to understand user behaviour and traffic; and
  • To enable the delivery of advertisements.

 

Consenting to Use of Cookies

We use the following cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies - these are cookies required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies which enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
  • Analytical cookies - allows us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring users find what they are looking for easily.
  • Persistent cookies - are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences.
  • Targeting cookies - record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to design our website and any advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
  • Third-party cookies - please note third parties (including, for example, our other business partners, and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies. 

 

How Can I Refuse the Use of Cookies?

If you'd like to delete cookies or instruct your web browser to delete or refuse cookies, please visit the help pages of your web browser. You can always change your browser settings to let you know when a cookie is being set up or modified or block them completely.

Please note that by blocking any or all cookies you may not have access to certain features, such as content personalisation available through the website.

For more information on cookies, you can also visit Your Online Choices: www.youronlinechoices.com.au

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics please see: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

 

More Information About Cookies

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org

 

What Rights You Have Over Your Data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

 

How We Deal with Complaints and Requests

You may make a complain about our handing of your personal information by email or in writing to the address set out below stating the nature of your complaint.

The Chief Executive Officer
Meetings and Events Australia
Suite 3, Level 1
1 McLaren Street
North Sydney  NSW  2060

Email:  admin@mea.org.au

To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, we will need evidence of your identity before we can grant you access to information about you or change it.

Upon receipt of your complaint, MEA will acknowledge receipt of the complaint in writing within 21 working days of receipt, respond to your complaint within a reasonable period of time, advise the Risk and Audit Committee of the board of directors of the receipt of your complaint and the response provided to you.

 

Industry Regulatory Disclosure Requirements

By providing your Personal Information you agree that you have read this Privacy Statement and had the opportunity to obtain legal advice regarding its contents, our obligations and yours.

We may review and update this statement from time to time to reflect changes to the law, technology, or MEA policies.  

If you have any concerns about our privacy policy, please contact us on admin@mea.org.au or alternatively you can write to the Chief Executive Officer at the address above.

 

Privacy Policy Last Updated: August 2019