Privacy Policy

Introduction and who we are

This section clarifies the HQMENA that may use your personal information.

HQMENA is recognised as a distinguished event managreement partner dedicated to crafting exceptional events that captivate, engage, and deliver outstanding results. With a steadfast commitment to professionalism and innovation, HQMENA specializes in organizing a wide array of events across diverse industries, ensuring unparalleled success for each occasion.

Data and information are at the heart of what HQMENA does, and we take matters of data privacy seriously. We respect our relationships with customers, clients, visitors, sponsors, exhibitors, contributors, suppliers and colleagues, and the trust they place in us to hold their personal information.

HQMENA Data Controllers

This Privacy Policy explains how HQMENA (“we”, “us” or “our”) collect, use and protect personal information

To update your marketing preferences
To update your personal information or marketing preferences, contact our Divisional Marketing teams listed below.
marketing@hqmena.com

What we collect

This section explains what personal information we collect.

This section describes what personal information we may collect from you when you use our products and services, and what other personal information we may receive from other sources.
In this Privacy Policy, personal information refers to the types of personal information that may be collected and used, including:

  • Contact details such as name, email address, postal address and telephone number
  • Educational, nationality and professional information
  • Demographic information such as gender and birth date
  • Usernames and passwords
  • Payment information, such as a credit or debit card number or bank account details
  • Comments, feedback, ratings, posts and other content submitted, including survey information
  • Interests and communication preferences including marketing permissions where appropriate
  • Location information, such as provided through a mobile app and Bluetooth beacons
  • Images, including photographs and video footage, for example via CCTV or cameras in our mobile apps, or where we require a photograph on an event badge for security purposes
  • Audio notes, such as via our mobile apps
  • Information verifying your identity such as passport details to comply with legal obligations in certain countries and to provide visa invitation letters where requested
  • IP address, website and communication usage information, such as correspondence and details of your use of our website and services obtained through cookies or other tracking technologies
  • Name of hotel when attending one of our events.

This personal information relates to the following categories of people:

  • Prospects, customer contacts, subscribers and users in respect of our services and products
  • Visitors, sponsors, exhibitors and speakers at our events
  • Professionals featured in digital and print products, such as senior executive details made available through intelligence products, research, publications
  • Authors, editors, and reviewers in respect of our publications
  • Contacts of our service providers and business partners

We may collect this information directly from you when you register for an event or engage with our services and/or platforms. We may also collect this information from third party partners and public sources to the extent permitted by applicable data protection law. In some cases, the data we collect from third parties is provided in a de-identified form and we are only able to connect it to you, if, and when you enter your email address on one of the HQMENA sites.

Sensitive personal information

If collecting or storing your sensitive personal information, such as information relating to health, disability status or religious beliefs, in order to facilitate your attendance at one of our events, we will typically ask for your explicit consent. However, there are some limited situations where this will not occur, such as if you have a serious accident. If this does occur, we will ensure your privacy rights are protected.

Data collected by third parties at our events

In some cases, third parties attending our events may collect information about you, for example by taking a photograph of your business card on one of our event mobile apps, or by scanning your visitor badge. We are not the data controller of this data, cannot access the data and are not responsible for third party use. For further information, please see any relevant third party privacy policies or the applicable terms of use for the relevant app.

Aggregated or anonymised personal information

We may create anonymous or aggregated data from personal information we receive about you and other individuals.. Anonymous data might include statistical data or analytics information and we may share this with third party customers.
In certain instances, your employer or another organization may provide you with access to our services. In those cases, your employer will only receive aggregate information, and not personal information about your engagement with our services. For example, we may share that a majority of employees registered with us have fulfilled a certain certification course; however, we will not provide employers with information about which of their employees fulfilled a particular course or which employees are open to recruitment opportunities. We do however reserve the right to alert your employer or other organization to your having been banned from our services. These instances will occur only following a breach of our Terms of Service or community standards (i.e., egregious harassment of another member, repeated instances of fraud, etc.).

Children’s personal information

Our services and products are directed at business professionals. They are not intended for children under the age of sixteen. We do not knowingly collect personal information from users in this age group and reserve the right to delete such information if we become aware of having collected it. If children’s data is collected, this is only via direct input from parents, guardians or teachers, and its usage is protected by clear licence terms aligned to applicable laws.

How and why personal information is used

Our services and products are directed at business professionals. They are not intended for children under the age of sixteen. We do not knowingly collect personal information from users in this age group and reserve the right to delete such information if we become aware of having collected it. If children’s data is collected, this is only via direct input from parents, guardians or teachers, and its usage is protected by clear licence terms aligned to applicable laws.

How and why personal information is used

Product enquiries, sales and administration

If you have made an enquiry about us or our products or services, either online or over the phone, your personal information will be used to respond to the enquiry or to take other steps at your request, prior to you entering into a contract with us.
If you have purchased or registered for one of our products or services, including on a trial basis, we will use your personal information, including bank or card details, to provide you with the product or service, communicate with you about it, handle payments and recover any debts.

Call monitoring for training and quality monitoring purposes

Where one of our sales representatives speaks to you over the phone, the calls are recorded for training and monitoring purposes.

To include professional information in our products and consulting services

If your professional personal information is relevant to our products and is freely available through public sources, such as a website related to your work or profession, listed directories, press releases, industry publications, or if you provide it to us, to the extent permitted by applicable data protection laws, we may use such personal information in the products we provide to customers, for example in subscription products, research, industry analysis and insights. We may also check your information against the information listed on available databases, to identify and verify your professional status.If you make an enquiry or engage us to provide consulting services or research/analysis, we will collect information such as your name, country, job title, company information or academic affiliation, postal address, e-mail address and telephone number. We will use your personal information to respond to the enquiry or to fulfil consulting services.

For event and exhibition management

If you participate in one of our events as a speaker, sponsor, exhibitor or attendee, your personal information will be used in connection with the running of the event, to handle payments and recover debts. This includes our legitimate business interests in carrying out logistic, administrative and analytics activities, to ensure our events run smoothly and so that we can offer an improved experience for our customers.
We may also use your personal information to maintain databases that allow us to assess your qualities as a speaker or sponsor/exhibitor, promote events and encourage further engagement at our events, and to request references in certain circumstances.
Where we have your consent to do so, we may share your personal information with exhibitors at the event you are going to attend, so that they can contact you in advance and arrange to meet with you during the event.
In addition, photos and videos are taken at our events, which may feature attendees, speakers, sponsors or exhibitors. Where we have taken photos and videos at our events that feature you as an attendee, sponsor or exhibitor, to the extent permitted by applicable data protection laws, those photos and videos may be used for promotional purposes. Third parties may also take photographs at our events, for example to maintain a record of stands or exhibitors they have visited. We are not responsible for the collection or use of images taken by third parties.
Where events and exhibitions use badge scanning technology, your personal information will be used to identify you at certain access points, such as to access VIP areas, seminars, entry and exit in other areas of the event. This will provide certain location information. Badges cannot be read remotely.
The personal information obtained from badge scanning will be used for access control, security and analysing visitor traffic with a view to improving the event experience for visitors and others. We may also use de-identified image data taken from cameras and/or location data collected via a mobile phone app and Bluetooth beacons to analyse visitor traffic and/or to assess attendance at particular seminars or presentations. This data may be shared with the relevant exhibitors.
You can also allow your badge to be scanned by event exhibitors. When you do so your contact details will be shared with the relevant exhibitor and used in accordance with applicable data protection laws, the exhibitor’s privacy policy and any other notices or consents you are provided with or given at the event.
Where we are hosting and managing a virtual exhibition or event, HQMENA (and any third party platform provider acting on our behalf) will use your personal information provided during the registration process to host and manage this digital event; and also for analyzing visitor interactions and traffic with a view to improving the event experience for visitors and provide you with a personalized experience.
When you enter virtual spaces, zones or rooms such as an exhibition booth, your personal information may be shared with the sponsor and exhibitor to allow them to engage with you subject to the attendee privacy notice you may have been provided during the registration and login process.

For our Publishing Services

If you publish work with us, your personal information, including the personal information of any named representative or beneficiary, is used in connection with the dissemination and promotion of your published work, and fulfilment of any contractual obligations, as is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests as a commercial organisation. Your name and affiliation will be published as part of authored work. Personal information is also used to handle payments or for other purposes, as is necessary to perform the contract entered into with us.
In addition, we sometimes take photos and videos at events associated with your published work. Where photos and videos are taken at our events that feature you as an author, we may use those photos and videos for promotional purposes.

For marketing

We may use your personal information to send you newsletters, offers or other marketing emails that keep you up to date with our news, events and products that may be of interest. Depending on the nature of your interaction with us and applicable data protection laws, you may have actively given us your consent (i.e. opted in) or we may be entitled to rely on your implied consent or legitimate interests to market to you. The opportunity to opt out of future marketing will always be provided, and you have the right to amend your marketing preferences at any time (see Your Rights section).
In some circumstances, where we have a lawful basis and you have provided your mobile telephone number, we may send marketing SMS/text messages or call you for marketing purposes, in accordance with applicable local laws. We may also send postal mailings with information on new products and events, where we have a lawful basis to do so and you have provided us with your postal address.
Many of our events and products are co-branded or sponsored by third party exhibitors or sponsors. We may share your details with these third party partners. Where this happens, a clear notice will be provided, that gives the opportunity to opt out or opt in to such sharing as required by applicable data protection laws. The third party partner’s use of your details will be in accordance with the notice provided and its privacy policy, and is not covered by this Privacy Policy.

For gamification

Gamification describes the incentivization of user's engagement in non-game contexts and activities by using game-style mechanics. Gamification leverages a user's natural tendencies for competition and achievement by rewarding a user for performing and repeating a specific action (e.g., sign up for an event, view a conference agenda, tag a user in a photo).
When you download and use some of our mobile applications and interact with event-specific capabilities, we may collect information about your behavior (e.g., view an event guide, check out an event schedule, view attendee profile, send a message, add event session to your schedule) for the purposes of gamification. For each event-related activity that you perform within the mobile application, we will score your activity, compare and rank your activity with the activity information of other users. You are able to see this scoring information and to grant permission to others to see, share, edit, copy, and download that content based on your select settings.
Additionally, some of the gamification features of the mobile application services display some or all your profile information to other mobile application users when you share or interact with specific content. For example, when you add a session to your schedule, we display your profile picture and name next to the session so that other users with access to the session can see who the other attendees are. You are able to control this sharing via your settings and you may also opt out of gamification at any time.

For our client-facing marketing services

HQMENA will combine the personal information that they collect from you, including much of the information in the “what we collect” section above, with personal data collected from certain trusted third party sources and use this information to create profiles in order to determine your/your company’s commercial interests.
For example, we will collate the information you provide as part of your registration for events, information you generate in connection with your attendance at events, information obtained by us using first party cookies and tracking technology on our websites and apps and certain information we obtain from third parties (such as data providers) to analyse, segment and determine which marketing segments you fall within.
This information can then be used by, or for the benefit of, our clients in different ways as part of our marketing service offering to enable these clients to undertake tailored and targeted advertising campaigns. Our clients can present individuals with information about products and services that our clients think will be of interest to them via various channels based on the marketing segments we have developed and allocated individuals to. In many cases these advertising campaigns are run by us on behalf of clients without us ever sharing any personal data with the relevant clients (including via marketing emails, and social media channels and our advertising partners who facilitate advertising on third party sites). In other cases, we may provide to clients information that the client is unable to use to identify you in order for them to instigate their own marketing campaigns. In all cases, our activities are undertaken to the extent permitted by applicable law. These activities are undertaken based on individuals’ marketing consents. Therefore, if you have exercised your rights to opt out of email marketing, you will not be marketed to in connection with the marketing services we provide to clients via any channel.
The activities that we, and our third party partners, undertake may entail automated and machine learning-based processing of data to analyse or predict behaviours and preferences (e.g. interests in certain content, services and/or at events). The algorithm will identify companies and individuals with similar characteristics to companies and individuals that we know are interested in certain services, generating a similarity score for those clients. We will then enrich the information we hold about companies and individuals and send advertising to prospects based on this analysis.

In social media

We may use your personal information to undertake advertising campaigns on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook in order to provide information about upcoming events or new products and to ensure you only receive relevant advertising about our products and services. We may share your personal
information with social media platforms so that you see advertising about our, or our partners’, products and services that we think you will be interested in when you interact with the relevant social media platform. We may also share your personal information with social media platforms to help us present relevant advertising to individuals who the social media platforms determine are likely to have similar interests to you.
We maintain presences on social media platforms, through our company and brand pages. We collect personal information when you interact with us on social media. Please note that these social media platforms may set cookies and other tracking technologies on your device when you visit their pages and when you navigate from their pages.
The output of such information may be provided to us (usually for statistical purposes to see how users interact with our content on social media platforms). The social media platforms are responsible for how they handle your personal information and information about how these social media platforms collect and use your personal information (and how they use cookies and other technologies, including instructions on how you can disable these) can usually be found in their respective privacy policies and cookies policies on their respective websites. For customer and prospects management (including analytics and product management)

For surveys

We may use your personal information to undertake research surveys for ourselves or on behalf of a third party. This includes your contact information, pseudonymised demographic information and any feedback or answers you provide. Surveys may be carried out digitally or face-to-face.

For customer and prospects management (including analytics and product management)

The personal information held about you, combined with other personal information legitimately obtained and shared with us by third parties or publicly available data, may be used to better understand our customers and their preferences and to improve the products and services delivered. This may include automated profiling and campaign management techniques.
Data may also be used in advertising campaigns on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook in order to provide information about upcoming events or new products and to ensure you only receive relevant advertising about our products and services as described above.

For mobile applications and website analytics

We may combine visitor session information or other information collected through tracking technologies, whether you are logged in or not, with personally identifiable information to understand and analyse your online experiences, improve the efficiency and operation of our websites or services and determine which events, products and services are likely to be of interest to you.
Where you consent to the use of your location data, certain mobile applications may use location data to assist you to navigate around events and bring exhibitors’ and sponsors’ products to your attention whilst you are using the app.
Our marketing related emails contain a single, campaign-unique “web beacon pixel” to tell us whether emails are opened, and combined with other technology, to verify any clicks through to links within the email. We may use this information for purposes including determining which of our emails are more interesting and to query whether users who do not open our emails wish to continue receiving them. The pixel will be deleted when you delete the email.
Where you subscribe to an online service, the accompanying emails similarly include a pixel. We track interaction with these emails and our online services to validate attendance for accreditation purposes, to help determine which information is of interest to you and to customise the advertisements seen on our sites.
If you do not wish the pixel to be downloaded to your device, you should choose not to click links that we send or to opt out of email marketing or online events. This information may be connected to your personal identity.
While we strive to offer choice when using our website and mobile applications, we do not promise that we will be able to receive or honor web browser Do Not Track signals.

Within online membership communities, bulletin boards and chat areas

You may choose to participate in online membership communities on our sites that allow you to create and publish a profile and other personal information. These communities may provide privacy controls that allow choice in how much of your profile and other information to make public or to share with others within the community. Some platforms also provide membership of wider communities within your industry.
Privacy controls are usually found on the page on which you edit your profile, and each individual is responsible for understanding how those controls work, including default settings, and choosing how the information provided is shared and protected. By participating in these online membership communities, other members of the community may be able to view some of your personal information and you may be contacted by other participants using the information provided.
When you disclose personal information on any public community boards or chat areas on such websites, your personal information can be collected and used by anyone who views that board or area. This may result in unsolicited messages from other participants or other parties, which are outside of our control or responsibility.
However, where you engage with us in customer enquiry chat areas, this is private and we will use any information provided to help recommend products and/or assist with confirming any order you wish to place.

For enquiries and complaints

Any personal information provided on the Contact Us page will be used only to provide a response, find a resolution to the complaint or to service the request or enquiry made. The information provided will not be added to the marketing or customer prospect databases of HQMENA’s operating divisions.

For news alerts

The information collected when you sign up for news alerts is used only to provide that service, and to understand the background and interests of our subscriber list.
In providing the service we gather statistics about how many emails are opened, using industry standard technologies including image downloads. This is to help us monitor and improve the news alerts service and information is collected and analysed at an aggregate level only.
With your permission, from time-to-time HQMENA may use your registration details to contact you about the news alerts service. You can unsubscribe from the service at any time using links provided within our emails.

In automated decision-making, including profiling

We use fully automated algorithm-based technologies to personalise dynamic web content based on your explicit and/or implicit interests. General profiling, such as segmentation, is carried out for the purpose of providing a more relevant experience. Additionally, in our publishing business it may be used where your answers to an application to receive a sample inspection copy of a textbook determines whether the request is granted or is implemented in certain cases, to ensure we deliver a timely and reliable service to customers. Automated decision making is never used in any way that produces a legal or similarly significant effect.
When we use these techniques, we use measures to avoid legally discriminatory biases and inaccuracies. These automated processes may result in different content being shown to you.

For fulfilment of our legal obligations including anti-fraud measures and screening

It is industry standard for companies to access and use certain personal information to prevent fraud and other crimes, as may be required by applicable law and regulation and best practice at any given time. If false or inaccurate information is provided and fraud is identified or suspected, details may be passed to fraud prevention agencies and may be recorded by us or by them.
To ensure we comply with international trade sanction laws and regulations, where appropriate customers, vendors and suppliers are screened against applicable sanctions lists.
We may also collect categories of personal information required by local law in order to obtain an event licence or to respond to queries or requests made by law enforcement.

For fulfilment of our legal obligations including anti-fraud measures and screening

As a global multinational to provide you with our services and products, your information may be shared for specific reasons. This section explains how and why personal data is shared.

Sharing with HQMENA Group companies

We may share your personal information with other companies within the HQMENA Group for specific purposes. For example, other HQMENA companies may assist in providing our products and services, carry out internal analysis of the usage of our and their products and services, or where permitted under applicable data protection law, offer relevant products and services which might interest you.

Sharing with Service Providers

We may share your personal information with third parties who assist in providing our products and services and administering our business. These include IT and marketing technology host suppliers, web and data hosting providers, mailing houses, ad servers, logistics and general services contractors, debt collection agencies, onsite health and safety partners, event registration partners, sales platform providers, communication tool providers, stand designers/builders/fitters, suppliers of sponsorship/marketing/PR collateral and other event collaboration partners. Personal information will only be shared with third parties if and to the extent it is necessary for them to provide our products and services to you.
We use web chat services including Intercom, LiveAdmins, Live Chat, Casengo that allow us to connect with you and answer sales and customer services questions quickly and directly. We ensure these service providers protect your data but these chats are intended to provide quick answers to basic service questions only, and you should not provide any sensitive information, such as bank or credit card details in these chats.
These data processors are bound to compliance through contracts in place that protect the personal information you have shared with us.

Sharing with other Organisations

We may share your personal information, including contact details and product or service interaction with trusted partner organisations for their marketing purposes, in accordance with local data protection laws and where required, with your permissions.
If you use one of our virtual products, such as a virtual exhibition, directory site or webinars, or choose to allow your badge to be scanned at an event, we may pass the information you provide to third parties. Generally, this will be via a process whereby you, as the user, visit or interact with a third party, such as visiting a stand at an online exhibition, having your badge scanned or clicking an asset branded and provided by a third party. In some instances, for example, a product listing site, you may reach out directly to a supplier or exhibitor, who may contact you in return. In other instances, our virtual products are sponsored and in these cases, the data provided will be given to the sponsor. Generally, we will let you know at the time of collection if a product is sponsored.
We may share your personal information with clients and data providers in connection with the marketing services referred to above, who are bound to process that data strictly in compliance with applicable law.

To reorganise or make changes to our business

If we are subject to negotiations for the sale of all or a part of our business to a third party, are sold to a third party or undergo a re-organisation, we may need to transfer some or all of your personal information to the relevant third party or its advisors as part of any due diligence process. Any information that is transferred to that re-organised entity or third party will be used for the same purposes as set out in this policy, or for the purpose of analysing any proposed sale or re-organisation.

In connection with legal or regulatory obligations

We may process your personal information to comply with our legal and regulatory requirements or to respond to regulators where applicable. This may include disclosing your personal information to third parties, the court service and/or regulators or law enforcement agencies in connection with enquiries, proceedings or investigations by such parties anywhere in the world or where compelled to do so.
In some circumstances, we may be legally required to disclose your personal information because a court, the police, another judicial or law enforcement body or government entity has asked us for it.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Please note that we update our Privacy Policy from time-to-time.

To keep up with changing legislation, best practice and changes in how we process personal information, we may revise this Privacy Policy at any time. Depending on the nature of the changes, we may update you via email if we have your personal information; or we may update the Policy without notice by posting a revised version on this website. To stay up to date on any changes, check back periodically.