I returned to Ottawa after attending the IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., last week and all I can say is wow — what a tremendous success.

Attendee numbers were impressive, exceeding pre-pandemic counts, and people came from all over the world. It was wonderful to see so many new faces as well as long-time experts in our field gathered, and it was exciting to hear all the different languages spoken at the networking events and in other open spaces nearby.

If the Summit is any indication, we’re in for something truly special when we gather for the IAPP Canada Symposium in late May.

To pick up on the theme of language, as you may know, the IAPP has been working over the years — and very much in response to your calls — to develop privacy certification training in French.

So, I wanted to use this space today to share that for the first time at Symposium we are delivering the training in both official languages. As usual, I’ll be delivering the English-language course and (drumroll please) Gilles Fourchet will be the French-language instructor at Symposium.

If you’re a Francophone who has been keen to have French-language training in privacy, tell your HR Department you need to go to this. It’s a great opportunity to attend Symposium and get that training at the same time. You have until May 17 to sign up.

Now, this next part isn’t new, but I am also pleased to let you know that, as we’ve done in previous years, there will also be a handful of sessions in French in the conference program. Thanks to those who submitted those session proposals to help strengthen the program.

On that note — bonne fin de semaine et à bientôt!