Happy new year, bonne année, Gelukkig nieuwjaar!

I hope everyone had a wonderful new year holiday and is as eager as we are to kickstart 2023.

The year is not even a week old, and we have our first enforcement action with Ireland's Data Protection Commission fining Meta 390 million euros — you can see the start of the IAPP’s coverage here. I’m sure this will be the topic of many upcoming KnowledgeNet meetings in the coming days.

Speaking of KnowledgeNet meetings, Data Protection Day is 28 Jan., and meetings are coming in the next weeks to celebrate. If you aren’t already subscribed or receiving emails for your region, contact us, and we will be happy to ensure you are invited to the meetings near you!

Conference season also starts soon! This year the IAPP Data Protection Intensive: UK kicks us off 8-9 March, immediately followed by the Data Protection Intensive: France 14-15 March. Then, a short break and straight into the world’s largest data protection conference — the IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., 4-5 April. No rest for conference-going privacy pros!

Don’t forget to check out the Networking+ pages under “Show More” to see all the ways to meet up with your fellow privacy pros at the conferences for roundtables, meetups, mixers and more! We’re always changing things up, so keep an eye on what may be new.

It’s January, and I’m sure the first SMART goal for 2023 is to be IAPP certified — if you’re not already — there are plenty of training options available for you; whether you prefer self-paced online, live online or in-person, there’s a training for you.

If you’re like me and sometimes forget to see how many CPEs you need or just forget to log some, you can see your CPE status in your MyIAPP account under “My Certifications.” There are many ways to get your CPEs, and CPE Central can help you find some great options. Remember KnowledgeNets — educational ones, not networking ones — and web conferences are automatically added to your CPE counts, so there is no need to self-submit for those.

KnowledgeNets, conferences and trainings, oh my! It’s a big start to the year.

I know I’m very excited for 2023, and I hope you are too.

See you soon.