Greetings from Brussels!

It will not be long now before we have the next new edition of our DPI conference series in Paris, France. As some of you know, we have had significant success with our IAPP Data Protection Intensive: UK event in London. Running for some years now, it is a mainstay on the privacy event calendar for privacy pros not only here in Europe but also increasingly from North America, Asia and beyond. Last year, we took a long, hard look at the DPI approach and measured that demand for more practical and operationally focused content that was really a must post-GDPR. We heard the call, and in response, launched a very successful inaugural DPI: Deutschland event in Munich last September. Riding on that momentum, coming up 12–13 Feb. in Paris, we will be hosting the inaugural IAPP Data Protection Intensive: France to complete the DPI trilogy.

On a personal note, I am looking forward to having this first DPI conference in Paris. You may know, my wife, Claire, is Parisian, or should I say Parisienne, so it is all the sweeter to hold this next event in her hometown … when I say “j’aime Paris,” I literally live and breathe it. All said, Paris is a wonderful city and quite definitely one of the world’s finest with its monument-lined boulevards, world-class museums, art nouveau bistros, and fashionable boutiques. Paris is simply an epitome of style. Thomas Jefferson quite rightly summed it poignantly when he said, “A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of life.”

What I do like about these new DPI-format events is that all the sessions are delivered by data protection experts and members in parallel topical tracks — and in the case of DPI: France — both in French and in English. It is in the design of practical advice, from hands-on experience, curated to improve operational process and response to the GDPR, which brings the value of these events to the fore: practical advice and insights by privacy pros for privacy pros. Importantly, we will also have regulatory sessions with representatives from the French, Irish and Hesse (Germany) data protection authorities, as well as from the EU level — the European Data Protection Board — to shed light on the regulatory environment and how the regulators are living the post-GDPR world. Solid content from multiple angles.

We are talking France, and so I feel compelled to switch to French for the Francophone among you...

Récemment, avec Yann Padova, country leader de l'IAPP pour la France, nous avons évoqué le fait que cet événement apporte aux professionnels français de la protection de la vie privée une perspective paneuropéenne, voire internationale. Il leur fournit une occasion unique de dialoguer avec leurs pairs sur les principaux défis qu’ils rencontrent dans le domaine, et de partager leur expérience. On peut considérer que c’est une première en France, et certainement le début d'un nouveau chapitre pour l'IAPP.

Les événements de l’IAPP ont toujours une forte dimension internationale, où qu’ils se tiennent. Cela fait partie intégrante de la mission de l'IAPP, qui consiste à faciliter les échanges et une compréhension commune autour du domaine de la protection des données. Cette mission prend une importance grandissante dans le contexte de la vague actuelle de transcendance des frontières à l’échelle mondiale.

Nous n’avons qu’un nombre de places limités, ne tardez donc pas trop à vous inscrire. Yann et moi-même avons hâte de vous accueillir à Paris. Nous espérons que cette nouvelle conférence deviendra très vite un événement récurrent majeur pour la communauté française mais aussi internationale. A bientôt!

Yann Padova, IAPP country leader for France, and I look forward to welcoming you all in Paris, and we are hopeful that this new event will become a popular fixture among the French community and international community alike. See you soon!