Tag Archives: conferences

Our highlights from the European Data Protection Summit

We were among the 300+ delegates in attendance at the European Data Protection Summit last month to take in some great sessions on GDPR, privacy and more.

The two-day event covered GDPR 16 months on from its introduction, privacy in the era of AI and other emerging technologies and tracking cookies and the need for organisations to ensure that they are following lawful process.

Among the key takeaways from the latter session were:

  • Analytics cookies are not ‘strictly necessary’ and so can’t be used without consent;
  • A high level of (GDPR-compliant) consent must be obtained;
  • No cookies should be dropped until that consent has been given and all third parties should be named.

This will have a significant impact on how many organisations operate.

Another key takeaway from the Summit was that many companies have been waiting for the new ePrivacy Regulation before making any changes – but it may never become law in the UK if its date of application falls after the end of any transition period when the UK leaves the EU.

However, the UK will no doubt have to adopt similar rules even if the ePrivacy Regulation does not apply, so it’s important to be prepared and plan for these changes.

For more insights from the event, contact the TLA compliance team.

Design It; Build It Conference – Edinburgh

We’re feeling energised and inspired after two days at the international web design and development conference, Design It; Build It.

The event, held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, featured fantastic talks by experts from innovative brands and organisations including Minecraft, Uber, IBM, AirBnB, RBS, MacMillan Cancer Support and the BBC.

The conference focused on the importance of taking creative risks to produce the best work. Among our highlights were designer and technologist Joshua Davis discussing the role that risk can play in bringing code together with creativity to create art and The Secret Life of Comedy speaking about the need to take risks when creating for the web to make sure things look different.

Other stand outs were designer and photographer Mike Kus discussing what it’s like to be the black sheep and standing out from the crowd; Chris Hammond from IBM sharing how they used human centred design to build something that bettered the world; and the BBC’s David Bailey explaining how their GEL (global experience language) is changing the way they innovate and design.

“Innovation of any kind requires risk, experimentation and occasionally failure.”

The key takeaway from the event was that innovation of any kind requires risk, experimentation and occasionally failure. It revealed that organisations that encourage risk – not just from designers but from all areas of the business – are those able to lead, innovate and succeed.