Choosing the Right Online Registration Partner

Choosing the Right Online Registration Partner: 5 Considerations to Avoid Your Company at Risk

Erin Thompson, metroConnections

It’s an exciting step in the conference and event planning process when attendees start registering. It’s likely your first chance to really wow them with your event branding, but it’s also a huge responsibility. Handling attendees’ personal information, like addresses and credit card data, is something that needs to be taken very seriously – and we at metroConnections treat it as such.

There are five key questions your chosen registration partner should be able to answer ‘yes” to, ensuring your company and attendees aren’t at risk and have the best registration experience possible.

1. Is my registration partner PCI Level 1 compliant? This is a non-negotiable. The important Payment Card Industry (PCI) standard was created to increase controls around cardholder data, reducing credit card fraud. metroConnections only uses trusted registration platforms that are PCI Level 1 compliant in addition to being compliant ourselves. PCI Level 1 compliance is the highest compliance standard within the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). There are four levels total, with each level based on the number of credit card transactions for any given merchant.
2. Is my registration partner GDPR compliant? This is of course extremely important if you are dealing with anyone in the European Union (EU). The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to give individuals control over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU. Nonetheless, make sure your registration partner is up-to-date on the latest. In addition to our trusted platforms being PCI Level 1 compliant, they are fully GDPR compliant as well.
3. Does my registration partner have cybersecurity insurance? Regardless of compliances, regulations and securities, it’s no secret that hackers get smarter every day. There is always the possibility that information could be accessed. You want to be sure your registration partner has a liability policy in place that helps cover any lost information or liability to your company and attendees should this happen, with at minimum a $1 million liability policy.
4. Does my registration partner have internal processes in place to handle the human element of data collection? It’s a reality that there is always a human element to this, but by adhering to processes that ensure ultimate protection – like using cloud-based platforms with data encryption, you can know your information is being safely and securely. At metroConnections, we implement several security protocols including physical security, i.e. locked server rooms and individual passcodes to enter our office space, strict password policies, and of course, up-to-date anti-virus and firewall protections.
5. Will my registration site be designed well? While this could seem like just an added bonus, we take this element very seriously at metroConnections. Our team of designers ensure that the look and feel of your event shines through while attendees navigate the registration process.

It’s important to hire a registration partner that can give you five resounding yeses to all of these questions. At metroConnections, we treat our clients’ data like it’s ours and surround it with extraordinary security and best practices.

Erin Thompson is Vice President of Conference Services for metroConnections. She has more than two decades of experience in conference and event planning and is a dedicated expert in online registration offerings.