Conference

The International Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners Conference was established in 1979 and convenes once a year. In recent years, the Conference has grown into a one week event, comprising an Open Session accessible to all privacy professionals, a Closed Session only accessible to data protection and privacy authorities, as well as several side meetings organised by international and non-governmental organisations. It was decided that the Closed Session would form the main part of the Conference. It is left up to the discretion of the Hosting Authority – elected in the previous year by the membership of the Conference – to organise an Open Session as well. During the International Conference, all issues related to data protection and privacy can be discussed. Generally, the Open Session of the Conference consists of two days of meetings, both in plenary and break out sessions, on a number of topics related to a central theme. Since the Closed Session comprises one and a half days of meetings, of which a full day is devoted to an internal discussion between data protection and privacy authorities on a single topic. For both the Open and the Closed Session, expert speakers are invited by the Conference organisation and / or the Executive Committee to give keynote speeches.