Technology and Meetings: The Issue of Privacy

Recently I had the privilege of being a committee member for the 2010 MPI Southeast Education Conference hosted by the Tampa Bay MPI chapter. Each year one of the four Florida chapters hosts this education event and this past August it was held at an amazing property, the Hyatt Regency Coconut Grove in Bonita Springs. This year a new technology was used by the attendees called Spotme. This is an electronic device that is a participant management tool, a networking device and does other interesting and some may say cool things.

I truly enjoyed meeting the folks who supported this device and who were extremely helpful in answering questions and taking care of issues that came up. This particular posting is not to give them the limelight nor is it to show the negative side of this device but it is simply to discuss one issue that we as meeting professionals need to be aware of and address prior to any event. In fact, this issue applies to any technology we use for any meeting, conference or event.

First of all let me cover some of the wonderful things that can be done with a device like Spotme.

You can be very green and use the device for exchanging electronic business cards. You also can have the entire agenda, a map of the conference area and bios of your speakers along with any handouts right at your fingertips. If you want to meet someone specific who is attending, you can use the device to alert you when that person is in the neighborhood (10 feet or so). You can also use a general radar function to let you know who is nearby that you may want to meet but did not realize at the time. These are just some of the very interesting things a device like Spotme can do for you and your attendees.

So let’s look at my big concern

Privacy: As I mentioned, you can have your device alert you if a specific person is nearby that you want to meet. That is terrific unless you are a meeting planner that is in the midst of a site selection for a huge piece of business and sales folks from the different properties you are looking at decide they need to talk your ear off about their property. For women (and I guess men too although it is not as prevalent), there is the issue of actual stalking. The device is supposed to limit your knowledge of the whereabouts of folks, but as a test, I took mine to my room and then walking the hallway, I used the general radar function, I was able to see certain names that were on the same floor as I walked up and down both in the early morning and late at night. Now it will not give you a specific room, but when I mentioned this to a female friend who was attending, she told me she placed her device as far from the door as she could to limit this issue.

So, what can we do as professionals? Ensure you have specific knowledge of what a device like this can and can’t do. If the device can locate attendees, then determine what can be done to protect the privacy of the individual. Make sure that each attendee who receives the device has been told of the features like the radar system. Some companies like Spotme say they can turn off this function at a specific time. Ensure that can be done and test it to make sure that the timing is correct. In addition, determine responses to issues that may come up regarding the use of this type of device for purposes like I described above. If someone is stalking another attendee and there is a complaint, have a plan in place with the vendor to resolve the issue.

In this era of identification theft, it is imperative that we as professionals understand the technology we are employing and what it can do to infringe on the privacy of our attendees. Don’t let this stop you from using devices such as the one I mentioned above, but just ensure that you understand the risks that comes with this type of technology.