Our data protection workshop will raise your awareness about the protection of personal data, help you to know the impact on your organisation and find out how to comply and implement the data protection laws in your organisation in a practical and effective way.

Data protection law sets principles for how you can lawfully process personal data. The General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR) is now in force and most organisations around the world have to comply with it. Many countries around the world have also (or are in the process of) enacted their own data protection law. (For example, South Africa has enacted the Protection of Personal Information Act (or POPIA)) You face significant consequences if you fail to comply. There is also a business case for data protection compliance.

Who does data protection affect?

If your organisation processes personal data, complying with data protection law is your problem. particularly affects the financial services, healthcare and marketing sectors as well as large and medium-sized organisations, manufacturers, non-profit organisations, and schools.

Start with a data protection workshop

We understand that you’ll want to take practical and effective action that achieves the best results at the lowest costs. And we also understand that data protection law is a difficult to apply to because it deals with intangible concepts.

So as experts in this area, we believe that the best way for you to start this journey is by attending or a data protection workshop to raise awareness and plan your next steps.

Key outcomes:

  1. Raise your awareness around data protection.
  2. Know the impact on your organisation.
  3. Learn how to take practical and effective action.

This means that by the end of the workshop you’ll:

  • Get up-to-speed quickly and be up-to-date with the latest developments by accessing deep knowledge, expertise and experience.
  • Save time by having an expert guide and coach you through these complex laws.
  • Know the impact on your organisation by doing an impact assessment on your organisation.
  • Know what practical action to take by identifying some quick wins and actions to take first.
  • Find out how to implement data protection in your organisation by gaining key insights into the process.
  • Identify your next steps by exploring the available options.

We offer tailored private events that can be held at your premises or online on a day that suits you.

Contact us to discuss your requirements and we will provide you with a proposal to meet your needs.

The data protection workshop is broken down into nine sessions. We tailor what we cover for each specific event and for the actual attendees of each event.

  • Hello and welcome
  • Introduction
  • Learn to increase awareness
  • Planning successful programmes
  • Protecting personal data – implementing effective and successful data protection projects and programmes.
  • Sustaining compliance
  • Open floor
  • What next?

Please email us and ask for the Data Protection Workshop Agenda if you would like details. This is not an academic workshop for students. It is for people dealing with these issues in their organisations.

When it comes to implementing the data protection laws and regulations (including POPIA and GDPR) – people and organisations often struggle with identifying where to start. What we’ve realised is that:

  • some organisations want to comply themselves (for example, by attending one of our workshops described on this page),
  • others want to comply with our guidance by joining a Michalsons programme, and
  • others want us to do what needs to be done to comply for them by asking us to quote on specific action items.

We want to you to get value out of the investments (both time and money)  you make in training. So we’ve designed a questionnaire that will help us to help you identify the course of action best suited to your organisation. We take into account the potential impact of these laws on your organisation, while factoring in your budget and the resources available to you. So,

before booking data protection training:

please complete our impact assessment questionnaire. It will take you about 4 minutes and there is no charge to you, and we’ll get back to you with suggestions of a way forward, so that you can make an informed choice.

We will provide attendees with:

  • an electronic copy of our comprehensive presentation covering data protection compliance,
  • our Data Protection Mapper and POPI Mapper,
  • a list of Quick Wins,
  • a Key Insights handout and 45-minute video,
  • a few others depending on the event and the attendees,
  • an audio recording of the event (private sessions only).

  • Suffer reputational damage
  • Lose customers and fail to attract new ones
  • Payout millions in damages to a civil class action
  • Be fined
  • Face up to 10 years in jail in some jurisdictions

Your main motivation for complying with data protection laws should be to protect people from harm.

This Data Protection Workshop is for the person (or team) who is responsible for ensuring that the organisation complies with data protection law. For example, this might be the legal adviser, compliance office, information officer or data protection officer.

This Data Protection Workshop is also for managers, leaders, and decision-makers who plan and implement controls to protect personal data. Sometimes called data protection champions. This includes marketing managers, compliance officers, IT managers and IT operators, IT security officers and IT governance officers, HR and payroll managers, or auditors.

Any organisation that processes a lot of personal data. This could be an organisation in the public or private sector (like a bank or a medical aid). The industries that are most affected are financial services, healthcare and marketing. Banks, retailers, credit providers, insurance companies, medical aid companies, hospitals, direct marketers, business process outsources and telcos are some of the organisations on which data protection law has a high impact. The essence of some organisations is the processing of personal information – the impact on them is huge.

  • Years of practical experience in data protection.
  • Interactive sessions where you’re able to ask questions and discuss your specific issues.
  • We provide insight and simplify issues, which can only be done after practically applying POPI to real business issues.
  • We empower you and do not try to entrench ourselves in your organisation.
  • We cover a lot in a single day, saving you time and money.

We have a pool of experienced and practical presenters, including:

  • attorneys from Michalsons, for example John Giles is a trusted independent professional legal adviser, who is a practising attorney.
  • international lawyers from the Lexing Network, for example Frederic Foster from France, Raffaele Zallone from Italy or Marc Gallardo from Spain,
  • representatives from regulators or authorities, or
  • data protection officers or information officers from organisations.

We will ensure the presenters are the best people to present the course depending on the type of course, the date, the specific issues and the attendees. Sometimes, there will be one presenter, others multiple speakers. Our presenters are currently helping many people understand the practical impact of data protection regulations on their organisations. They help them to comply with data protection law and implement effective privacy projects and programmes. They have also presented many times on the topic to thousands of people. They have years of practical experience applying their knowledge to organisations to help them grow and avoid legal problems, difficulties, and disputes.

We provide a data protection workshop, data protection conference or data protection webinar in different formats. Public and private sessions can last for anything from 45 minutes, half a day, a full day or two days. We also provide eCourses that can be done via the Internet at your convenience. We welcome enquiries for more information and details.

Our public events are at various venues around the world. We choose venues that are central and easy to get to, that have adequate parking, good food, and that ensure you are comfortable. We are also happy to give the data protection workshop or executive briefing at your venue.

Feedback from the delegates about the Data Protection workshop

I really enjoyed the format as it was fluid, topical and adapted with the audience and not a standardised workshop; reading out the Act.

Good, easy to understand approach. Liked the Data Privacy vs GDPR only approach – logical.

The workshop demystified a substantial amount of issues and did what it was supposed to “simplify” the law – Much appreciated!

Asset Manager at Property Fund company

So much value. Could be 2 days in depth.

Excellent presenter! Very knowledgable and read his audience needs well.

John was an excellent presenter and he gave me a good overview of the GDPR – thank you, John!

Brillant discussion!

Compliance Officer at Major Bank

John’s presentation was brilliant, very knowledgable and impeccable.

Discovery