PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP
In-Person Events
Professional Membership includes four in-person events each year in addition to the two monthly virtual Working Sessions.
- Signature events during major privacy conference weeks (spring in Washington, DC, fall on the West Coast)
- Privacy Group Therapy in the San Francisco Bay Area
- One additional event shaped by member locations and opportunities during the year
All Professional Members will be invited to each in-person event. Some events will also include selected members of The Privacy Pro network, such as regulators, academics, advisors, clients, and other people with relevant experience or perspective. Guest policies will vary by event, and some events will allow members to bring a guest.
Get more out of the conference weeks you are already attending.
Two of the four annual events will be held around major IAPP conferences, generally the day before. In 2027, the spring event will take place before the IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., and the fall event will be adjacent to the IAPP PSR in Vancouver, B.C.
These are social events such as dinners, lunches, drinks, or happy hours, not additional conference programming. They are designed to fit naturally into a trip members may already be taking and make the time and money spent on that week more valuable.
For many experienced privacy professionals, the most useful part of a conference week is not necessarily another panel. It is catching up with people you rarely see in person, meeting someone you have only known through email or LinkedIn, getting introduced to someone whose work overlaps with yours, or finally having the conversation that never quite happens on a video call.
Instead of hoping the right people happen to be in the same lobby or at the same reception, members already have one dedicated gathering on the calendar with time to catch up, make introductions, and have conversations that are difficult to fit into the conference itself.
Privacy Group Therapy is exactly what it sounds like.
Building on the success of Privacy Group Therapy events in 2025, Professional Membership will bring the format back each year and open it to a broader group of experienced privacy professionals.
Privacy Group Therapy started with a workshop in San Francisco for privacy professionals dealing with difficult mobile app privacy issues. As people introduced themselves, compared experiences, and talked candidly about what they were dealing with, someone commented that it was starting to feel a little like group therapy. The name stuck.
That first conversation led to a larger retreat in the Berkeley Hills, where a group of in-house privacy professionals spent the day talking about the work alongside lunch, yoga, soap-making, and time to actually get to know one another.
Privacy Group Therapy creates space for the parts of privacy work that rarely make it onto a conference stage: what has been difficult, what has gone wrong, what people are still figuring out, and what they have learned from doing it. Future events will build on that same mix of candid professional discussion and a genuinely enjoyable day together.
LAUNCHING NOVEMBER 2026
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In-Person Events FAQ
Answers to common questions about the In-Person Events included in The Privacy Pro Professional Membership.-
The events are small, hosted gatherings: dinners, lunches, drinks, or happy hours with a guest list Lauren thoughtfully curates. They suit privacy professionals who want real conversation with a handful of interesting people and have little patience for crowded receptions.
If you are an introvert, find big events overstimulating, or wince at the word "networking," these were planned with you in mind. Nobody has to work the room or shout over the noise. You can sit down, settle in, and talk with people long enough to get past the small talk.
Lauren thinks carefully about who is invited, where each event happens, and how the room is set up. Small numbers and a comfortable setting give conversations room to go somewhere. You might leave with a new friend, someone you can call about a problem at work, or an introduction you would not have gotten otherwise.
The people who enjoy these events tend to be experienced practitioners. They have sat through plenty of conference sessions. They know the conversations around a conference often matter more than the program itself. They would rather have three good conversations than collect thirty business cards.
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Privacy Group Therapy is an annual retreat in the San Francisco Bay Area for experienced privacy professionals, hosted by The Privacy Pro and sometimes partner organizations. Chief Privacy Officers and senior privacy leaders spend a day away from the conference circuit talking candidly about the hardest parts of the job and helping each other with them. The Privacy Pro Professional Members will have access to the event as part of their membership.
The format began in 2025. A small group of CPOs and senior privacy leaders met in San Francisco to talk about mobile app privacy. As they went around the room sharing what they were dealing with, one person said, "This feels a bit like group therapy, and I'm here for it." The name stuck, and so did the idea.
A few months later, The Privacy Pro, along with AppCensus and Orrick, co-hosted a full-day retreat in the Berkeley Hills. The day included yoga, a catered lunch, soap-making, and open conversation about the pressures of privacy work. People made new connections and stepped up to help each other with problems they were facing.
Those problems are common across the profession. Privacy teams keep taking on more responsibility with fewer resources. Privacy Group Therapy gives the people carrying that load a place to talk with peers who understand it.
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The spring event takes place around the IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, DC which is March 23024, 2027.
The fall event takes place around the IAPP Privacy.Security.Risk + AI Governance Global which will take place in Vancouver, BC, Canada from September 14-17, 2027.
Both are generally held the day before the conference, so they fit into a trip you may already be taking.
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Every Professional Member is invited to every event. Some events also include people from The Privacy Pro network, such as regulators, academics, advisors, clients, and others with relevant experience. You meet people beyond the membership, in a room that is still carefully put together.
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All four events are included in the Professional Membership fee. Members pay nothing extra to attend. Travel, accommodation, and any conference registration are separate.
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Guest policies vary by event. Some events allow members to bring a guest.
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Most private dinners and receptions at privacy conferences are hosted by think tanks, software vendors, and law firms. Invitations usually go to their clients, speakers, and senior people who hold executive titles. If you don't fit those groups, The Privacy Pro Professional Membership is one way in. Members are invited to four in-person events each year, including two held around major IAPP conferences, at no extra charge.
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Invitations tend to follow budgets and visibility. If your company spends money with software vendors and law firms, or you speak on panels, the invitations come. If you don't, you can attend the same conference and never hear about the dinners happening around it. Lauren Reid, founder of The Privacy Pro, got into those rooms early in her career because she worked for large organizations and software vendors. The Privacy Pro Professional Membership offers that invitation to people without a big logo behind them.
Professional Membership Benefits