GDPR: Turning practical advice into positive action

What's your name?

Marc Michaels

What position do you hold?

Director of Strategy and Insight at Paragon Customer Communications

How long have you held the position?

Four years

What are your day-to-day responsibilities?

I manage the planning, analytics and creative teams and as an SME head the GDPR services we deploy on behalf of clients

What is your professional background?

26 years in central government in direct marketing, 10 years of that as Director of Direct and Relationship Marketing and Evaluation at the UK's Central Office of Information

5 years at Paragon (formerly DST) in position shown above, though was also acting MD for 1.5 years

Freelance marketing consultant and graphic designer

Tell me about yourself away from work?

Author, illustrator, presenter, academic studies (considering a PhD)

Tell us something very few people know about you?

I'm a scribe who writes and restores ancient manuscript on parchment with a quill

You are speaking at our GDPR Summit in April. What are you speaking about?

The practical implications of GDPR and how companies can understand what it means in practice and prepare for it (gaining consent, how to rely on legitimate interest, direct mail and print, re-permissioning cascade and approaches, preference centres, breach notification)

What will be the impact for marketeers?

Practical advice about turning the regulations and guidance into positive action that will assist them in being compliant

What challenges do you see for organisations implementing the new regulations?

Getting senior management buy-in

Getting sufficient budget set aside to take practical steps

Moving away from talking about it to practical action when all the guidance is not available and the forthcoming e-privacy regulations may overturn some existing thought

Specific difficulties over B2B and myths concerning B2C comms

Being brave enough to recognise that quality of data is better than quantity and using GDPR as a positive reset point

Marc Michaels will be speaking at The GDPR Summit. The agenda and further details for this important national event at Croke Park on April 12th, are available atwww.gdpr18.com