Last Updated: January 2022

The GSC conference is organized by Genomic Standards Consortium, an open, community organization dedicated to making genomic data discoverable. The GSC is committed to fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and respective environment. All attendees, speakers, organizers and exhibitors/sponsors at GSC events (hereafter known as “attendees”) are expected to abide by this Code of Conduct.

Respectful behavior towards all attendees at all times. We will not tolerate harassment or intimidation of any person, whether verbal, physical, or written (including on social media or by email). This includes, but is not limited to:

• Offensive or unwanted comments on any protected characteristic, or any other personal attribute
• Unjustified use of sexual images
• Sustained interruption of speakers or of those asking questions
• Unwanted photography or filming. Please respect the wishes of speakers who do not want their slides photographed or shared on social media
• Violence, threats of violence or violent language aimed at another individual
• Bullying
• Inappropriate physical contact or invasion of personal space
• Unwelcome sexual attention, including inappropriate verbal and physical attention
• Encouraging any of the above behavior

Be aware that certain language and images can offend groups and cultures different from your own. If you have any doubt about whether specific content in your presentations could be misinterpreted, we recommend removing it.

If you are aware of any violations of the code of conduct, toward yourself or others, please contact a member of the steering committee as soon as possible.

It is also expected that all attendees will abide by the local laws, rules, regulations, health and safety protocols stipulated by the hosting site or local government, with particular reference to any COVID related rules that may change at short notice.

We reserve the right and shall be entitled to make changes to the conference at any time without liability to you, including without limitation in respect of the advertised content, timings on the day, date, format, venue and/or location of the conference or the advertised speakers. We will keep you informed of any such changes from time to time.

We reserve the right and shall be entitled, in our sole discretion, to cancel or postpone the date of the conference. We shall give notice of our decision to cancel or postpone the conference via the conference website. No reimbursement of any expenses incurred will be made to participants either in person or virtual.

Presenters are strongly encouraged to place all content under a CC0 waiver, but attendees should not assume all content is open.

While we intend to make as much content as possible openly accessible, all rights in all presentations, documentation (include the conference website) and materials published or otherwise made available as part of the conference (including but not limited to any documentation packs or audio or audio-visual recording of the conference) (“Content”) are owned by the presenter and are included with the permission of the owner of the rights.

No (i) photography, filming or recording; or (ii) republication, broadcast or other dissemination of the Content is permitted without the express permission of the content owner.

You shall not distribute, reproduce, modify, store, transfer or in any other way use any of the Content without the express permission of the content owner.

To the extent that any Content is made available by us online we reserve the right to suspend or remove access to such Content at any time.

We shall not be liable for any hindrance, failure or delay in the conference as a result of an event or series of connected events beyond our reasonable control (including, without limitation, acts of God, extreme weather conditions, power failure, floods, lightning, storm, fire, explosion, war, riot, civil commotion, military operations, acts or threats of terrorism, malicious damage, strike action, lock-outs or other industrial action (whether involving our workforce or the workforce of any other party), default of suppliers or sub-contractors, compliance with any law or governmental order, rule regulation or direction, accident, failure or breakdown of plant, machinery, systems or vehicles, or a pandemic, epidemic, civil emergency or other widespread illness) (“Force Majeure Event”).

In the event of a Force Majeure Event, we shall be entitled, without liability, to vary, suspend, postpone or cancel the conference. We will not be liable for any attendees travel, accomodation or other expenses associated with the meeting.

Please find below the data privacy policy which sets out how we use and protect any personal information provided and forms part of our terms and conditions.

By disclosing your personal information to us when using our web site, or in writing, you consent to the collection, storage and processing of your personal information as outlined in this Policy. No e-mail address or contact details will be displayed without your prior consent.

What do we do with your personal information?

We may need to collect information about you to process the registration and provide you with the services you expect. This information may include details such as your name, address/location, e-mail address, and organisational affiliatin.

We will only disclose personal data to third parties if this is required for the purpose of completing your transaction with us, or if we are legally required to do so.

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes unless you specifically consent to us sharing your details with our event sponsors.

Your data will be stored in a google-form only accessible by the event organisers and members of the Genomic Standards Consortium board.

Your data will be used to contact you with details of the event before, during and after the event date.

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement.