Registration data, Lyyti and your networking tool: who holds what

When an event uses a registration system for sign-ups and a separate tool for networking, two sets of personal data exist for the same people. This article maps what moves from one to the other, who is responsible for each copy, and what is deleted and when. It uses Lyyti as the example because it is the registration system many Finnish organizers use. Kohtaa does not sync with Lyyti: it accepts a CSV upload of your export, and the rest of this article follows from that.

Why do registration and networking usually live in different tools?

They do different jobs, and organisations buy them separately. A registration system handles tickets, forms, payments and confirmations. A networking tool helps people find each other once they are in the room. Few organisers want to replace the first to get the second.

Registration is usually decided years earlier and wired into other systems: a customer database, invoicing, communications. It holds the formal record of who signed up. A networking tool, by contrast, is chosen per event or per programme. It holds what attendees choose to share with each other: a role, a company, what they are looking for.

That difference matters for data. The registration record is the organiser's, collected for the organiser's own purposes. The networking profile is created by the attendee, for the other attendees. Keeping them apart is often the right design, and the question is only how to move from one to the other with as little retyping and as little copying as possible.

What moves from registration to the networking tool?

Only what you choose to upload, and you can choose to upload nothing. There are two routes: share the join link in your registration confirmation email, or upload your registration export as a CSV so each person receives a one-tap invitation. Kohtaa has no direct sync with Lyyti.

Route 1: the link. Add the join link and QR code to the confirmation and reminder emails. Attendees sign in, fill in a short profile and join. Nothing from your registration data enters Kohtaa. This is the simplest route, and it is what you should choose unless you have a reason to do otherwise.

Route 2: the upload. On the event's Access tab, the organizer uploads the participant export (from Lyyti or any other CSV). Kohtaa sends each valid row an email with a one-tap join link, and stores one invitation record per person per event: name, email address and organisation. When the person joins, their name and organisation are prefilled from that record, so they do not retype them.

Here is what Kohtaa does not do. It does not log in to your registration system. It does not pull data automatically. It does not push anything back. If you add late registrations, you export and upload again. A direct sync with Lyyti is not built; if you need it, that is worth saying to us, so we know it matters.

Who is the controller of each copy?

The controller is whoever decides why and how a copy of the data is processed. Your registration list remains yours, under your own notice and your own registration system. In the networking tool, the attendees' accounts and profiles are Kohtaa's responsibility as controller, under its privacy policy.

In plain terms, you have two copies and two responsibilities:

• The registration copy sits in your registration system. You decided to collect it, you wrote the notice attendees saw when they registered, and you remain responsible for it.
• The invitation list is the part you chose to upload. You made the decision to share it with Kohtaa so each person could be invited, and that decision should be covered by what your registration notice tells people. Check that it is, with your own data-protection contact, before you upload.
• The networking profile is created by the attendee in Kohtaa. For events where the buyer collects no personal data itself, Kohtaa is the controller, and the privacy policy governs. For buyers who need to hold the controller seat, a data processing agreement is available on request.

We describe roles; we do not give legal conclusions. If your organisation asks for a specific arrangement for the uploaded list, put the question to us in writing and we will answer it in writing.

The same question for any vendor is worth asking: who is the controller of the list I upload, and what do they do with it? The longer answer for public buyers is in GDPR for event networking apps.

What happens to an uploaded list after the event?

The invitation list is deleted or anonymised 7 days after the event ends. Names and organisations of people who joined are removed when they join. Rows for people who never joined are deleted whole. A joined row that remains has no name and an undeliverable placeholder address.

The details, in order:

1. When a person joins: the uploaded name and organisation are deleted from their invitation record in the same step. Their own profile, which they edited, is separate.
2. Seven days after the event ends: every invitation for people who never joined is deleted. The clock runs from the end of the event's last day, and the job runs every 30 minutes, so deletion lands shortly after that point, not to the minute.
3. Same run, for people who joined: the invitation's email address is replaced with a placeholder that cannot receive mail, and any names are cleared. What stays is the event, the status "joined" and timestamps, which is what lets the organizer see how many invitations led to a join.
4. If you delete the event, its invitation records are deleted too. If a person erases their account, every invitation record under their email is deleted as well.

The limit is the one to state when someone asks. It is not accurate to say that everything is deleted: an anonymous joined row remains. Test events and events run by test accounts are skipped by the scheduled run; real events are covered.

Does Kohtaa sync with Lyyti?

No. Kohtaa has no Lyyti API sync. What exists is a CSV upload of the export file you download from your registration system, with the retention rules above. Today the choice is the link in your confirmation email, or the upload.

We say this plainly because the other claim is easy to make and easy to believe. Lyyti is a registration system. Kohtaa does not connect to it, and no data from Kohtaa goes back into a registration system or a customer database. If your own process requires registration data to be handled inside a particular system, the safest route is the link: nothing from your registration list is copied into Kohtaa at all, and attendees create their own profiles.

If a direct sync matters to your organisation, tell us. It is not promised, and we would rather hear what organisers need than guess.

What to do today, as a checklist:

• Decide whether you need the upload at all. Most events do not.
• If you do upload, check that your registration notice covers sharing the list with the networking tool.
• Remove columns you do not need before you upload. Name, email and organisation are what the invitation uses.
• Tell attendees what the event link does, and where to read the data notice.
• After the event, expect the invitation list to be deleted or anonymised after 7 days.

Questions about the procurement side are answered on the procurement page, and the privacy policy is at /privacy. For a conversation about your own setup, contact us.