1. Who this Code applies to
This Code applies to Council members, chairs, advisors, guests, facilitators, EDC personnel and any partner representative admitted to an EDC Council or related protected working session. EDC may apply the same principles to other private programs.
2. Participate in good faith
- +Come prepared to contribute experience, questions and practical operating perspective rather than only observe or promote an agenda.
- +Engage the issue under discussion and distinguish direct experience from assumption, hearsay or advocacy.
- +Challenge ideas rigorously without personal attacks, intimidation or dismissive conduct.
- +Make reasonable space for disagreement, minority views and differences in organization size, sector, risk appetite and maturity.
- +Do not claim that the Council has reached consensus unless EDC has expressly documented and published such a conclusion.
3. Protect the room
All participants must follow the Participant Confidentiality Standard and any session-specific confidentiality designation.
- +No unauthorized recording, screenshots, photography, transcription, AI note-taking or session capture.
- +No disclosure of who made a protected comment or which organization a protected view came from.
- +No forwarding or republishing private EDC materials outside their intended audience.
- +No attendee-list harvesting, scraping or redistribution.
- +Permission-based follow-up should be the norm when the relationship originates inside a protected EDC program.
4. No pitching, pay-to-play or misuse of access
- +Do not turn Council time into a product demonstration, sales pitch, recruiting campaign or unsolicited commercial presentation.
- +Do not imply that participation provides endorsement by EDC, the Council, another participant or another participant's employer.
- +Partners and providers may contribute relevant expertise when invited, but commercial status does not provide control over participant selection, agenda conclusions or findings.
- +Do not use information learned through EDC to pressure, target or exploit another participant.
5. Competition and competitively sensitive information
EDC may bring together organizations that compete with one another. Participants must continue to make their own independent business decisions and must not use an EDC forum to coordinate conduct that should remain competitively independent.
- +Do not agree or seek agreement on current or future prices, fees, wages, bids, output, market allocation, customer allocation, hiring allocation or other competitively sensitive commercial terms.
- +Do not exchange future competitive intentions where the purpose or likely effect is to coordinate market behavior.
- +Use historical, aggregated, generalized or otherwise appropriately framed information when discussing benchmarks or market practice.
- +If a discussion begins to move toward improper coordination, stop the discussion and alert the facilitator or EDC.
6. Respect legal, regulatory and employer obligations
- +Do not disclose information that you are not authorized to share.
- +Do not disclose material non-public information, personal data, credentials, restricted security information, privileged material, customer-confidential information or another party's trade secrets unless you are authorized to do so and the EDC format is appropriate.
- +Use generalized or hypothetical examples when that is sufficient to communicate the operating lesson.
- +Participation is in an individual professional capacity unless EDC and the participant expressly state otherwise; participation does not automatically bind or represent the participant's employer.
7. Conflicts and interests
Participants should disclose a material commercial, advisory, investment or other interest when it could reasonably affect how others interpret a contribution. Disclosure does not necessarily prevent participation; it allows the room to evaluate the perspective appropriately.
8. Respectful and safe participation
- +Treat participants and EDC personnel with professional respect.
- +Harassment, threats, discriminatory conduct, deliberate humiliation and retaliation for good-faith concerns are inconsistent with EDC participation.
- +Do not knowingly provide false information or materially misrepresent your role, authority, organization or relevant interests.
- +Do not bring an unapproved substitute or guest into a protected Council session.
9. Facilitation and intervention
The chair, facilitator or EDC may redirect or stop a discussion to protect confidentiality, legal compliance, participant safety, time, relevance or the integrity of the Council. A participant who is unsure whether a topic should continue should raise the concern in the moment rather than assume the risk is acceptable.
10. Concerns and consequences
Participants may raise concerns privately with EDC. EDC will seek to respond proportionately and consistently, considering the seriousness of the conduct, intent, impact, repetition and the need to protect the network.
- +Possible responses include clarification, a private warning, correction or deletion of improperly used information, limits on follow-up, removal from a session, suspension or ending future participation.
- +Serious legal, safety, security or integrity concerns may be referred to an appropriate internal, legal or regulatory channel.
- +EDC may act to protect affected participants while a concern is reviewed.
11. Relationship to other EDC standards
This Code works together with the Participant Confidentiality Standard and the Attribution and Publication Standard. Program-specific invitations, written participation terms, privacy notices or agreements may add requirements.
