The DTC AperitivoBack to the event

Terms and Conditions

Effective 20 August 2026 . Version 1.6

#Terms and Conditions

The DTC Aperitivo, dtcaperitivo.com

Zipchat Inc. 407 E Ayre St #1207 Wilmington, Delaware DE 19804 United States

Contact: legal@dtcaperitivo.com

Effective date: 20 August 2026 Version: 1.6

These are the terms on which Zipchat Inc. ("Zipchat", "we", "us") operates dtcaperitivo.com and runs The DTC Aperitivo events.

One document governs everyone. There is no separate set of terms for guests and another for co-hosts. Section 4 applies to guests, Section 5 applies to co-hosts, and everything else applies to both.

You accept these terms when you tick the box on the registration form, when you accept an invitation and set a password for a co-host account, which is the one and only point at which a co-host is asked, or when you attend an edition. If you do not accept them, do not register and do not attend.

Platform means the website at dtcaperitivo.com, including the public event pages, the registration form and the invite-only portal.

Event or The DTC Aperitivo means the series of evening networking events organised by Zipchat alongside ecommerce industry conferences.

Edition means one specific occurrence of the Event, identified by its city and date, for example the London edition of 23 September 2026.

Host means Zipchat, which hosts every Edition.

Co-Host means a company that has been invited by Zipchat, has agreed a fee for a co-host slot at a named Edition, and has paid it.

Guest means an individual who registers for, is admitted to, or attends an Edition.

Guest Data means the name, work email address, phone number, company name, company website, category of activity and inviting Co-Host of a Guest of an Edition, excluding any Guest who has objected to their details being passed to the Co-Hosts. Email addresses and phone numbers form part of it only from the release time in section 5.7.

Event IP means everything described in Section 3.1.

Marketing Materials means the invitations, flyers, social assets, email templates, landing page assets and any other promotional material Zipchat produces for an Edition.

Zipchat Inc. owns, exclusively and in full:

  • the name "The DTC Aperitivo" and any variant of it, together with all goodwill in it
  • the domain dtcaperitivo.com and any related domain
  • the logo, the spritz mark, the icon set, the wordmark and its typographic treatment
  • the design, layout, structure, source code, copy, photography, illustration and imagery of the Platform
  • the design and copy of the Marketing Materials, the invitation formats, the email templates and the social assets
  • the format, structure and concept of the Event, and the Editions
  • the guest list of every Edition, as a compiled database, subject always to the rights of the individuals in it
  • every derivative, adaptation, translation and future version of any of the above

Nothing on the Platform and nothing in these terms transfers, assigns or licenses any ownership of Event IP to a Guest, a Co-Host, a venue, a conference organiser or anyone else. Any goodwill generated in the Event IP by a Co-Host's use of it accrues to Zipchat.

For the term of its co-host slot, Zipchat grants each paid Co-Host a licence that is limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable, to use the name "The DTC Aperitivo", the Event logo and the Marketing Materials for the sole purpose of promoting the Edition it is a Co-Host of.

Conditions of that licence:

  • use the assets as supplied, without altering, redrawing, recolouring, stretching, cropping the mark, or combining it into a new mark
  • do not use the Event IP to promote anything other than that Edition
  • do not state or imply that the Co-Host is a partner, reseller, affiliate, agent or joint venturer of Zipchat, or that Zipchat endorses the Co-Host's products or services
  • do not register or attempt to register the name, the logo, a confusingly similar mark, or any related domain or social handle, anywhere in the world
  • do not use the Event IP after the Edition has taken place, other than to refer factually and in the past tense to having co-hosted it
  • the licence ends immediately if the slot is terminated, and the Co-Host must then remove the assets from its channels within 7 days of being asked

By taking a slot, a Co-Host grants Zipchat a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty free licence to use its company name, logo, tagline, description and website on the Platform, in the Marketing Materials, in invitations, in emails and in social posts, for the purpose of promoting and reporting on the Edition, and afterwards to refer factually to that company having been a Co-Host of it, including in recaps and case studies.

The Co-Host warrants that it owns or is licensed to grant these rights, and that the assets it uploads do not infringe anyone's rights and are not unlawful.

If you send us suggestions about the Event or the Platform, we may use them freely with no obligation to you.

Submitting the form asks for a place. It does not create one. Places are limited by the capacity of the venue and we curate the room so that the evening is useful, which means we prioritise ecommerce brands, agencies, and ecommerce software and app teams.

We may decline any registration, at our discretion, and we do not have to give a reason. Declining is not a breach of these terms and gives rise to no compensation. Entry is free of charge, so no refund can arise.

A confirmed place is personal to you and cannot be transferred, sold or passed to a colleague. Ask your colleague to register separately.

Read the Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms. In short:

  • We use your details to run the guest list and to email you the venue and event logistics.
  • We may use your contact details for our own marketing about future editions and about Zipchat, and you can object at any time.
  • We pass your name, work email, phone number, company, website, category and who invited you to the Co-Hosts of your Edition, because that is how the Edition is funded. Your email address and phone number are not released to them until three hours after the evening ends, and they are not allowed to contact you about their own products before then. This is explained on the registration form and in section 5.3 of the Privacy Policy, and you can object at any time and at no cost, which we will always honour. We never pass on the name of a plus one.
  • If we decline your registration, or you do not attend, we still keep and may still use your contact details as described above until you tell us to stop.
  • The Event serves alcohol. You must be of legal drinking age in the country where the Edition is held, which is 18 in the United Kingdom. The venue may ask for identification and may refuse service at its discretion.
  • Please drink responsibly and arrange your own way home. Neither Zipchat nor any Co-Host is responsible for how you get there or back.
  • Behave decently. We will refuse entry to, or remove, anyone who harasses, threatens, or abuses another attendee, the venue's staff, or anyone else, and we do not have to refund or compensate anything.
  • The venue is operated by a third party, not by Zipchat. You are subject to the venue's own rules while you are in it. Zipchat is not the occupier of the premises.
  • You attend at your own risk. Look after your own belongings.
  • We may photograph or film at an Edition and may use those images to promote the Event and Zipchat. If you do not want to appear, tell a member of the Zipchat team on the night or write to privacy@dtcaperitivo.com and we will not use images in which you are identifiable.

We describe the kind of people we invite. We do not promise that any particular company, person or number of people will attend, and nothing we say about the expected audience is a contractual commitment to you.

A slot exists when Zipchat has invited a company, the fee and the Edition are stated in the portal, and the fee has been paid. Until the fee is paid the slot is not confirmed and Zipchat may offer it to someone else.

The fee is a contribution towards the costs of the Edition, principally the bar, the Marketing Materials and the invitations. It is not the purchase of goods or of advertising inventory, and it is not a guarantee of any commercial outcome.

For the Edition it has paid for:

  1. its logo, company name and one line tagline on that Edition's page on dtcaperitivo.com
  2. its logo on the Marketing Materials for that Edition
  3. to be named as a co-host in invitations and announcements for that Edition
  4. the right to invite its own contacts, and to distribute Zipchat-supplied invitations
  5. access, through the portal, to the Guest Data for that Edition, excluding any Guest who has objected. Names, companies and websites are visible as soon as people register. Email addresses and phone numbers are released three hours after the Edition ends, for the reason given in section 5.7
  6. attendance at the Edition for the number of its team members stated in the portal, and if no number is stated, four
  7. access to the marketing material pack for that Edition
  8. an account in the portal, showing its own listing, its own amount due and its own payment status

For the avoidance of doubt, a slot does not include: exclusivity of any kind; category or sector exclusivity; the right to prevent a competitor being a Co-Host of the same or a later Edition; a speaking slot, a stage, a microphone or a presentation; branding on the venue beyond what Zipchat produces; the production, printing, shipping or setup of any physical material of the Co-Host's own, which is dealt with in section 5.11; the guest list of any other Edition; the records of any Guest who has objected to sharing; the name of any Guest's plus one; any information about any other Co-Host's fee, payment status or performance; any ownership of Event IP; or the right to resell, sublicense, syndicate or share any of the above.

  • The fee, the currency and the due date are shown in the portal. Payment instructions are provided by Zipchat.
  • Payment is due before the Edition and by the due date shown. If it is not paid by then, Zipchat may withdraw the slot and offer it to another company.
  • Fees are exclusive of any tax, duty or bank charge. The Co-Host is responsible for any withholding or transfer cost, and must gross up so that Zipchat receives the stated amount.
  • Except as expressly set out in Section 8.2, fees are non-refundable.

An Edition works because every Co-Host brings people to it. How a Co-Host does that is up to the Co-Host. Zipchat does not set targets, does not impose deadlines and does not ask for proof.

What is expected is that a Co-Host does what it reasonably can with the channels it has: tell its own contacts, post about the Edition, hand out invitations if it is at the associated conference. Zipchat supplies the Marketing Materials, the invitations and suggested copy in reasonable time before each Edition so that this costs the Co-Host as little effort as possible.

There is no minimum, no reporting obligation and no audit.

There is no financial consequence. Zipchat does not retain any part of the fee for a lack of promotion. A Co-Host that promotes nothing keeps its slot, its logo, its listing, its guest list and everything else set out in section 5.2 for that Edition.

What Zipchat keeps is its discretion about the future. Slots at later Editions are offered at Zipchat's choice, as section 5.1 makes clear, and a company that took a slot and brought nobody is unlikely to be offered another. Zipchat may also leave a Co-Host out of a recap or write up of an Edition. Neither of those is a penalty, neither is a breach of these terms by either party, and neither gives rise to a refund or to a claim.

The guest list of your Edition is yours to work with, and Zipchat is not going to police how you run your own marketing. Three things are not negotiable, because they are what makes it lawful for us to hand it to you at all.

1. Not before the event. You may not contact a Guest about your own products or services until the Edition has taken place. Contact details are deliberately withheld: names, companies and websites are visible to you from the moment people register, and email addresses and phone numbers are released three hours after the Edition ends. Before then the list exists so that you know who is coming, not so that you can get in first. A room that has been emailed by four sponsors before anyone has had a drink is a room that stops signing up.

2. Say where you got it. The first time you contact a Guest, tell them you co-hosted The DTC Aperitivo. A line as simple as "thanks for coming to The DTC Aperitivo, which we co-hosted with Zipchat" is enough. Nobody should receive a message from you and have to wonder how you got their details.

3. Yours to market with, not to sell. Use the Guest Data to market and communicate about your own products and services. Do not sell, rent or licence it, and do not pass it to anyone outside your own company.

Beyond those three, the ordinary rules apply. You are an independent controller of what you receive and you are responsible for your own compliance with the marketing and privacy laws that apply to the person you are contacting, including as relevant the GDPR, the UK GDPR, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, CAN-SPAM, CASL and United States state privacy laws. Identify yourself accurately, give a working opt-out and honour it. Action any opt-out or deletion request within five working days, whether it reaches you directly or we pass it on. If you are established outside the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom you will need Standard Contractual Clauses in place with us before contact details are released to you.

Consequence of breach. A breach of point 1, 2 or 3 is a material breach. Zipchat may terminate the slot immediately and exclude the Co-Host from future Editions.

The fee amounts, the payment status of any Co-Host and the commercial terms of any slot are confidential. A Co-Host shall not disclose them, except to its own employees and advisers who need to know and who are bound to equivalent confidentiality, or where compelled by law. This obligation survives for three years after the Edition. The Guest Data is not covered by this section: it is yours to work with within the limits of section 5.7.

#5.9 Co-Host content

A Co-Host is responsible for what it uploads. Logos must be PNG or WEBP files of one megabyte or less. We do not accept SVG files, for security reasons. Content published through the portal appears on the public Edition page without prior approval, so the Co-Host must make sure it is accurate, lawful, its own to use, and not offensive. Zipchat may remove or unpublish any Co-Host content at any time, at its discretion, and will say why if asked.

Nothing in these terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise or employment relationship between Zipchat and any Co-Host. Neither party may bind the other or incur any obligation on the other's behalf.

Section 5.2 covers the Marketing Materials that Zipchat produces, which are the invitations, the digital assets and the material pack. Anything physical a Co-Host wants at the venue is the Co-Host's own job.

If a Co-Host wants its own flyers, a roll up banner, a pull up stand, printed cards, product samples, branded glassware, a giveaway or anything else of its own at an Edition, then the Co-Host prepares it, pays for it, brings it, sets it up and takes it away again. Zipchat does not design it, print it, ship it, store it, carry it or dispose of it. The only exception is where a specific item is named in writing as something Zipchat will handle, and in that case only that named item is covered and nothing else is implied.

Practical conditions:

  • Tell Zipchat in advance what you intend to bring. Space at an evening bar is limited and the venue has the final say on what comes through the door.
  • Zipchat may refuse or remove anything that does not fit the space, blocks access or an exit, breaks the venue's rules, or conflicts with the Event branding.
  • Anything left behind after an Edition may be disposed of. Zipchat is not responsible for a Co-Host's property being lost, damaged or taken.
  • Nothing a Co-Host brings may carry the Event name or marks except as the licence in section 3.2 allows.
  • The portal is invite only. There is no public sign up, and accounts are created only by Zipchat inviting an email address.
  • An account is personal. Do not share your credentials, and do not let anyone else use your account. Tell us at once if you think it has been compromised.
  • You are responsible for everything done through your account.
  • Activity in the portal, in particular access to guest lists, is logged.
  • Zipchat may suspend or terminate an account at any time, in particular where a slot ends, where a person leaves the Co-Host company, or where these terms are breached.

You shall not: scrape, crawl or harvest the Platform or any guest list; access it by any automated means; attempt to circumvent rate limits, authentication or authorisation; probe, scan or test its security; attempt to access data that is not yours; upload malicious code or a file designed to execute in a browser; reverse engineer it; use it to send unsolicited bulk messages; or use it in any way that breaks the law.

Zipchat may change the venue, the date, the start time, the duration or the format of an Edition. The venue of an Edition may be unconfirmed at the time you register or take a slot, and will be communicated by email once booked. A change of venue within the same city, or a change of start time, is not a cancellation and does not entitle anyone to a refund.

If Zipchat cancels an Edition entirely and does not run a replacement Edition in the same city within six months, each Co-Host that has paid may choose either a full refund of its fee, or a credit against a future Edition. That is the whole of Zipchat's liability for a cancellation. Guests are not entitled to any compensation, because entry is free.

Neither party is liable for a failure to perform caused by something outside its reasonable control, including an act of government, a public health measure, industrial action, the failure or closure of a venue, the cancellation of the associated conference, a transport shutdown, fire, flood, or a failure of a telecommunications or hosting provider. If such an event prevents an Edition, Section 8.2 applies.

The Platform is provided as it is and as available. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error free, or secure against every threat.

We do not guarantee outcomes. Any figure we mention about expected attendance, the size of the room, the mix of the audience, the number of leads, or the commercial value of a slot is an estimate and a target. It is not a warranty, a representation or a contractual commitment, and no Co-Host may rely on it as one. The number of Guests who consent to their details being shared is outside Zipchat's control, because that consent is theirs to give or refuse, and Zipchat gives no assurance about how many will do so.

To the fullest extent the law allows, we exclude all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

Subject to that:

  • Neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business, anticipated saving, goodwill or data, however caused.
  • Zipchat's total liability to a Co-Host, on any basis, is capped at the total fees that Co-Host paid to Zipchat in the twelve months before the claim arose.
  • Zipchat's total liability to a Guest, on any basis, is capped at one hundred United States dollars (USD 100), reflecting that a Guest pays nothing.
  • Zipchat is not liable for anything a Co-Host does or fails to do, including what it does with Guest Data after receiving it, and is not liable for the acts or omissions of a venue, a conference organiser or another attendee.
  • Neither the cap on a Co-Host's liability nor the exclusions above limit a Co-Host's obligation to pay fees, its liability under Section 5.7, or its indemnity under Section 11.

Each Co-Host shall indemnify Zipchat, and its officers, employees and agents, against any claim, demand, regulatory action, fine, loss, damage, cost and reasonable legal fee arising out of or in connection with:

  • the Co-Host's use, misuse or disclosure of Guest Data, or its breach of Section 5.7
  • the content the Co-Host supplies or publishes, including any claim that it infringes a third party's rights
  • the Co-Host's use of the Event IP outside the licence in Section 3.2
  • the Co-Host's breach of these terms or of any applicable law

These terms apply for as long as you use the Platform, and in respect of a Co-Host slot until the later of the Edition taking place and the completion of the obligations in Section 5.7.

Either party may terminate a slot for the other's material breach that is not remedied within 14 days of written notice. Zipchat may terminate immediately for a breach of Section 5.7 or Section 7.

Sections 3, 5.7, 5.8, 9, 10, 11, 13 and 14 survive termination.

These terms, and any dispute arising out of them or out of an Edition, are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

The state and federal courts located in New Castle County, Delaware have exclusive jurisdiction, and each party submits to that jurisdiction and waives any objection based on venue or inconvenient forum.

Before going to court, the parties will try to resolve the dispute informally. Write to legal@dtcaperitivo.com setting out the issue and what you want. If it is not resolved within 30 days, either party may proceed.

Consumers. If you are an individual acting outside your trade or profession and you are resident in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, nothing in this Section deprives you of the protection of the mandatory consumer law of your country of residence, or of your right to bring proceedings in the courts of that country. Your rights under the GDPR or the UK GDPR, including your right to complain to your supervisory authority, are not affected by this Section at all.

  • Order of precedence. If Zipchat and a Co-Host sign a separate order form or co-host agreement for an Edition, and it conflicts with these terms, that document prevails for that Edition and only to the extent of the conflict. Everything else in these terms continues to apply.
  • Changes to these terms. We may update these terms. The version and effective date at the top will change. For a Co-Host that has already paid for a slot, the version in force when it paid governs that Edition, unless we agree otherwise in writing. For everyone else, continuing to use the Platform after a change means accepting it.
  • Entire agreement. These terms, the Privacy Policy, and any order form together are the whole agreement, and replace any earlier discussion, proposal, email or social media post. Nothing said in a LinkedIn post or a direct message forms part of the contract.
  • Severability. If a provision is unenforceable, it is modified to the minimum extent needed to make it enforceable, or struck out if that is impossible, and the rest stands.
  • No waiver. Not enforcing something once does not waive the right to enforce it later.
  • Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights without our written consent. We may assign ours to an affiliate or to a buyer of the business or the event series.
  • Notices. Notices to Zipchat go to legal@dtcaperitivo.com. Notices to you go to the email address on your account or registration, and are treated as received the day after sending.
  • Language. These terms are written in English. If we publish a translation and the two disagree, the English version governs.

legal@dtcaperitivo.com for these terms. privacy@dtcaperitivo.com for anything about personal data.

Zipchat Inc. 407 E Ayre St #1207 Wilmington, Delaware DE 19804 United States