Last updated: Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Who we are

We, The Modern Reference, a sole proprietorship (commerçant personne physique) of Lise Bacca Ivanov, located 21 rue Glesener, L-1631 Luxembourg (from 1 October 2026: 128, rue de Mühlenbach, L-2168 Luxembourg), registered at the Luxembourg trade and companies register under the number A46902, business licence number 10192784/0, operate this website (“Website”): www.themodernreference.com, as well as the private online space reserved for the members of The Modern Reference, available at thecircle.themodernreference.com (the “Members’ Area”), operated through a third party community platform, currently Circle (CircleCo, Inc.).

Please remember that throughout these terms when we mention “We”, “Us” or “Our”, We mean The Modern Reference. When We refer to “you” We mean the user of Our Website or of the Members’ Area.

About these terms and conditions

You are reading the terms and conditions for the use of Our Website and of the Members’ Area (the “Terms of Use”). By using Our Website or the Members’ Area, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them. Your acceptance of these Terms of Use is made by you using Our Website and the Members’ Area and is dated to your first use of the Website or of the Members’ Area. If you do not accept these Terms of Use or any part of them you should stop using Our Website and the Members’ Area immediately.

We reserve the right to make changes to these Terms of Use from time to time which will take effect from the date of posting on Our Website and the Members’ Area. Every time you wish to use Our Website or the Members’ Area, please check these terms to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time. Your continued use of the Website and the Members’ Area will constitute your acceptance of any changes to these Terms of Use.

We may also update and change Our Website and/or the Members’ Area from time to time to reflect changes to Our products, Our users' needs and Our business priorities.

We may from time to time display additional terms and conditions on the Website and the Members’ Area for example in connection with a specific promotion or in connection with the sale of goods or services. If the Terms of Use should conflict in any way with such additional terms and conditions, then the additional terms and conditions will prevail.

Membership and bookings of seats at Our events are governed by Our General Terms and Conditions, available on the Website and within the Members’ Area. In case of conflict between these Terms of Use and the General Terms and Conditions, the General Terms and Conditions prevail.

About copyright and intellectual property rights in Our Website and the Members’ Area

For the purposes of these Terms of Use the expression “Website Information” means the images, graphics, text, applets and scripts operating, operating in, or which form part of, the Website and the Members’ Area.

All intellectual property rights (including, without limitation, copyright) in the Website Information are owned by Us or relevant third parties which have authorised Us to use these intellectual property rights.

You may view Website Information in a web browser for private browsing purposes only. You may not make a copy of the Website Information or any part of it for any other purpose without Our prior written consent, which may be granted at Our sole discretion (or where We do not own the intellectual property rights, We will direct you to the owner themselves for such consent). Nothing in these Terms of Use, on the Website or on the Members’ Area constitutes a license to use or copy the Website Information.

We may publish images or text on the Website and the Members’ Area in which the intellectual property rights is not owned by Us or which is not owned completely by Us but for which we are an authorized user. Where this is done, and where practicable, We mention the owner of the intellectual property rights.

About the Members’ Area

The Members’ Area is reserved for the members of tmr Circle whose membership is valid and active under Our General Terms and Conditions, and for the persons to whom We have granted access. Its availability is subject to the technical requirements of the platform through which it is operated, and Our commitments regarding its availability are set out in Our General Terms and Conditions.

Access to the Members’ Area requires a personal account, protected by an email address and a password. Your account and your login details are personal and confidential: you shall not share them with anyone or allow any other person to use your account, and you shall inform Us without delay at hello@themodernreference.com of any loss or unauthorised use of your login details. You are responsible for all activity carried out through your account.

Any content posted in a user's personal space must be appropriate, respectful, and consistent with accepted moral and ethical standards.

The content you post within the Members’ Area, including messages, comments, images and the information of your entry in the members’ directory (the “Member Content”), remains your property. By posting the Member Content, you grant Us a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, display and make it available to the other members via any format or media, within the Members’ Area, for the purposes of tmr Circle only and for the duration of your membership. This license ends when you remove the Member Content or when your membership ends, without prejudice to copies kept in replays and backups, for which you grant Us a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store and display via any format or media, for the purposes of tmr Circle only and for a duration of eighteen (18) months from the date of the recording.

You are solely responsible for the Member Content you post. You confirm that you hold the rights necessary to post it and that it does not infringe the rights of any third party, is not unlawful, disrespectful, defamatory, misleading or offensive, and complies with the moral and ethical standards and The Discretion Rules set out in Our General Terms and Conditions.

You shall not post advertising or unsolicited commercial messages within the Members’ Area, and shall not extract or use the personal information of other members outside tmr Circle.

Live conversations, talks and other sessions held within the Members’ Area may be recorded and made available to members as replays, within the Members’ Area only and for a maximum of eighteen (18) months from the date of the session, after which they are removed. Replays are not published outside the Members’ Area. By taking part in such a session with your camera or microphone on, you accept that your participation may appear in the replay.

We may remove any Member Content, and suspend or close any account, that does not comply with these Terms of Use, with Our General Terms and Conditions or with the Discretion Rules, under the conditions set out in Our General Terms and Conditions. We are not responsible for the Member Content posted by members and do not undertake to monitor it, but We review any content reported to Us at hello@themodernreference.com.

About the accuracy of the Website information

This section should be read together with, and subject to, the section below entitled “Further Information about Our liability to you”.

The Website Information is provided “as is” and We make no representation, endorsement or warranty as to its accuracy. We will not be liable for any action taken (or not taken) in reliance upon the Website Information and such action is taken entirely at your own risk. We reserve the right to make any changes to the Website Information without notice and without liability to you.

External websites to which We provide hypertext links are not under Our control and We take no responsibility for them and shall not be liable in any way for their content.

The Website and the Members’ Area, like any other, is susceptible to cyber-squatting and vandalism. We do not accept any responsibility for, nor liability in respect of, any information which appears on the Website or the Members’ Area as a result of such actions.

Certain services provided by the Website and the Members’ Area depend on information provided by you and those services depend on the accuracy of such input information. We can therefore accept no responsibility for, nor any liability in respect of, the input of inaccurate information to the Website or the Members’ Area by you and/or any third parties.

Should you find any inaccurate information on the Website or the Members’ Area or have any complaint about what We have published on the Website or the Members’ Area please contact Us at hello@themodernreference.com

We will investigate such reports or complaints on receipt and take such action which we, in Our sole discretion, determine as being appropriate having regard to all the circumstances.

About the internet, service Interruption, viruses etc.

We and all other web publishers have no control over the Internet, which is a global public network of computers and the method by which you access the Website and the Members’ Area. As a consequence and in common with most web publishers We take no responsibility for service interruption or the transmission of viruses or other malicious computer code through Our Website and the Members’ Area.

About personal information and Our privacy policy

We have a separate Privacy Policy which relates to Our use of your personal information, and a separate Cookies Policy which relates to Our use of cookies. We would encourage you to read Our Privacy Policy and Our Cookies Policy, both available on the Website.

Further information about Our liability to you

So far as lawfully possible, We exclude all liability to you to the extent permitted by any applicable law. We also exclude liability for any consequential or indirect loss which may be caused to you by Us. Notwithstanding any other provision of these terms and conditions, nothing in these terms and conditions shall, or shall be construed as purporting to, exclude or restrict liability in respect of death or personal injury for breach of duty arising in the course of business or from the occupation of business premises.

About the law relating to these terms and conditions

The laws of Luxembourg shall govern any interpretation of these terms and conditions. The courts of Luxembourg-city shall have jurisdiction in any disputes between Us in respect of these terms and conditions and the use of this Website and of the Members’ Area, without prejudice to the mandatory rules of jurisdiction applicable to consumers.