I have been attending RSA Conferences since early this decade. The U.S. version of the Conference has been around since 1991 and it's grown from 50 attendees (all cryptologists) to around 17,000 participants annually from the private and public sectors including security professionals, business executives, lawyers, academics, privacy advocates, regulators, and journalists. For the first-time attendee it can be absolutely overwhelming because there are so many speakers, so many issues, so many events during the week, and if you go to the show floor, literally hundreds of organizations showing their wares.

Well, being a veteran RSA Conference attendee, I thought I was ready for another busy but ultimately manageable week despite the multiple commitments and responsibilities that I had to balance. Well, that theory was turned on its head, starting on Sunday...