Greetings from Portsmouth, NH!

It's been a hectic week here at IAPP headquarters as the team makes final preparations for Privacy. Security. Risk. in Austin, Texas. I think it's safe to say that those of us on the content team who're going down are looking forward to meeting up with so many of you in person.

I'm also looking forward to our slate of keynote speakers. Alastair Mactaggart, one of the architects behind what is now the California Consumer Privacy Act, is sure to enlighten us further on what went into this game-changing law. I'm particularly excited to hear Zeynep Tufekci. If you follow her on Twitter or read her column in The New York Times, you'll likely know that she brings sharp-witted insight into some of the most burley questions generated from the intersection of technology and society — a truly unique voice in the digital space. We'll also hear from ethnographer Tricia Wang, whose firm helps organizations that use data better understand people; David Becker, who helps improve the administration of democratic elections, alongside entrepreneur Jeff Jonas; and NYT tech columnist Farhad Manjoo.

You may have seen Manjoo's latest column in Thursday's Daily Dashboard. In it, he warns against the internet-of-everything trend that aims for a ubiquitous connection between the on- and offline worlds by putting a computer in everything. "If their novelties take off without any intervention or supervision from the government," he warns, "we could be inviting a nightmarish set of security and privacy vulnerabilities into the world. And guess what. No one is really doing much to stop it."

Perhaps a privacy pro or two might disagree...

To wit, the National Institute of Standards and Technology will host its first workshop on creating a privacy framework Tuesday, Oct. 16, the day before our pre-conference workshops commence. I'll be sure to report out the details. Plus, the conversations generated in this workshop will surely carry over into our second Privacy Engineering Section Forum. Unfortunately, the latter event is at capacity, but you can join the waiting list in case some folks can't make it. 

And of course, our programming team has worked hard putting together the break out sessions for next Thursday and Friday. We hope there's something practical and thought-provoking for all who attend. 

If you're not attending, have no fear: We'll have a team of writers down there this year, including myself, Sam Pfeifle, Angelique Carson and Ryan Chiavetta, and you can be sure we'll be pumping out as much content as possible. Emily Leach, Privacy Tracker and Resource editor, and Dave Cohen, web conference producer, will be at the bookstore, too, selling the goods. If you're down there and you see any one of us, don't hesitate to say "hi." We'd love to hear what you're up to.