Gartner Group analyst Joe Pescatore contributed the year's most useful research diagram at the RSA on Monday. His graph of the "technology hype cycle" drew pained laughter. Pescatore's undulating line on an X/Y axis begins is slow climb with a "technology trigger", accelerates upwards toward a "peak of inflated expectations", dips into the "trough of disillusionment", climbs modestly up a "slope of enlightenment" and eventually reaches a "plateau of productivity".

The RSA itself has "an 18month hype cycle", he said - the amount of time it takes for a newly announced technological development to become the next big thing.