Over 3,000 financial professionals, including 1,500 advisors managing over $650 billion of assets, rolled in today to start the three days of festivities and uber-networking at the TD Ameritrade Institutional 2013 National Conference held in very sunny San Diego at the Manchester Hyatt.

At this point, groggy jetlagged attendees were still streaming to register as the 220 event sponsors set up exhibit booths and early birds drank too many lattes in the hotels numerous coffee bars and restaurants.

The luckiest of the early birds got to enjoy a catered lunch as Bryan Baas, a director at TD Ameritrade Institutional, discussed the challenges of protecting clients' assets and information.

One big takeaway from the lunch: everything is great in moderation, including big data and mobile apps for financial services. Too much, tough, can lead to security headaches of all sorts.

In addition to virtually all of TD's C-level talent, the other speakers at the event will include such luminaries as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former senator Alan Simpson, former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell.

On Friday, attendees will rock to the operatic punk of Pat Benatar.

MFWire reporter Tommy Fernandez will be providing conference updates live from San Diego all week. Check back for more 

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