Neptune Impact - and now for something completely different

One of the advantages of having great partners is that we get briefed on upcoming content and Neptune Impact from Neptune Software is one such example.

I've attended the last several events in Oslo and have always been impressed by the quality of customer story on display and the depth of insights those same customers have been prepared to share. This year it's all digital as you'd expect but with a different format to the one with which I am used.

Rather than cramming a set of sessions into a few days, Neptune Impact runs over several months as a series of half day programs. This is both a bold and risky move.

On the one hand, colleagues (myself included) say that the virtual event format is proving difficult to consume in a few intense days. Working remotely makes it harder for people to dedicate the time needed to properly absorb all the information that's coming at them. When (not if) the technology doesn't quite live up to expectations then attention quickly evaporates. If the content is less than stellar from the get go then rather than hope that the next session will be great, viewers assume the next session will be as bad as the first. And what about those all important serendipitous moments of connection? Those have been the hardest to replicate. 

On the other hand, retaining the elements of a festival, one of Neptune Impact's prime objectives, should give visitors something worthy of their attention while also a look forward. Novel? Yes. A winning combination? We shall all find out very soon. 

The event, which kicks off tomorrow (June 25th)  will introduce me to a new digital experience provider, SpotMe. The team tell me it works. Again, we shall see. My expectations are high. With customers like Discovery Inc and US Sugar (which I profiled in one of my ASUG reports) on deck during the event period, Neptune Software has a great customer list from which to choose. 

Of necessity, many of the sessions will have been pre-recorded and that's OK. It allows the team to assemble the programme at a pace that doesn't crush the producers. If anything, I'd rather that I see a great recording than an awkward live session. However, it does mean that the event marketing people have their work cut out, especially as the festival runs over the traditional European holiday season. 

Equally interesting for me, Neptune Software is using this occasion to announce interesting product announcements. I'm not going to spoil all the fun but let's just say that those who like the idea of PWAs will not be disappointed. We're among those fans as you'll have noticed from our popular Your Story Library capability. There's plenty more for the SAP developer crowd to enjoy. In the Open Edition of Planet 9, Neptune Software introduces support for SAP HANA as the primary database for data driven usage scenarios. Devs in the React space will also be happy. 

I am not a great developer although I have been known to get dangerous when coding, but I've always liked how Neptune Software takes complex landscapes and makes then easily extensible in a so-called Lo-Code manner. At the same time though, pro-coders need something else so we'll see how their needs are addressed. Either way, I'm in. Are you?