With the novelty of virtual conferences having worn off somewhat, both for attendees and presenters, what I’ve found at my first virtual conference of the year is less talk and more meat. Appian used this latest conference to unveil version 21.2 of its platform, and from speaking to CEO Matt Calkins and listening to the keynotes and product demos over the past two days, it does seem there’s some genuine excitement among the team about it – particularly the data element. Sure, that could be hype and good media training, but over the years you do develop a sense for when someone really cares and when they’re doing the best with the marginal improvements they’ve been given.