Full disclosure: I’d never attended Manhattan Associates’ Momentum event before. So when I arrived last week, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But that didn’t stop me from having a few going-in assumptions.

I thought I’d hear a lot about how the company was still prioritizing on-premise solutions. Turns out I was wrong. In his opening speech, CEO Eddie Capel made sure that attendees knew that with its newest line of solutions (branded as Active), the company has gone delivery-model-neutral, and furthermore – salespeople have no incentive to sell on-prem vs. cloud or vice versa. Put simply, they leave the decision of what’s best for you up to you now.

I also expected, despite their acquisition of Global Bay back in 2014, to still hear an awful lot more about the supply chain (this is a supply chain company after all) than I ever would the store. But turns out I was wrong again. Over the course of a few days, I heard as much about the store’s ability to serve not just as a node within the supply chain (including a detailed roadmap presentation of how Manhattan’s newest Active solutions for the buy-online pickup-in store conundrum – as well as the ability to ship product directly from stores – actually make sense for customer, store associate and retail brand alike) as I did about the importance of the consumer’s in-store shopping experience, itself. Indeed, the company has its eyes on a future where it plays a strong role in elevating store associates to a position of power in the yet-unbalanced customer/employee power struggle.

The company hosted a panel session with several of its key clients whose conversation repeatedly turned to what will have to happen in order to return stores to relevance once again. I was legitimately surprised at not only how candid the conversation was, but how much the role of associates would play in ensuring – or in some cases, guaranteeing – that stores would persist. Said a representative from Tory Burch, “We might have more technology at our disposal than ever before, but people have never felt more alone. People are tribal… we’ll need stores. And Generation Z has already shown it is going to be more communal than previous generations. ”

A rep from Toys R Us agreed, explaining that her company has started community yoga classes at its Babies R Us stores in attempt to connect with consumers’ deeper needs; more than just items being in stock. “People want to be together, ” she added. Again, not something one expects to hear at a supply chain conference.

And a representative from Dick’s Sporting Goods shared something that was nothing short of music to my ears. Because that company services so many different sports, they know full well that – even with the best associate-level technology available – no store associate will be able to speak intelligently to every product they carry. So for them, the answer becomes a combination of training and technology: floor-level associates have direct communication tools to put them in touch with an expert in every individual sport back at company headquarters. Nothing I expected to hear.

There was also a closed-door session with the company’s leadership where details about their overall roadmap, R&D budgets, and planned growth for the remainder of 2017 were shared with the analysts in attendance. And while we were sworn to keep the details NDA, I’m sure it will come as no surprise that everyone in the room was… you guessed it… pleasantly surprised.

I’ll be interested to see what they do next.