Conference demos often struggle with the same challenge: showing people what technology can do without asking them to sit through another product presentation.
At SAS Innovate 2026, SAS partner Notilyze took a different approach.
Rather than leading with a traditional demonstration, Notilyze showcased an interactive soccer game that encouraged attendees to play first, then discover the analytics behind the experience. Built on SAS® Viya®, the experience combined gamification, real-time analytics and data visualization to show how raw data can quickly become actionable insights.
The concept behind the booth experience was inspired by the idea that games and sports bring people together. With worldwide excitement around soccer, the Notilyze team leaned into a theme that would appeal to a wide range of attendees. They elevated the experience further with themed visuals and custom branding, creating an immersive environment that stood out at SAS Innovate.
The game was completely designed, developed and tested by the Notilyze Analytics team members Amalia Musters, Joep Bom and Noortje Peters.
Reimagining the conference booth
Attendees stepped up to a laptop and took five virtual penalty shots, competing for a place on a live leaderboard. Behind the scenes, every shot generated data that flowed through SAS Viya, where it was captured, structured and visualized in real time.
Within seconds, participants could view their performance – including shooting accuracy, speed, shot placement and leaderboard position – creating a competitive energy that kept attendees coming back for chances to improve their scores. Afterward, each participant received an email with their personalized results.
The experience demonstrated an important point: analytics become much more engaging when people experience them firsthand.
Turning data into an experience
While the soccer game drew people in, the technology behind it became the real conversation starter.
The Notilyze team built a full data pipeline using SAS Viya running in the sovereign Notilyze Cloud, specially built for hosting SAS Viya. Data was captured directly from the game, converted into structured datasets and visualized instantly in SAS Visual Analytics dashboards.
Instead of simply describing how analytics work, the demonstration allowed attendees to experience the entire data journey – from collection and integration to visualization and personalized insights.
Our close partnership with SAS enabled us to create a full-circle experience at our SAS Innovate booth. The booth operators and game developers made sure that in every step in SAS Viya, from collecting and structing data to visualizing insights and sharing them via email, flows naturally into the next. This turns data into action in one seamless journey. Eric Mathura, Director of Business Development at Notilyze and goalkeeper in the Notilyze Cup
Innovation through partnership
The experience highlights the power of partnership.
Rather than focus solely on software features, Notilyze used gamification to create a fun and memorable example of real-time analytics in action. The approach sparked conversations with customers and partners while demonstrating how organizations can build engaging, data-driven applications using SAS technology.
The project also reflected more than a decade of collaboration between SAS and Notilyze, illustrating how partnerships can help organizations explore new ways to apply analytics to real-world experiences.
Impact beyond the conference floor
Attendees, customers and partners took notice of Notilyze’s booth, expressing interest in learning more about both the company and the process behind the game. The experience has already motivated other SAS Partners to experiment with interactive approaches, raising the standards for future events.
