Pitch, Prepare, and Perform a Perfect Presentation

Darren Nattinger

LabVIEW TSE, NI

Certified LabVIEW Architect

DNatt

Norm Kirchner

LabVIEW Evangelist, NI

Certified LabVIEW Architect

NORM!

Image Credit: FadilE

Before we get started

Thanks to GDevCon NA for hosting this webinar!

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GDevCon NA #6 – July 21-23, 2026 – Chicago, IL

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• Presentation submissions are open!

Deadline: January 31^st, 2026

https://forms.gle/6emLFzSFR397feEBA

gdevconna.org

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What are we trying to accomplish today?

We want your presentation to be interesting.

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Being interesting is the one thing that matters most when presenting.

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Image Credit: pngfind.com

Agenda – Crafting an Interesting Presentation

1. Pitch
2. Prepare
3. Perform

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0.MURDER

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How to MURDER your presentation

Memorable – Attendees don’t forget everything you said by the next day

Unique – Introduce something novel they’ve never thought about before

Relevant – Help people do their jobs better

Digestible – People can only consume ‘so much’ information

Entertaining – Keep everybody awake

Rehearsed – Be ready to talk about what you’re supposed to talk about

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To have an interesting presentation, it should reflect all the following themes:�

• M
• U
• R
• D
• E
• R

Always be MURDERing

As we cover pitching, preparing, and performing an interesting presentation, continually ask yourself:

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“How will these tips, tricks, and techniques help my presentation be:

Memorable?

Unique?

Relevant?

Digestible?

Entertaining?

Rehearsed?”

Pitching the Perfect Presentation

Pitching: Logistics

• Timelines
• You know what’s coming up
• (NIConnect~May, GDevConNA~July)
• Calendars of conferences
• Look to last year’s information
• Multi-month submission windows
• Start early, you may need to revise

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• Title + Abstract Completed Presentation
• Consider various execution formats (7x7, etc)
• Set reminders and e-mail rules

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Image Credit: baseballhall.org

Wait a second…

• Why do you want to present in the first place?
• What are your motivations?
• Educate? Entertain? Evangelize?

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“You will become a better presenter if you’re willing to recognize that

it’s not about what you want.

It’s about putting conscious effort into making other peoples’ lives better, sharing the right things, and

making the most of your audience’s time.”

– NORM! and DNatt

Sometimes we just want to share the fun…

Pitching: The Big Idea

Think about a presentation topic that will be:

• Memorable
• Provide content that people will be talking about the next day
• Unique
• Find a fresh topic or fresh spin on an old one.
• “I never would have thought of that like that”

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Know your audience!

• Mainly new programmers?
• Mainly architects?
• A mixture of both? 🡨 (it’s usually this one)

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Image Credit: baseballhall.org

Ideate, Respirate, Perspirate�Mental Model for Topic Creation

• Create an idea
• From scratch

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• Harness an idea
• Already in your head

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• Craft the idea
• Into something that you can commit to building out

Image Credit: hyunahkimart.com, www.waivio.com, MakeGIF.com

Exploration

• Look for topic areas that are lacking content

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• Find topics that you are passionate and knowledgeable about
• …and that could help others do their jobs better

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• Keep a running list of presentation ideas
• along with content details as you think of them

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• If somebody says “Hey, you should give a presentation on that!”… it’s probably a good fit.

Image Credit: fandom.com

Pitch Perfect Presentation Pitch Pointers

• Pitch a topic that will:
• Have wide audience appeal
• Introduce novel ideas
• Help your audience do their jobs better
• Lean into your secret sauce bucket

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• Run your pitch by potential audience members before submitting it
• Friends, colleagues, Norm! and DNatt, etc.

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Image Credit: today.com

A Good Title is Like a Beacon

• It should excite you

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• Focus your attenti….squirrel!

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• Proverb, idiom or cliché…steal away

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• Incite curiosity and interest for all

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• Gives a glimpse, not narrative

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Preparing the Perfect Presentation

Preparing the Perfect Presentation

Prepare a presentation that is:

• Relevant
• Give us something we can use to make our lives better
• Digestible
• Distill information in a manner that your whole audience can understand

Image Credit: foodsafety.com

The Preparation Process:

• Exploration
• Distillation
• Creation

More Exploration

• Go digging for prior art
• Inspiration or things to avoid

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• Allow yourself to ‘explore the space’
• Get all the ideas out, worry about filtering down later

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• Figure out what is common knowledge (or isn’t)

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• Experiment with your personal spin

Image Credit: fandom.com

Preparing Part 2 - Distillation

• What is worth sharing at all?
• What is essential to convey now?

300 slides worth of ‘great’ ideas

Image Credit: newsweek.com

Preparing Part 3 - Creation

• Stay in PowerPoint as much as possible
• Less probability of technical glitches
• Fewer context switches

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• Perform demos for stuff that’s “cooler” to see outside of a slide deck
• Don’t forget to zoom during your demos when appropriate

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• Use “zoomed in” images in slides to avoid squint factor

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Breakpoints – Breakpoint Manager*

Breakpoint Manager – centralized location to manage all breakpoints in memory

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*Moved to NEW Debug Window (LabVIEW 2025 Q3)

Breakpoints – Breakpoint Manager*

Breakpoint Manager – centralized location to manage all breakpoints in memory

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*Moved to NEW Debug Window (LabVIEW 2025 Q3)

Preparing Part 3 - Creation

• Slide creation nuts and bolts
• Use legible, large fonts
• Gray out previous bullets to draw attention to current item
• Give credit to external sources

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• Demo nuts and bolts
• Use legible, large fonts
• Digging into code hierarchies is typically *not* a good demo
• Practice navigating the code and conveying a concise point
• Create a demo UI that Norm! would be proud of

Preparing Part 3 - Creation

• Graphics in your slides are there for the audience

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• Text in your slides is there for the presenter
• Breadcrumbs for slide talking points
• Occasional glances at slides – ok!
• Reading directly off slides – not ok!

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• A presentation is not a report!
• All the details do not need to be in the slides
• Distillation should have addressed this

Image Credit: imgflip.com

A quick note about your cool creations

• Your presentation may involve cool things that you created.
• Reuse libraries, UI tools, Dev tools, frameworks, …

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• During your presentation, you absolutely, positively, 100% will be asked:
• “Where can I download your code?”

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• If your answer is anything other than “Here’s the link!”:
• Wait to pitch the presentation until you can actually say “Here’s the link!”
• If you can never share the code, does it still make sense to present?

Image Credit: heb.com

Performing the Perfect Presentation

Performing the Perfect Presentation

Perform a presentation that is:

• Entertaining
• Astound your audience!
• Rehearsed
• Look like you know what you’re doing!

Image Credit: youtube.com

You put yourself out there by pitching your presentation.

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You put all the work into preparing your presentation.

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Now it’s time to perform!

Image Credit: tenor.com

Presentation Logistics

• Run-throughs
• Ensure content fits within allocated time
• Have a rough idea of where you should be at regular time increments
• Demos
• Have a well-defined demo script (and don’t deviate from it!)
• If you’re doing live coding… practice, practice, practice!
• Audio/Visual
• Check hookups, cameras, microphones, etc., early if possible
• Presentation Machine
• Turn off notification apps!
• Turn off resource-heavy background services (Windows Update, Windows, Defender, etc.)

Presentation ENERGY

Boring presenter = boring presentation

Regardless of content!

“The audience cannot be any more excited about your material than you are.” --DNatt

“Creativity and enthusiasm can smooth over a lack of planning and prep.” –Norm!

Presentation ZOOMING

Presentation Nuts and Bolts

• Demos? Set Resolution and Scaling
• 1920x1080
• 125% scaling
• Prepare at those settings

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• Turn off notifications
• Teams, Discord, Slack, etc.

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• No surprises!
• Windows Update, Virus Scans, etc.

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• Move demo apps (like LabVIEW) into first 10 spots of taskbar
• Window Key + [num] – launch/switch to that app on the taskbar

How to switch to and from demos (and sections)

• Follow this procedure for seamless demos:
1. Press B in PowerPoint to turn the slides into a black background.
2. Press Window Key + [num] to switch to LabVIEW (or other demo software).
3. Do your demo.
4. Click the black background twice to switch back to PowerPoint.

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• (for LabVIEW demos) Have a project open that includes your top-level demo VIs
• This avoids distracting (and slow) file browse dialogs
• Close demo VIs so they won’t be open when you start another demo later

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• Practice these transitions!

Time Management

• Get to the stage, (or zoom room) EARLY
• ‘Murphy’ was in the A/V club

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• Keep an eye on the clock

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• Know where you should be at certain intervals (10 min, 15 min, etc.)
• Requires Rehearsing

Epilogue: Being a Good Audience Member

Presenting is not easy!

• The presenter wants to help you do your job better.

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• She has pitched a unique and relevant topic, prepared memorable and digestible content, and rehearsed what she hopes will be an entertaining performance.

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• She is putting herself out there, in front of everybody.

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• The last thing you want to do is interrupt her flow!

Image Credit: amazon.com

Audience Etiquette

• Wait for the presenter to open the floor to questions.
• Don’t interrupt the flow!

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• Check your motivations when asking questions.
• Are you asking something that will benefit most of the audience?
• If not, maybe ask the presenter later, outside the presentation time.

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• Keep your questions short and sweet.

Image Credit: youtube.com

gdevconna.org

Pitch your ideas for GDevCon NA 2026 now!

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Deadline: January 31^st, 2026

https://forms.gle/6emLFzSFR397feEBA