{"id":73760,"date":"2018-07-25T08:43:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T15:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/open.microsoft.com\/?p=73760"},"modified":"2025-04-14T16:33:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T23:33:01","slug":"how-to-do-tech-meetup-pitches-presentations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opensource.microsoft.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/25\/how-to-do-tech-meetup-pitches-presentations\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t be \u201cpitchy\u201d with your pitches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What comes to mind when you hear the word \u201cmeet-up\u201d? Personally, I think of s\u2019mores, tie-dying, PowerPoint karaoke, and giant squirrel costumes. Of course, here at Sentry, we don\u2019t think of our meet-ups as \u201cmeet-ups,\u201d we think of them more as events that you happen to learn something at (while eating a fruit-roll up and perhaps a marshmallow or two…). <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently spoke about <\/span>Sentry Scouts<\/span><\/a>, and our approach with community events on Microsoft\u2019s <\/span>Open Source Show<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>One of the tips I included in this episode (in addition to \u201cno pizza\u201d and \u201cno warm beer\u201d) was \u201cno pitches.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my experience, pitches in talks or presentations at meet-ups can feel awkward and forced. I would immediately feel disconnected and disinterested in the content being presented when a presenter would abruptly go from talking through the code, design process, and engineering decisions to a sales-y demo of a product that felt oddly like an infomercial. Additionally, as a person who often gives presentations, I\u2019ve always found myself looking for ways to make any company-related demos as relevant and useful as possible (vs. adding it in for the sake of promotion) and include other tools and integrations as well. In short, I didn\u2019t want to sound like the Shamwow guy.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n