Help me make a 30-min "Python for non-coders" talk actually fun, creative ideas wanted (not looking for AI-generated suggestions)

[u/Commercial_Cell_9821]

I'm giving a 30-minute presentation about Python to a room of 40-50 year olds with zero coding background. The goal isn't to teach syntax, it's to give them a vision of what Python can actually do for them (think: automating boring Excel/repetitive tasks) and get them a little excited about it.

Structure so far:

Intro to programming languages (quick comparison, evolution over time...)

Python basics, but conceptual, not code (functions, classes, loops, libraries, reading a script, terminal)

Python & AI (uses in AI/data, coding with AI tools, prompt engineering)

Installing Python (quick walkthrough)

Useful resources/links

Open slot for something creative/fun to close on

I want real, human ideas here analogies, interactive moments, jokes that land with a non-technical crowd, stories from your own experience presenting to beginners, I'd rather get lived-in advice from people who've actually done this than a pile of AI-generated suggestions....

Thanks in advance!

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[u/SteveRindsberg]

Been there. Done that. It's an uphill battle. I'd go hard on how they can save themselves massive amounts of time and prevent human errors with automation like they can do with Python (or VBA, or ... name it/claim it).

One example I've used is from life; someone I'd worked with before had a whole department of people prepping slides for a massive meeting. Probably hundreds of presentations to be given over several days, thousands of slides. Months of work.

At nearly the last minute, the Head Honcho (who'd presumably approved sample slides) decided he didn't like the rounded rectangles they'd used. On all the slides, diagrams, etc. In all the presentations. Wanted them changed back to square corners.

I was able to give them a fairly simple VBA macro that would boom through every presentation in a folder, visit each slide and change each rounded rectangle back to square corners.

It took one person maybe an hour or two to run multiple batches this way, vs the full week over overtime for staff and probably a dozen freelancers they figured it was going to take.

I have a friend! ;-)

[u/wistfulbutwily → u/SteveRindsberg]

The more I think about it, the more I feel that 30 minutes won't deliver competent tool users, but rather people inspired by the possibilities. So time spent relating situations/stories like these is time well spent.

[u/Wild_Respond7712]

Ditch the evolution over time part completely and get as quickly as possible to the practical what it can do for you stuff. Have an awesome practical example as a starter.

[u/wistfulbutwily → u/Wild_Respond7712]

This was the main point I wanted to respond with.

[u/moditeam1]

Tell them the cool things that can do with python. Bring that in early.

[u/DJ_pandaBeat]

If it’s a room full of non-coders, could you widen the scope of your presentation to “Coding for non-coders”? You don’t necessarily have to focus on a specific language. Unless you really want to I suppose. I mean, if all you’re doing is abstracting the concepts to a high level, you would end up explaining programming languages as a whole. Anyways, for Python, you gotta tell them the origin of the name. That age group should have someone that knows Monty Python haha. And also throw a slide up with corp logos that use python in their main products (Netflix, Facebook, Spotify, etc). I find slides like this do good with general audiences. Perhaps also a slide that walks through a repetitive task (like updating something in a spreadsheet), then show a simple read, loop, execute, write script, and the time savings as the headline metric.

Hope some of this is helpful

Edit: typo

[u/DJ_pandaBeat → u/DJ_pandaBeat]

And if you’re presenting in-person, hand out some 3D printed pythons for them to fidget with lol

[u/somedaygone]

Disagree with your outline. In the age of AI, this is all different. Non-coders don’t code, they prompt. They don’t need to know about languages. What they need to know is how to install VS Code, get an AI set up, and how to prompt, and how to iterate. They need to see some samples to see what’s possible and why they might want to do this.

[u/wistfulbutwily → u/somedaygone]

Promoting AI prompt engineering as the main game today is probably right, but I fear for any such presentation that doesn't step back and at least look at the code produced. The unfortunate part about doing a real job properly is that the main effort is unexciting: identifying extreme or exceptional cases, critically testing. Coding used to bevthe fun part! We got used to the later deflation from overconfident code that failed in test. Can naive coders-through-AI competently frame remedial prompts?

[u/SpecialBorn9657]

I’d like to attend this presentation 👋😊