On June 26, 2025, the Port of Hamburg once again buzzed with energy as the NI Tech Day brought together engineers, developers, and test‑automation experts for a full day of LabVIEW insights, hands‑on demos, and inspiring community exchange. After a hiatus, the signature “LabVIEW Anwendertreffen” returned, this time to the GINN Hotel Elbspeicher on the Elbe.
Co‑Hosts: NI & dataTec
The event was organised by NI (Emerson T&M) in partnership with dataTec, a long-standing specialist distributor for test and measurement technology and an authorised NI training partner. NI and its partners regularly hold such partner-hosted events worldwide, designed to help engineers succeed with NI’s ecosystem of software-connected modular hardware and automation tools. dataTec played a key role on site, offering hands-on demos and expert insights into practical applications of LabVIEW, TestStand, SystemLink, and more.
Elevating Collaboration and Partnership
We didn’t wait for the main event to start the conversation. The evening before, Joerg joined colleagues from NI and dataTec for a relaxed dinner by the Elbe. They celebrated the fantastic teamwork, and collaboratively fine-tuned the presentations and content for the next day—ensuring a smooth and synchronized session flow.
A Day for LabVIEW Fans, Test Experts, and Networking Enthusiasts
The location couldn’t have been better: the GINN Hotel Elbspeicher by the Elbe set the stage for discussions on measurement technology, test automation, and software development. Attendees working daily with LabVIEW, TestStand, and related tools came together for practical, compact and peer-level exchange.
The agenda was diverse: from talks about new features to insights on SystemLink, and real-world use cases from industry. A highlight was the spotlight on artificial intelligence and its potential to enhance productivity in test environments. And even if we as proper software developers frown upon low-code and no-code alternatives, the audience appreciated an introduction into the FlexLogger and InstrumentStudio products.
Sharing Our Expertise: Continuous Integration with LabVIEW
We were especially proud to contribute to the program ourselves. Joerg Hampel gave a talk titled “Continuous Integration with LabVIEW”, which was very well received by the audience.
In his presentation, Joerg started by going back to the roots of the term Continuous Integration – originally a workflow concept based on trunk-based development. From there, he explored what “CI” typically means in the LabVIEW world: automating processes on the server side and triggering them based on source code changes.
He then introduced a schematic for a CI system – starting with developers pushing changes and ending with deployment of the artefacts – and worked his way out from the core of that system:
- Authoring VIs that programmatically execute LabVIEW functions
- Invoking those VIs via the command-line interface (CLI)
- Configuring CI platforms such as GitLab CI to trigger actions based on source control events
Sadly, there was not enough time to cover the very important topic of workflows: How does the team align on when and where to implement, integrate and specify changes to the code base.
Joerg also took the time to highlight the CI-related improvements that NI is currently adding to LabVIEW.
Presentation Slides (PDF, 8.1MB)
Exchange, Inspiration, and Many Familiar Faces
Beyond the technical highlights, the real star of the day was personal networking. Many familiar faces from the German-speaking LabVIEW community were in attendance, enjoying meaningful conversations over coffee — and sometimes sparking the next project idea.
Why It Was Worth Attending
For us, NI Tech Day Hamburg was not just a great chance to reconnect, but also a rich source of inspiration for our daily work. The blend of technical content, peer exchange, and forward‑looking trends once again showed how vibrant the LabVIEW community remains in 2025.
A special thank‑you goes out to Matteo Bax from NI, and to Laura Le Cam, Claudia Hörmann, and Cornelia Bonow from dataTec for organizing such an engaging and well‑structured event — your efforts made it a fantastic experience for everyone involved. We’re already looking forward to the next one.
Want to Learn More about Continuous Integration with LabVIEW?
There wasn’t enough time in the presentation to cover every detail—so if you’re interested in exploring CI workflows further, whether it’s writing LabVIEW automation VIs, CLI invocation, or CI tool configuration, we’d be happy to continue the conversation: