I'd limit myself to explaining a bit about DBI, i.e. how it allows to abstract away from specific database backends and how easy it is to change backends (if one sticks to standard SQL of course). I guess that will be quite enough for the time allotted.

I guess that if everyone is familiar with C++ it should be too hard to understand sample code in Perl. I'd not go into translating C++ to Perl or vice versa since this might lead to a shouting match on syntax which I consider unproductive.

If time allows (which I doubt) you could point out that one can do OO and give a functional (not the implementation) of your Class::DBI alternative.

Just my 2 cents, -gjb-