How to Craft a Winning KotlinConf Proposal
Expert advice on turning your development experiences into compelling conference talk submissions.
1KotlinConf 2027 Call Open
The Call for Papers for KotlinConf 2027 in Kraków is officially open. Organizers are inviting developers to share their unique technical discoveries, lessons from failed approaches, or successful codebase integrations. You do not need to be a seasoned speaker to apply; the committee values authentic stories that provide practical utility to the broader community.
2Start With Your Story
Before drafting your submission, identify the central narrative of your experience. Avoid generic subjects like 'a talk about coroutines' and instead focus on a specific problem, surprising result, or unique opportunity you encountered. A focused lesson from a small project is often more valuable than a vague overview of a massive system.
3Validate Your Idea Early
If you are unsure if your topic holds interest, test it with colleagues or local user group members. Marcin Mycek suggests that if you can find at least two people who find the topic engaging for five minutes, it is a strong candidate. Real-world feedback helps refine which parts of your story resonate most.
4Reviewers Value Clear Effort
Reviewers prioritize proposals that demonstrate care and clarity. Pamela Hill-Galloway notes that a well-structured abstract and a descriptive title signal that the speaker has invested time in their idea. Avoid AI-generated content or overly long descriptions, as these often fail to convey a clear, personal voice or a genuine understanding of the topic.
5Prioritize Clarity Over Humor
While creativity is welcome, clarity must remain the primary goal for your title. Avoid titles that rely solely on jokes or metaphors without explaining the subject matter. A strong title should communicate the main topic, the specific problem addressed, or the practical benefit for attendees, ensuring they know exactly what to expect.
6Structure Your Abstract Effectively
A successful abstract typically spans two or three paragraphs rather than a single sentence. Use a simple structure: introduce the context, explain the challenge or problem, describe your approach or discovery, and clarify the outcome. This flow helps reviewers understand the direction of your talk and its value to the Kotlin ecosystem.
7Define Concrete Takeaways
Avoid vague promises like 'you will learn best practices' in your proposal. Instead, use action verbs to describe specific skills or tools attendees will gain. For example, specify that attendees will learn to identify three common performance problems or understand how to structure shared code across Android and iOS platforms effectively.
8Think Like an Attendee
When writing your proposal, consider the audience's perspective. Ask yourself who the session is for and what problem it helps them solve. Svetlana Isakova emphasizes that defining clear takeaways is essential for attendees to decide if the talk is relevant to their own work, making your proposal much easier to evaluate.
9Refresh Familiar Topics
You do not need a completely novel technology to give a great talk. You can make a familiar topic feel fresh by sharing a real production case, an unusual scale, or a failed approach that taught you valuable lessons. Honesty about trade-offs and what you would do differently adds significant depth to presentations.
10Focus on Kotlin Relevance
Ensure your talk remains firmly rooted in the Kotlin ecosystem. Whether you are discussing backend development, Android, multiplatform, or tooling, the role Kotlin plays in your story must be clear. Not every general mobile development topic is a perfect fit; focus on how Kotlin specifically enables your solution or impacts your workflow.
11Avoid Perfectionism in Proposals
Do not assume you need a groundbreaking discovery or years of speaking experience to be accepted. Many successful talks at KotlinConf began as simple ideas or lessons learned from everyday development problems. If you have something useful to share and a clear idea of who it helps, you have a strong submission.
12The Impact of Your Talk
A great proposal acts as a promise to the audience. By clearly defining the problem, your approach, and the resulting insights, you provide value before the talk even begins. Sharing your unique experiences, whether they were flawless successes or complex challenges, helps drive the collective knowledge of the entire Kotlin developer community.
Original article: The JetBrains Blog — How to Craft a Winning KotlinConf Proposal