Kotlin KotlinConf

What Makes a Great KotlinConf Proposal?

Jelena Ilic

The KotlinConf 2027 Call for Papers is now open! We invite developers from across the Kotlin community to bring their ideas, experiences, and expertise to the stage in Kraków.

Do you have a Kotlin lesson or discovery that could help other developers? Perhaps you solved a difficult technical problem, introduced Kotlin into an existing codebase, built something unexpected, or learned valuable lessons from an approach that did not go according to plan.

That experience could become a KotlinConf talk.

Submit your proposal

However, turning an idea into a convincing conference proposal can be challenging, especially if you’ve never submitted one before. How do you know whether your experience is worth sharing? What do reviewers notice first? How detailed should your abstract be? And how can you make a familiar topic stand out?

To help you prepare your submission, we asked Kotlin developers, developer advocates, experienced speakers, and KotlinConf program committee members what makes a strong proposal. Alongside practical advice for shaping your title, abstract, and takeaways, we have added a new section answering an especially important question: What do reviewers notice first when they open a proposal?

First-time speaker? Submit your idea anyway!

It’s easy to assume that a KotlinConf talk must begin with a groundbreaking discovery, a major production system, or years of speaking experience. In reality, a valuable talk can begin with a simple idea or a lesson learned while solving an everyday development problem.

You don’t need to know everything about Kotlin – you need something useful to share and a clear idea of who it could help.

Pamela Hill-Galloway. Developer Advocate, KotlinConf Program Committee member, and KotlinConf speaker

X, BlueSky, LinkedIn

Submit your idea anyway! There have been some wildly successful talks at KotlinConf that started out as just a simple idea.

If you’re unsure whether your topic would interest anyone, discuss it with the people around you. Explain the idea to colleagues, friends, members of a user group, or people in the Kotlin community. Their questions and reactions can help you understand which parts are most valuable.

Marcin Mycek. Product Manager, Kotlin Build Tools

LinkedIn

If you can find one interested person, there are probably more! If you can find at least two people around you who find the topic interesting and can listen for more than five minutes, it is already a decent candidate.

Previous conference experience is not required. A clear, authentic proposal based on something you understand and care about can be more compelling than a polished proposal with little substance behind it.

Start with the story you want to tell

Before writing the title or opening the submission form, identify the central story behind your talk.

“A talk about coroutines” or “a session about Kotlin Multiplatform” describes a subject, but it doesn’t explain what makes the session valuable.

Ask yourself:

• What problem, question, or opportunity did you encounter?

• Why was it important or difficult?

• What did you try?

• What surprised you?

• What succeeded and what did not?

• What did you learn that other developers could apply?

Your story doesn’t need to come from a large company or a system used by millions of people. A focused lesson from a small project can be just as useful if it offers an original insight or explains a difficult subject clearly.

Try summarizing the idea in one sentence, for example:

This talk will show [audience] how we [solved or explored something], what we learned, and how they can apply those lessons.

If you can’t complete that sentence clearly, the idea may need a little more development before you start writing the proposal.

What do reviewers notice first?

The title may be the first line reviewers read, but the overall level of care quickly becomes visible.

Reviewers consider not only whether the topic is interesting, but also whether the speaker can explain it clearly. A thoughtful title, focused description, concrete takeaways, and careful formatting show that you have spent time developing your idea.

Pamela Hill-Galloway. Developer Advocate, KotlinConf Program Committee member, and KotlinConf speaker

X, BlueSky, LinkedIn

I can sum it up by saying that the care you take in writing the proposal is probably more obvious than people think. If I can see that you took the time to come up with a catchy or descriptive title that works well with the content, I am more comfortable giving you a thumbs-up to speak at KotlinConf. If your description is so short or so long, or so clearly AI-generated, that you cannot express your idea clearly and neatly, I will probably not vote positively for your talk.

This doesn’t mean you need to use complicated language or create a perfect marketing pitch. It means giving reviewers enough information to understand your idea and showing that the proposal represents your own experience and voice.

Marcin Moskała’s Taming Asynchronous Beasts: Debugging and Performance Tuning in a Coroutine World provides a good example of a precise promise: “You’ll learn how to effectively use built-in tools, recognize problematic patterns, and implement proven optimization strategies.”

Write a clear and informative title

A strong title should give reviewers, and eventually attendees, an accurate idea of what the talk will cover.

Creativity can make a title memorable, but clarity should come first. Avoid titles that rely entirely on a joke, reference, or metaphor without explaining the subject.

Pamela Hill-Galloway. Developer Advocate, KotlinConf Program Committee member, and KotlinConf speaker

X, BlueSky, LinkedIn

A carefully-selected title can make all the difference! Audience members often lack the time or attention span to read more than the title when deciding whether to attend a talk. Prefer clarity over a catchy or fun title that doesn’t give a good idea of what the talk is about in a nutshell.

Compare the following title examples:

Too broad: Our Multiplatform Journey

More informative: What We Learned Migrating Our Mobile App to Kotlin Multiplatform

Too vague: Coroutines Gone Wild

More informative: Debugging Coroutine Performance Problems in Production

Too general: Building Better APIs

More informative: Designing Type-Safe Kotlin APIs That Are Difficult to Misuse

A good title usually communicates at least two of the following:

• The main topic

• The problem or question

• The context in which it was explored

• The practical benefit for attendees

• The expected experience level

You can still use humor or wordplay, but make sure the title does not hide what the session is actually about.

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原文：Kotlin Blog｜What Makes a Great KotlinConf Proposal?，2026-10-15