Choosing the Right Category for Your DroidKaigi 2024 Submission
Hello! This is tamaclaw from the DroidKaigi Committee.
Call for Speakers is open from 26th April for DroidKaigi 2024! 🎉 Please check the official website for details.
This article will provide you with some examples of how to choose the categories of your session.✏️
Whether you’re applying for the first time or still unsure about which category to choose even after reading past articles about session categories, check out this article for new insights! Hopefully you’ll find something helpful here🔍
Also, as a challenge, DroidKaigi 2024 has introduced a new experimental category called “Soft Skills”, which is mentioned in detail further in this article.
Registration & Access
Choosing a category is one of the most challenging parts of your proposal. Categories are labels that describe your talk in one word. Reviewers and audiences will imagine what sort of topics you will be covering, based on the title, summary, and label.💭
Therefore, choosing categories based on what you want to communicate to the audience rather than what technologies come up in your talk might make it easier to understand.
If you are still unsure about which category to choose, understanding the context in which you want the session to be heard might be a good starting point.💡
We are talking about categories lately, but of course, titles and abstracts are also important!
About the Experimental Category
As a new initiative for DroidKaigi 2024, we have added an Experimental category.
The Experimental categories are just like it sounds — the experimental ones!🧪 It was newly added based on the feedbacks of past applicants, so choosing a category becomes less confusing. At this point, we are unsure whether it will hold, it’s a challenge through trial and error to offer sessions catering to a wider audience.
Although only one category is flagged as Experimental this time, some of the content that was consolidated in the Other category has become independent on an experimental basis.
Check the DroidKaigi 2024 Application Guidelines for more details about this category.
How to choose categories
Here are some examples of how to choose categories.
Example 1. Kotlin DSL
Let’s say your talk is about the experience of “Creating testing libraries by using Kotlin DSL”. What would be the main point you want to convey in this session?🤔
If you want to talk about “Convenient usage of Kotlin DSL”, you could choose Kotlin as your category. This is because your session would be about Kotlin.
If, however, your talk is about “Solving problems in testing environments using Kotlin DSL”, you might choose the Maintenance / Operations / Testing category. Kotlin DSL might come up in your talk, but the main topic would be about the improvements you would make with it.
We could choose the category as Kotlin, but the Maintenance / Operations / Testing category is more on subject and would express what you want to convey to the audience.
Example 2. Firebase
Next, let’s consider the case in which you want to make a presentation focused on Firebase.
“Firebase offers a wide range of services”, you might find it challenging to select the right category when presenting its use cases. In such situations, organizing what you want to convey may help you choose a category that is more appropriate for your presentation.
For example, let’s say we are submitting a session titled “Improving product quality with Firebase”. If your focus is on bug detection and crash rate improvement, the Maintenance / Operations / Testing category would be suitable.
You can also choose Development Process as your category if you want to explain user behavior and trend analysis to achieve the products’ KPI.
It is not mandatory to choose the Development Tools and Services category just because Firebase is your subject.
Example 3. OS features
The third example is OS features. OS has many different aspects, several categories can be considered depending on the approach.
If your session is about an app that uses special permissions, you could choose the category as Android Framework if you want to talk about the features you implemented with the permissions. On the other hand, if your focus is on developing secure apps with proper use of that Permission, you may want to choose Security/ Identity/ Privacy.
If the talk focuses on the knowledge we require the user grant access to, the UI/UX/Design category seems to be more appropriate.
Identifying if your talk focuses on the technical aspects or how the technology is used for the service can help with choosing the right category.
Example 4. Team leading
Lastly, let’s consider that your presentation is about your experience of leading an Android Application development team.
If the context of the presentation will be inclining more towards sharing insights on how to increase productivity in workflow, Development structure seems to be the right category.
If you want to convey about the general behaviorism as a tech lead and/or team building strategies, the Soft Skills category might be your perfect fit!
Lastly
Choosing the right category helps you to clearly express what you talk about.🗝
We hope this helps when you’re choosing the category for your proposal.
There is no chance to be selected if you don’t submit any proposals.So please don’t hesitate to apply!💪
DroidKaigi 2024 Application Guidelines
We are looking forward to listening to your talk.💖
Let’s enjoy DroidKaigi 2024 together!
