Like last year, IndiaFOSS 2026 will have devrooms. And in case you haven’t been following the news, it’s happening on Sep 26,27. Same place!
Devrooms are half day mini-conference tracks (3 hours programme duration) inside the conference. The idea is that this puts more of the conference contents in the community’s hands.
Devrooms may be proposed by a self organizing group in the community. Devrooms are based on topics relevant to a broader subset of the community, or a special interest topic, etc. Devroom proposals are being solicited in advance. The IF 2026 conference committee will review and select devrooms from the proposals. Building on the success of this idea in IF2025, we may select 6-8 devrooms this time!
The call for proposals (CFP) for IndiaFOSS 2026 will be a generic CFP that will mention and link to separate CFPs for each selected devroom. The conference talk submission page will accept talk proposals both for the main track, as well as selected devrooms (these will show up as “tracks”). Anybody may propose sessions for any track.
Each devroom must be represented by two managers (2 for redundancy). These managers are responsible for the following:
- Finalize a CFP for their devroom.
- Circulate the CFP in their community or interest group. The Programme Committee (composed of the co-chairs of the conference) shall let selected devrooms know when to do this.
- Review and finalize proposals to create the devroom programme, in a timely manner. We recommend starting rolling reviews 2 weeks after the CFP is issued.
- Work with the Programme Committee to finalize the schedule.
- Run the devroom according to the schedule during the conference
Devroom managers may also rope in additional volunteers to help review proposals. During the conference, devrooms shall be recorded and live-streamed. Each devroom may also have up-to two volunteers to help with the logistics of running the devroom, including:
- Coordinate with selected speakers to ensure everything runs smoothly and on time
- Introduce speakers
- Work with video recording and live streaming POCs
- Work with other conference volunteers for important tasks (beginning of sessions, administrative stuff, etc)
Devrooms shall be held in a few rooms of varying sizes. We have the larger Audi 3 with 120 seats, the smaller room with 35 seating. We also considering use of other places in the venue to run devrooms.
Devroom Proposals
Devroom proposals must be posted as a response to this discussion thread. The person who posts a devroom proposal will be deemed the primary contact for the devroom, and also a devroom manager.
A devroom proposal must include the following:
- Devroom title
- Details of two managers
- Name of each manager
- Short intro and reason/motivation to run the devroom. Please highlight any prior experience running/involvement in events or conferences
- Some indication that the devroom would be able to generate enough content for the entire 3 hour slot (“proof of feasibility”)
- Number of volunteers requested for the devroom
- Proposal reviewerss (max 2). Names of the reviewers need not be published on the forum at this time to preserve anonymity, but the Managers must have decided the names by the time they propose the devroom.
- Logistics volunteers for the devroom (max 2). Names can be decided later.
- CFP for the devroom talks. CFP must include the scope of the talks recommended for this devroom.
Also see IF 2025 devrooms and the IF 2025 call for devrooms thread for ideas about how things panned out last time.
Key Dates
- Call for devrooms open : March 23rd 2026
- Last date to submit devroom proposals : April 25th, 2026
- Intimation of devroom proposal acceptance: May 2nd, 2026
- Devrooms to start circulating their CFP : After confirmation of acceptance
- Last date for sumission of session proposals : TBA (To be announced)
- Devrooms to finish reviews and finalize sessions for their devroom : TBA