Meta Refresh 2016

Theme: designing for mobile, wearables and desktop

We’re already in a world where smartphones outnumber all the desktops and laptops put together. Wearables – smart watches and devices – now act as remote controls for notifications on our phones.

A sizeable portion of your existing user base could be accessing your website only through a handheld device. While it is quite likely that future web users will never experience your site on a large screen, we also have instances where users prefer to respond to notifications on their desktop. Desktop apps are not going away either.

Meta Refresh 2016 will focus on enhancing web experience on mobile, wearables and the desktop

We’re looking forward to talks about:

• Evolution of web design in your organisation: what is the context of your business and customers? Why and how did you evolve your UX strategy and practice for mobile devices, desktop and wearables?
• How do you understand your users?
• How do you acquire new users through design, especially in non-existent markets?
• How do you design content for mobile and desktop websites? What kind of detailing is involved here?
• How do you show notifications to users on all these channels – desktop, mobile and wearables?

We are accepting proposals under the following sections:

• Design process outlining concrete steps.
• Design and user acquisition.
• Content design.
• Push notifications and how design varies based on the medium?
• User research and insights.
• Performance and front-end tools – crisp talks only.
• Maintainability challenges.
• Accessibility.
• Localization.

Criteria to submit conference proposals

You must be a practising web developer or designer, and must be able to show how your own work has advanced the state of the web in the past year. You are expected to present original work that your peers — this event’s audience — recognise as being notable enough to deserve a stage. If you are excited about someone’s work and believe it deserves wider recognition, we recommend you contact them and ask them to submit a proposal.

Guidelines for submission

Every proposal MUST be accompanied by:

• A three minute preview video where the proposer gives an elevator pitch about the talk.
• Detailed outline of the talk – either in the form of draft slides, mind map and/or textual description.
• If you are proposing to speak on a topic where the code is not open-sourced yet, the editorial panel will consider your proposal only if the code is made open-source at least three weeks before the conference.

Without the above information, your proposal will not be considered for review.

If you are submitting a Workshop Proposal, you must clearly state:

• Background knowledge that participants must possess in order to attend your workshop.
• Details and links to software / packages which participants must install before coming to the workshop.
• Laptop configuration.
• Links to background reading material and GitHub repos.
• Duration of the workshop.
• Maximum number of participants who can attend your workshop.
• Instructor’s past experience with conducting workshops.

There is only one speaker per session. Workshops can have more two or more instructors.

Entry is free for confirmed speakers.

If you are an outstation speaker, HasGeek will do its best to provide a grant that covers part of your travel and accommodation expenses in Bangalore, subject to budgetary constraints. Grants are made available only to speakers delivering full sessions (40 minutes or longer) and workshops.

Commitment to Open Source

HasGeek believes in open source as the binding force of our community. If you are describing a codebase for developers to work with, we’d like it to be available under a permissive open source licence. If your software is commercially licensed or available under a combination of commercial and restrictive open source licences (such as the various forms of the GPL), please consider picking up a sponsorship. We recognise that there are valid reasons for commercial licensing, but ask that you support us in return for giving you an audience. Your session will be marked on the schedule as a sponsored session.

Format

The 2016 edition is a single-day, single-track conference on 17 September. We invite proposals for:

• Full-length 40 minute talks
• A crisp 15-minute presentation
• Sponsored sessions, 40 minute duration
• Workshops – 3 to 6 hour hands-on sessions

Important dates:

Deadline for submitting proposals: 29 August 2015
Conference date: 17 September

Venue

Meta Refresh will be held at the MLR Convention Centre, J P Nagar, Bangalore.

Contact

For more information about speaking proposals, tickets and sponsorships, write to info@hasgeek.com or call +91-7676332020.