Call for submissions: Platform Engineering meet-ups
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Call for submissions: Platform Engineering meet-ups

Share your journey of building platforms that power engineering teams

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Vivek Pemawat

@vivekpemawat

Rootconf Platform Engineering Talk Guidelines

Submitted May 28, 2026

Session type: Talk (30 mins) Submission made for: Bangalore meet-ups

Rootconf Platform Engineering Talk Guidelines

Use this checklist to ensure your talk is practical, technical, and highly relevant to the platform engineering community.

What Makes a Great Platform Engineering Talk

1. Focus on a Real Engineering Problem

  • Present a real challenge your team encountered.
  • Explain why it mattered to developers or platform teams.
  • Share measurable impact where possible.

2. Keep Theory to a Minimum

  • Avoid spending too much time on definitions or industry trends.
  • Skip generic product introductions.
  • Spend the majority of the talk on implementation and operational learnings.

3. Go Deep Technically

Talks should cover:

  • Architecture and system design
  • Technology choices
  • Integration points
  • Scalability and reliability considerations
  • Failure modes and lessons learned

4. Explain Open Source Alternatives

For every major technology or architectural decision, include:

  • Open source tools evaluated
  • Why they were considered
  • Why they were selected or rejected
  • Trade-offs between different approaches

Example

“We evaluated Argo Workflows, Temporal, and Apache Airflow. We chose Temporal because of durable execution and better retry semantics for long-running business workflows.”

5. Show How It Was Implemented

The audience should understand:

  • How the solution was built
  • How users interact with it
  • How it operates in production

A short live or recorded demo significantly increases the value of the session.

7. Set the Right Context

Early in the presentation, explain:

  • Problem statement
  • Existing challenges
  • Design goals
  • Constraints

8. Clearly State Key Takeaways

Attendees should leave knowing:

  • What problem was solved
  • Why this design was chosen
  • What trade-offs were involved
  • How they can implement similar ideas

9. Make It Actionable

The talk should provide practical insights that engineering teams can apply immediately.

Recommended Presentation Structure

  1. Problem Statement
  2. Existing Challenges
  3. Design Goals and Constraints
  4. Technology Evaluation (including open source comparisons)
  5. Architecture Overview
  6. Implementation Deep Dive
  7. Demo
  8. Production Learnings
  9. Key Takeaways
  10. Q&A

What to Avoid

  • Product or company marketing
  • Long theoretical introductions
  • Generic “best practices” without implementation details
  • Slides that only show high-level architecture
  • Technology mentions without explaining why they were chosen
  • Talks with no actionable outcomes

Highly Relevant Topics for Platform Engineering Meetups

  • Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)
  • Self-service infrastructure
  • GitOps and deployment automation
  • Kubernetes platform design
  • Multi-cluster management
  • Observability and reliability engineering
  • Security and policy as code
  • Workflow orchestration
  • Data platform engineering
  • Cost governance
  • AI gateways and enterprise AI governance

Final Speaker Checklist

Before submitting your talk, ensure:

  • Based on a real engineering problem
  • Minimal theory, maximum practical depth
  • Includes architecture and implementation details
  • Compares relevant open source alternatives
  • Explains why specific technologies were chosen
  • Includes demo or walkthrough
  • Clearly lists key takeaways
  • Attendees can apply the ideas in their own teams
  • Educational, not promotional
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