IDSW 2026: The CFP Closes 26 September, and What the Reviewers Read
In this article
The Indonesia Software Developer Conference returns on 21 to 22 November 2026 at Usmar Ismail Hall in South Jakarta, running 08.30 to 17.30 WIB on both days. PERKODI runs it with tech communities across the country: Python ID, id-ruby, TEKNUM, JakartaJS and Deeptech.id. #StartupLokal is one of its community partners.
Two things are open right now, and only one of them costs money. Early bird tickets are on sale at IDR 300,000, after the super early bird round sold out. The call for proposals is free to enter and closes on 26 September 2026.
The second of those has the nearer deadline, and fewer people have noticed it.
One track, and why that changes the stakes
IDSW runs a single track. No parallel sessions, no second room, and no choosing between two good talks in the same hour.
For an attendee that is simple enough: you do not have to pick. For a speaker it is a bigger deal. A talk that gets accepted is heard by the whole conference rather than by the thirty people who happened to walk into the other room. The honest consequence is that there are far fewer slots, so the review is tighter than at a multi-track conference.
What the reviewers read before they know your name
The organisers state something most CFP pages leave out: reviewers read the proposal before they see who wrote it.
That changes how an abstract should be written. If your name and your job title are not part of what gets read, an opening sentence explaining who you are buys nothing. What buys something is the problem you hit, the number that moved, and what the room takes home.
Four themes are being sought:
Product Engineering, on how a team combines product thinking, user needs and technical execution.
In-Depth Software Engineering, on production systems, performance, reliability and expensive lessons.
Technology Leadership, on how technical leaders shape culture, teams and architecture decisions.
Latest Trends, on the new tools, practices and architectures changing how software gets built.
There are two formats. A full session runs 30 minutes and takes architecture, production systems, or one long technical lesson. A lightning talk runs 7 minutes and takes one tool, one technique, or one sharp idea. Talks can be in English or Indonesian, and proposals go in at cfp.idsw.dev.
Join #StartupLokal
The community has been meeting in Jakarta since April 2010. Registering is free and takes a minute.
If this would be your first time on a stage
This is the part people skip. First-time speakers get written feedback on their abstract rather than a bare yes or no.
Speakers also get a two-day ticket and dinner with the rest of the line-up. And if you have already bought a ticket and your proposal is then accepted, that ticket is refunded or can be transferred to a colleague. Buying a ticket now does not punish you for being accepted later.
If you are coming as an attendee
The speaker line-up has not been announced. The organisers publish it on their site once review is finished, which means buying a ticket today is buying on the track record rather than on the names.
The track record reads like this. IDSW has run 15 editions since 2017, with more than 5,000 developers through them. The 2024 edition ran 16 to 17 November at GetCourse Hall with four keynotes and 15 speakers. The 2025 edition ran 22 to 23 November in the same hall as this year, with more than 450 attendees and 17 speakers.
Tickets are sold through TipTip. Snacks and refreshments are provided on both days. A ticket is not refundable if you change your mind, but it can be transferred to somebody else through the organisers.
One thing to read plainly: early bird is a round with a quota rather than a discount that lasts until the doors open. The round before it has already sold out, so IDR 300,000 is the price now.
Know when the next one is
Meetups are announced in the WhatsApp group.
Why this is a founder's problem too, not only an engineer's
Those four themes are what your engineering team argues about on a Monday. Who decides product scope, what breaks when traffic climbs, when a rewrite costs less than another patch, and which new tool is worth the migration.
And if you are hiring engineers, a room of several hundred developers who paid their own way on a weekend is a better filter than any job advert. Sponsorship is still open as well: SerpApi took the title slot last year, and nobody has taken it this year.
So what is worth doing this week
If you have a story from production, from systems architecture, from product engineering, or from leading a technical team, send the proposal before 26 September. It costs nothing, and you still get the feedback if it is turned down.
If you are coming as an attendee, a ticket can be bought any time until the quota runs out, and the price only moves one way.
Key Takeaways
- IDSW 2026 runs 21 to 22 November 2026 at Usmar Ismail Hall, South Jakarta, 08.30 to 17.30 WIB, on a single track with no parallel sessions.
- The call for proposals is free and closes 26 September 2026. Reviewers read the proposal before they see the name on it, so an abstract that explains who you are buys nothing.
- Formats are a 30 minute full session or a 7 minute lightning talk, in English or Indonesian, submitted at cfp.idsw.dev.
- Speakers get a two-day ticket, dinner with the line-up, and written feedback on the abstract for first-timers. A ticket already bought is refunded if your proposal is accepted.
- Early bird tickets are IDR 300,000 with a limited quota, after the super early bird round sold out. The speaker line-up is not announced yet.
The event page is here: IDSW 2026.
Source: idsw.dev, with its CFP, FAQ, Sponsors and Previous Events sections, read on 7 September 2026, and the organiser's own announcement.
