diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 7864f2b31e..f5d93d6b8a 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ debug = 1
 async-std = "1.10"
 async-trait = "0.1"
 bytes = "1"
+criterion = "0.5"
 futures-core = "0.3"
 futures-executor = "0.3"
 futures-util = { version = "0.3", default-features = false }
diff --git a/examples/tracing-grpc/src/client.rs b/examples/tracing-grpc/src/client.rs
index c35dee079e..38a7c93f92 100644
--- a/examples/tracing-grpc/src/client.rs
+++ b/examples/tracing-grpc/src/client.rs
@@ -50,9 +50,9 @@ pub mod hello_world {
 async fn greet() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error + Send + Sync + 'static>> {
     let tracer = global::tracer("example/client");
     let span = tracer
-        .span_builder(String::from("Greeter/client"))
+        .span_builder("Greeter/client")
         .with_kind(SpanKind::Client)
-        .with_attributes(vec![KeyValue::new("component", "grpc")])
+        .with_attributes([KeyValue::new("component", "grpc")])
         .start(&tracer);
     let cx = Context::current_with_span(span);
     let mut client = GreeterClient::connect("http://[::1]:50051").await?;
@@ -75,10 +75,8 @@ async fn greet() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error + Send + Sync + 'static
             status_code.to_string()
         }
     };
-    cx.span().add_event(
-        "Got response!".to_string(),
-        vec![KeyValue::new("status", status)],
-    );
+    cx.span()
+        .add_event("Got response!", vec![KeyValue::new("status", status)]);
 
     Ok(())
 }
diff --git a/examples/tracing-http-propagator/src/client.rs b/examples/tracing-http-propagator/src/client.rs
index e08d3695cc..35e2530b4a 100644
--- a/examples/tracing-http-propagator/src/client.rs
+++ b/examples/tracing-http-propagator/src/client.rs
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ async fn send_request(
         .await?;
 
     cx.span().add_event(
-        "Got response!".to_string(),
+        "Got response!",
         vec![KeyValue::new("status", res.status().to_string())],
     );
 
diff --git a/opentelemetry-appender-log/Cargo.toml b/opentelemetry-appender-log/Cargo.toml
index 17bf2c3049..f383b0b322 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-appender-log/Cargo.toml
+++ b/opentelemetry-appender-log/Cargo.toml
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ serde = { workspace = true, optional = true, features = ["std"] }
 [features]
 logs_level_enabled = ["opentelemetry/logs_level_enabled"]
 with-serde = ["log/kv_serde", "serde"]
-default = ["logs_level_enabled"]
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 opentelemetry_sdk = { path = "../opentelemetry-sdk", features = [ "testing", "logs_level_enabled" ] }
diff --git a/opentelemetry-appender-tracing/Cargo.toml b/opentelemetry-appender-tracing/Cargo.toml
index 7f94e9ec0a..7ce1834746 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-appender-tracing/Cargo.toml
+++ b/opentelemetry-appender-tracing/Cargo.toml
@@ -24,13 +24,12 @@ log = { workspace = true }
 opentelemetry-stdout = { path = "../opentelemetry-stdout", features = ["logs"] }
 opentelemetry_sdk = { path = "../opentelemetry-sdk", features = ["logs", "testing"]  }
 tracing-log = "0.2"
-async-trait = "0.1"
-criterion = "0.5.1"
+async-trait = { workspace = true }
+criterion = { workspace = true }
 
 [features]
 experimental_metadata_attributes = ["dep:tracing-log"]
 logs_level_enabled = ["opentelemetry/logs_level_enabled"]
-default = ["logs_level_enabled"]
 
 
 [[bench]]
diff --git a/opentelemetry-proto/Cargo.toml b/opentelemetry-proto/Cargo.toml
index 65836b58e7..626542884d 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-proto/Cargo.toml
+++ b/opentelemetry-proto/Cargo.toml
@@ -60,4 +60,4 @@ hex = { version = "0.4.3", optional = true }
 tonic-build = { workspace = true }
 prost-build = { workspace = true }
 tempfile = "3.3.0"
-serde_json = "1.0"
+serde_json = { workspace = true }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/Cargo.toml b/opentelemetry-sdk/Cargo.toml
index e57aa5d612..59d2abc1c1 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-sdk/Cargo.toml
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/Cargo.toml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ all-features = true
 rustdoc-args = ["--cfg", "docsrs"]
 
 [dev-dependencies]
-criterion = { version = "0.5", features = ["html_reports"] }
+criterion = { workspace = true, features = ["html_reports"] }
 temp-env = { workspace = true }
 
 [target.'cfg(not(target_os = "windows"))'.dev-dependencies]
diff --git a/opentelemetry/Cargo.toml b/opentelemetry/Cargo.toml
index f9e7d9c42e..ac5e5f69d3 100644
--- a/opentelemetry/Cargo.toml
+++ b/opentelemetry/Cargo.toml
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ otel_unstable = []
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 opentelemetry_sdk = { path = "../opentelemetry-sdk", features = ["logs_level_enabled"]} # for documentation tests
-criterion = { version = "0.3" }
+criterion = { workspace = true }
 rand = { workspace = true }
 
 [[bench]]