Talking about 'Women Health'

Keith S. Taber

Strangely the invitation supposedly from William Stella, Conference Manager of the 'Webinar- Women Health' seems to have been sent to me by a Sara Jones of unitedresearchforum.org. Sara, or perhaps William (or perhaps Stella if the name 'William Stella' is to be read in the same way as 'Taber Keith S' as I was addressed?) would apprently be honoured if I would give a Keynote talk – about Women['s] health presumably?

Respected Taber Keith S, Greetings Hope you're staying safe and healthy during this pandemic. We would like to cordially invite you to partake as a Keynote Speaker for the upcoming "Webinar- Women Health". It is an online conference scheduled for 16-17th of September 2021. The webinar is a leading forum for Doctors, Physicians, Women Health Researchers, Public Health Professionals, Academicians i.e., Professors Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, novice researchers, and budding scientists. We are open for the Q & A Sessions, Panel Discussions with the Keynote Speaker/Attendees. Break out rooms with the requested attendees. For more information: … We look forward to a positive confirmation, an honor for us indeed. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any additional information and support from our side. Thank you Best Regards William Stella | Conference Manager

I cannot immediately see what I would have to offer, but perhaps Sara  / William / Stella has spotted some connection I have missed. Otherwise, it seems that the state of the academic conference industry has got to such a low point that anyone prepared to offer a keynote on any topic is considered good enough to put in front of (I assume) paying customers?

The scientific committee

The webinar has a scientific committee, also refered to as the organising committee who – one would assume – are at least consulted on possible keynote speakers (otherwise what is the point of such a committee?) and each member seems to be a genuine academic or professional who clearly has expertise relevant to the weninar topic. Academics allowing their names to be published as members of such a committee give prestige to the event (whilst adding an entry to their own c.v./résumé) but this is only meaningful if they are actively involved in organising the meeting. Well, I await enlightenment:

Invitation to be a Keynote Speaker: Webinar- Women Health

Dear Conference Manager William Stella (and Sara Jones) Thank you and your organising committee (Prof. Filiz Namdar Pekiner, Dr Tatiana Zavarykina, Dr Jeffrey V Leyton, Catharine Janssen, Dr Daniela Capdepon and Prof. Sophia Karagiannis) for the kind invitation to be a Keynote Speaker at 'Webinar- Women Health'. I am currently very busy with a range of projects and so have to decline most such invitations, but I do recognise that this is a very important topic where I should seek to contribute if I can genuinely be of use. You kindly invite me contact you for any additional information, and so I hope you do not mind if I ask which aspect of my research and scholarship you were hoping I might present on. I am sure that you and your impressive international scientific committee deliberate carefully before honouring colleagues with such prestigious invitations, but it is not immediately obvious to me which strand of my work would be most relevant to the intended audience of this particular webinar. If you are able to tell me which of my project(s) or publication(s) you had in mind as a basis for the Keynote when you issued the invitation, then I would be happy to give serious consideration to whether I could prepare a Keynote talk for the Webinar along those lines. You can find details of my work at: https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/taber/ https://science-education-research.com/projects/ https://science-education-research.com/publications/ I am looking forward to learning more about how my work might contribute to this webinar on a very serious and important topic. Yours sincerely Keith

Read about conferences and poor academic practice

Read about the weak basis of invitations to contribute to academic enterprises