I recently returned from speaking at an OMICS Group conference in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, I did not see this post before agreeing to speak at the conference – my wife emailed me the link whilst at the conference! – but fortunately I was not scammed of money. As such – the conference itself was shambolic in terms of the utter lack of organisation. As indicated, they had organised more than one conference in the same place at the same time – presumably to save their costs – and the whole thing felt rather sleazy. The large “organising committee” listed on the website were largely absent and/or not obviously organising anything. Similarly, the large and orderly conference room shown on the website turned out to be small and poorly laid out. (I think it had been divided in two and had an OMICS conference in each half!)
I am not sure whether they are fraudsters but either way I strongly advise boycotting OMICS Group activities on the basis that they are scientifically bankrupt beyond what the individual scientists bring to that activity. Despite the small size, lack of focus and crappy organisation, I did actually get some useful outcomes from the conference but these were despite the efforts of the organisers rather than because of them. Some of the science and individual presentations were of good quality but this was the worst scientific conference that I have attended by a long stretch – and I let them know as much in my feedback form! (Of course, visiting the website now shows a bunch of supportive quotes of praise. Either these individuals were at a different conference to me, have not experienced a good conference, or are *way* too polite.
Save your money and use it to go to a conference organised by scientists, for scientists, with science and not money/prestige/publicity as the motivator.
