13th ECSO Congress

Myksyk

Preparations for the 13th ECSO congress to be hosted by the Irish Skeptics Society are well under way and we are looking forward to a stimulating event from Friday Sept 7th to Sunday Sept 9th next.

The conference theme is “The assault on science: constructing a response” and we are delighted to have gathered together such an impressive lineup of national and international speakers. As well as presentations from ten invited speakers there will be a range of free papers that have been selected by the conference committee.

We were all deeply shocked and saddened by the recent sudden death of one of our keynote speakers, Barry Beyerstein. We are pleased however to announce that Barry’s wife Suzi and daughter Lindsay will attend the congress. Lindsay will present a paper on behalf of her Dad that will consider the distinctions between science and pseudoscience, a topic which greatly interested Barry and on which he intended to speak.

Dr Ben Goldacre, well known writer of the Bad Science column in the Guardian newspaper, is among the invited speakers and will receive the Robert P. Balles prize from the USA based Committee for Skeptical Inquiry at the congress.

Another invited speaker, Professor Vic Stenger, will present two papers. One will address the misrepresentation of quantum mechanics by alternative practitioners and “gurus” such as Deepak Chopra while the other will be based on his latest book “God: The Failed Hypothesis: how science shows that God does not exist” which was recently in the New York Times bestseller list.

Among the Irish presenters we are proud to have Professors John Crown and David McConnell and Dr Brian Hughes. They will consider challenges within medicine, genetics and health psychology respectively.

Professor Willem Betz from the University of Brussels will address the issue of CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) propaganda with particular reference to attempts to influence the European Parliament and the World Health Organisation.

This is but a small sample of what to expect and a detailed programme with titles and abstracts will be published shortly.

We want this to be a successful and invigorating congress and look forward to lively presentations and debate. We will host an opening reception on the Friday evening and the congress dinner on Saturday evening. This is a great opportunity to hear and to meet prominent scientists and skeptics from across Europe and further afield and we would urge you to register as soon as possible to contribute, through your presence, to what is sure to be a memorable occasion.

Tim Robbins

Thanks Myksyk. Have my ticket already.
I think the Skeptics could use the media a bit for this. There are loads of slots in the print media and various radio stations for what's going on in Dublin etc where they like putting info like this about free of charge.

Myksyk

Yeah, thanks Tim. We're just in the process of running this out to the media ... we're just trying to time it right.

Tim Robbins

Myksyk wrote:

Yeah, thanks Tim. We're just in the process of running this out to the media ... we're just trying to time it right.

Cheers. I would say get on it quickly, people need notice for anything that happens on the weekend.

JimTheBrit

Methinks Monday might be a good time, with Dawkins an' all that.

Myksyk

Ok guys ... we have a programme up on our site now for the Congress. Don't seem to be able to insert a link here at the moment so just go to www.irishskeptics.net ... click the blue ECSO symbol and find the programme. I'll insert the link later.

davros

Here's the link to the programme.

Tim Robbins

davros wrote:

Here's the link to the programme.

Hi,
I was just wondering when are the skepics society planning to let the media know about this event? There is only a week and half to go and I have heard nothing about it.
It's an ideal opportunity for the ISS to use the media to promote themselves, skepticism and the event. This is the perfect opportunity for the ISS to presents themselves to the mainstream and let the public know about them.
Right now, when I tell people about the ISS, people look at me as if I am talking about an esoteric quirky cult.
A lot of media exposure is free. Radio stations, magazine, news papers want to let people know what's going on around the capital. They want to interview and talk to people about different events.

If Richard Dawkins can work the media (in Ireland alone, he did the Late Late, Tubirdy, Newstalk, The Panel etc.) and sell a plethoria of his books surely the ISS can take a leaf out of his book for their own events.

Myksyk

Press release goes out tomorrow morning to press and radio. Papers like the Irish Times don't want the stuff any earlier than the week before ... so they told us.

Tim Robbins

Myksyk wrote:

Press release goes out tomorrow morning to press and radio. Papers like the Irish Times don't want the stuff any earlier than the week before ... so they told us.

Phew.
Everybody with a 3rd level education or interest in Science should know about this. Is it going to be in the Irish Times this Saturday?
There's a weekend section which tells people what's on during the week.
Also, I would suggest emailing the likes of William Reville directly and see if they would give the conference a mention.
Skepticism be with you.
Cheers

Barnowl

With reference to Tim Robinson's comments, the press release has issued. We have been speaking to a number of journalists and it has not been easy to get earlier coverage. Hopefully Tim should hear or see us soon. We have done the Late Late and other shows in the past and are pushing again now for coverage from those who have publicised us previously. Unfortunately, we do not have the profile or clout of Dawkins. We did try to get him involved and asked for coverage on his website as our congress theme is totally consistent with the his "enemies of reason" title, but to no avail. We have had coverage from James Randi and Michael Shermer. Also our manpower is severely limited and there are a plethora of tasks to be covered while we also hold down full time jobs. This is not by way of excuse, but is a fact of life that adds to stress and strain. We have appealed to members to publicise the congress among their own contacts. If everybody got one person on board we would be oversubscribed! If anyone has a journalist acquaintance who might be interested in our event please point them in our direction.

Barnowl

Hi again Tim. The science correspondents have been notified, as have personnel in University depts. Also Hodges Figgis are to do a promotional window.

Tim Robbins

Barnowl wrote:

With reference to Tim Robinson's comments, the press release has issued. We have been speaking to a number of journalists and it has not been easy to get earlier coverage. Hopefully Tim should hear or see us soon. We have done the Late Late and other shows in the past and are pushing again now for coverage from those who have publicised us previously. Unfortunately, we do not have the profile or clout of Dawkins. We did try to get him involved and asked for coverage on his website as our congress theme is totally consistent with the his "enemies of reason" title, but to no avail. We have had coverage from James Randi and Michael Shermer. Also our manpower is severely limited and there are a plethora of tasks to be covered while we also hold down full time jobs. This is not by way of excuse, but is a fact of life that adds to stress and strain. We have appealed to members to publicise the congress among their own contacts. If everybody got one person on board we would be oversubscribed! If anyone has a journalist acquaintance who might be interested in our event please point them in our direction.

Sounds good. What about Newstalk? Moncrief I would imagine would be quite interested.

Tim Robbins

Barnowl wrote:

Unfortunately, we do not have the profile or clout of Dawkins. We did try to get him involved and asked for coverage on his website as our congress theme is totally consistent with the his "enemies of reason" title, but to no avail.

This is the European Skeptical conference. Skepticism is supposed to be the bane of his life and he won't even give it a mention on his website. Shame that.

Tim Robbins

Tim Robbins wrote:

This is the European Skeptical conference. Skepticism is supposed to be the bane of his life and he won't even give it a mention on his website. Shame that.

Yo just some feedback went to electric picnic this weekend. Full of "save the earth" and "anti global warming" themes / stalls / posters. I ended up in several conversations about science, I mentioned to a few people about the Skeptics society and the European Skeptics conference, nobody had heard of either.