Background: A close acquaintance of mine is a tenured faculty member at a minor US college, having worked there for several decades. They are very well respected for their contributions to the college, students, and community, but they really haven't played a research role. This individual isn't the best when it comes to navigating the perils of the Internet, which brings us to the scenario and question...
Scenario: For both fiscal and, I suppose, for personal reasons, they want to submit a paper to the ATINER conference. I think that submitting a few papers may change their title and pay grade, which would help them before moving towards retirement within the next decade, as their family has some financial issues.
Question: Is this a legitimate conference, and what risks of participating? It appears on librarian Beall's List of potentially predatory conferences. However, from my inspection, it seems to be established, but perhaps low quality. I cross-referenced a couple of their past speakers and the talks do indeed appear on actual people's CV's.
So, to reiterate, my acquaintance is not a researcher, per se, nor desires to be known as one. With that in mind, what are the pros and cons of submitting a paper and giving a talk? I mainly want to protect my friend from harm.
