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For many, but not all, faculty members in philosophy, a record of invited and/or refereed presentations at academic conferences, symposia, and workshops, and/or lectures at academic institutions, is an important component of their scholarly record.  However, such presentations should be supplemented by an ongoing program of scholarly publication.

The characteristics of a quality academic conference, workshop, or symposium include, but are not limited to, the following:

• a high number of submissions
• a low acceptance rate
• a blind review process 
• prominent invited and/or keynote speakers, if applicable
• affiliation with an established academic society

The geographical location of a conference should not be taken into account when determining the quality of the conference, or whether the conference is local, regional, national, or international in scope.  For example, a conference held in NE Ohio in which scholars from several countries are participating is an international conference, not a local one.

In the case of presentations which are not subject to blind review, it is important to distinguish between invited presentations which are based on a scholar’s record and scholarly reputation, and which are thus indicators of the scholar’s impact, and venues at which all submissions are simply accepted without review.