Box 1: A vignette describing the divergent views of invited speaker and the conference organizers Carl and Sharon flagged down the waiter, Paolo and Martina had just joined them at the cocktail hour. As longtime friends and collaborators, it was nice to meet at this international medical education conference – the COVID-19 pandemic had really strained their team dynamic. After ordering appetizers, the four scientists began sharing their experiences at the conference. Paolo had noted that he had found several of the talks very interesting. “I particularly found your panel discussion about competency-based medical education quite fascinating, Carl.” “Yes,” nodded Martina. “But… I was surprised that there wasn’t a single woman or non-binary person on that stage with you. Actually… I was going to say something to you about that, Carl, because we’re friends and collaborators – it would have been nice to have a more equitable slate of experts on that conference dais. A ‘manel’ is not what I expected from you.” Carl sighed. He knew this would come up – Martina was always known for speaking her mind, and he agreed with her. However, she did not know the misery and drama that existed in that backstory. Picking up on Carl’s non-verbal cues, Sharon piped up: “I’m sure Carl didn’t mean for that panel to turn into a manel, Martina. Right Carl?” Carl went on to explain that he was well-aware of the optics of the final selection of panelists. He was an academic chair of his own department and had been trying to enact change within those auspices frequently. So, although he did not receive any specific direction from the Conference chair or coordinators, he was familiar with all the recent criticisms of “manels” (i.e., a male-centered or dominated panel of experts) – both in the literature and social media. He had worried that there would be criticisms leveled at the conference organizers (and himself), but he assured his friends that he was not oblivious to the optics. As the discussion continued, Paolo related his own experience on a different conference’s organizing committee. “What if the women or non-binary individuals you invite decline the opportunity? What if only the men say yes? I’m constantly running into this problem. The number needed to ask is much higher I find…” Paolo reflected. Paolo described how the committee, when selecting the keynote for an international conference, he was very mindful of the ‘manel’ problem and committed to inviting women and non-binary speakers. He thought it should have been an easy task because the front runners were all women, all of whom had successful academic careers and experts on the topic. However, when he reached out to invite the speakers, he was mystified by the similar refrain expressed by each woman: “Thank you for the invitation, but I must decline.” “Honestly, I would love any pro-tips you have for how to get more of the women in our field to say yes to opportunities we are trying to make for them,” stated an exasperated Paolo. Carl nodded vigorously in agreement and added: “Sharon and Martina, we know you’re not representing all women – and neither of you identifies as non-binary – but do you have any suggestions for how we could improve our process? What are we doing wrong?” Now, it was Sharon and Martina’s turn to feel slightly awkward. Though they were women, they weren’t sure if there were structures, processes, and approaches they could share with Carl and Paolo.