The Challenge
Manels…they’re a thing. It’s rarely intentional, but one of the challenges in volunteers working on components of a conference is that they aren’t always in a position to see how their individual work impacts the big picture. For the National Association of State Procurement Officials, well-intentioned volunteers developing conference sessions worked to identify individuals with the best expertise on each topic. But, NASPO found that a conference pieced together by different volunteers ends up with session after session of men-only being presented as the experts in the field. The “manel” phenomenon didn’t go unnoticed, one evaluation response noted “The last few panels were devoid of women. Given the large number of women involved in procurement, and the specific challenges women face…I hope that next year the panels are more balanced.”