When it's your turn to host the AdFed awards show, you throw a party. The challenge is what to do when your industry has a problem that everyone knows about and nobody wants to talk about—especially in a state full of people who are notoriously conflict-avoidant. So we leaned into our Minnesota roots, built a celebration worthy of the occasion, and then put a literal two-story elephant in the room. Surrounded by state park trail markers displaying our original research on gender inequality in the Twin Cities ad industry, it stopped people mid-drink and made them look. A webisode series starring a creative agency run by woodland creatures kept the conversation going after the lights came up. The show won four awards. More importantly, it got our community talking about something we'd all been too polite to say out loud.