Designing a Summit That Leads to Action (Not Just Conversation)
Conferences are good at many things: sharing information, spotlighting promising work, and helping people reconnect. What they’re often less good at is helping people leave with clarity about what happens next.
From the beginning, the Minnesota Cancer Summit 2026 was designed with a different intention: not just to convene the field, but to launch implementation of the Minnesota Cancer Plan. That distinction shaped every planning decision.
Moving Beyond Panels for Panels’ Sake
Panels have their place. They can surface perspectives, elevate voices, and ground data in lived experience. But panels alone don’t move systems.
For this Summit, the planning team focused on a core question: How do we design a gathering that helps people move from insight to action?
That meant:
Being clear about why each agenda component exists
Designing breakout sessions around practical value and replicability, not just interesting stories
Creating space to identify champions, individuals and organizations ready to carry Cancer Plan strategies forward
Treating the Summit as a pivot point, not a stand-alone event
The goal is that attendees don’t just learn something new on February 26, but that they leave knowing where and how they can plug into what comes next.
What It Means to “Launch Implementation”
Launching implementation doesn’t mean every detail is solved in one day. It means the conditions are created for action to follow. At the Minnesota Cancer Summit, that includes:
Clear alignment with Cancer Plan priorities
Breakout sessions that highlight work already happening across Minnesota—and how others can build on it
Intentional connections between data, community experience, policy, and practice
A focus on momentum beyond the Summit itself, through workgroups and ongoing Alliance efforts
In other words, the Summit is not the finish line. It’s the starting signal.
Designing for Outcomes Requires Structure
This is where Freya + Co has been supporting the Minnesota Cancer Alliance. Our role in Summit planning has focused on process design, bringing structure to complex, multi-stakeholder decisions so that good intentions turn into clear outcomes. That includes:
Designing a transparent, criteria-based breakout session selection process
Using structured facilitation methods to help planning teams make shared decisions efficiently
Keeping the focus on what this Summit needs to make possible, not just what it needs to showcase
Good process doesn’t draw attention to itself. When it’s working well, people experience clarity, fairness, and forward motion and the work moves.
Why This Matters Now
Minnesota’s cancer prevention and control community is doing important, demanding work across clinical care, public health, community-based organizations, and policy. Time and capacity are limited. Convenings need to earn their place.
By designing the Minnesota Cancer Summit 2026 as an action-oriented launch, the Alliance is creating a moment that respects people’s time and strengthens the collective ability to move from strategy to impact.
If you’re part of this community, this Summit is an opportunity to reconnect, align, and help shape what comes next.
👉 Registration is open through February 18.
Learn more and register here:
https://mncanceralliance.org/cancer-summit-2026/
