Key Points: This workshop will engage the audience to both understand and build upon the prevalent practice of large-scale youth summits as tools in the tobacco prevention effort, focusing on the opportunities and challenges such events offer. The session will tackle issues dealing with youth summits as diverse as inception, justification, design, coordination, logistics, implementation, evaluation, and follow-up after the summit is completed. Summits can be either components in a comprehensive plan or catalysts to start programs, as well as administered internally or outsourced to a vendor, and discussing strategies and experiences for navigating these facets will be a key focus in the workshop.

Learning Objectives: • Comprehend the value and function of a large scale youth summit. • Justify the value and cost to decision makers for a one time event. • More effectively implement youth summits, either internally or through vendors.

Benefits: • Education and discussion on role of youth summits, both from experience and conceptually. • Exposure to holistic view of youth summits. • Brainstorm on typical problem areas such as effective design and justification to program superiors. • Discuss “best practices” with youth summits. • Strategies to effect implementation through either vendors or program staff.