On April 6th, 2011, the Cambridge Public Health Department and the Institute for Community Health co-sponsored the 8th Annual Real World Public Health Day. The half-day event engaged area public health graduate students in lively exchanges of ideas and problem-solving around real and current local public health challenges through workshops, a panel discussion, and a networking lunch. This year’s hot topics included: the local public health response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, banning smoking in parks, addressing disparities in physical activity and obesity, and the local public health response to a norovirus outbreak.