The MSK CEO Summit.
"The conversations worth having don't happen on stage."
An invitation-only forum where the challenges facing the next decade of orthopaedic and MSK innovation get worked on — not just discussed. Thirty CEOs. One day. No stage. No sponsors in the room.
A room built for candor.
Not content.
There is no shortage of orthopaedic conferences. There is a real shortage of rooms where CEOs can speak plainly — about culture, capital markets, board dynamics, and the actual demands of the job. The MSK CEO Summit was built to be that room.
Every session operates under Chatham House Rule, backed by a signed confidentiality pledge. No sponsors on stage, no panels, no selling of any kind. Phones are checked at the door. The format is designed to produce candor, not content.
Nothing said here can ever be attributed to you — ever.
No selling. No pitching. No agenda but yours.
Every person you're talking to is actually there.
Attendance is capped. Applications reviewed individually.
Built for every stage. Essential at each one.
The room works because the three cohorts need each other. None of it works without all three.
Public Company CEOs
A confidential forum to discuss board dynamics, activist pressure, guidance strategy, and the personal toll of running a public company — with peers who are managing the same pressures and have no incentive to be anything other than honest.
- ◆Candid conversations with other public CEOs without an audience
- ◆A peer group on how to manage the Street for maximum share price
- ◆The one room in the industry where nothing you say gets attributed, reported, or repeated
VC & PE-Backed CEOs
- ◆Direct access to public company CEOs who have already solved the distribution and scaling problems you're in the middle of
- ◆Honest conversation about what the path to IPO actually looks like — from people who have done it in this specific market
- ◆A peer group of Builder-stage leaders facing the same capital environment and investor expectations
- ◆Intelligence on what public company boards and institutional investors actually reward
- ◆Relationships with Anchor CEOs built on substance, not a conference badge
Early-Stage CEOs
- ◆Unguarded access to leaders who are 5, 10, and 15 years ahead of you on the same path — for a full day without a pitch dynamic
- ◆The answers to questions you cannot ask your board, your investors, or your advisors without signaling uncertainty
- ◆Real talk on distribution agreements, channel traps, and commercialization decisions that look irreversible once made
- ◆A read on what capital markets actually look like from the inside — not the polished version
- ◆Relationships with Builder and Anchor CEOs formed in a setting where people have agreed to be honest
Fall 2026
November 10–11 · Scottsdale, Arizona
Facilitation team: David Dvorak, Jerry DeVries, and Kevin Rocco. Round Table topics are shaped by a pre-event questionnaire sent to all confirmed attendees.
Full-group plenary. All 30 CEOs. Moderated by David Dvorak. No slides. Structured conversation.
Concurrent breakout sessions. Topic-focused. Moderated. Attendees participate in the session most relevant to their stage.
Cocktail Reception
Welcome cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. No agenda, no presentations.
Breakfast & Town Hall
David Dvorak leads a full-group Town Hall with all participants. A structured, unscripted conversation surfacing the challenges every CEO in the room faces — Talent, Culture, Leadership, and Accountability.
Breakout Sessions
Two concurrent groups tackle the challenges most relevant to their stage.
Working Lunch
High-top cocktail tables and buffet-style food. An informal working lunch — conversations continue across cohorts.
Town Hall
A second full-group Town Hall moderated by David Dvorak. Builds on the morning's breakout discussions.
Round Tables
A second round of concurrent breakout sessions. Attendees return to their stage-specific group to continue working through the challenges surfaced earlier in the day.
Closing Town Hall
A final full-group session to surface any new challenges from the afternoon breakouts that the room wants to bring to everyone. Open, unattributed discussion.
Dinner & Cocktails
Closing dinner to follow. Program concludes in time for evening flights from Phoenix.
The questions nobody
asks on panels.
Topics are curated from a pre-event questionnaire sent to all confirmed attendees. The agenda reflects what the room actually needs.
The Reimbursement Ceiling
Coverage, coding, and the real timeline for new technology adoption. How do you build a commercial strategy around a reimbursement environment that could look completely different in 36 months?
Distribution at Every Stage
Stocking distributors, exclusivity traps, direct vs. independent, and the inflection where your distribution model becomes your biggest strategic liability. What they don't tell you going in.
Funding Innovation When Markets Are Closed
The valley of death for Series B–C companies. Bridge dynamics, LP sentiment, and what the money behind the money is actually funding and defunding right now.
Scaling New Technology — The Last Mile
FDA cleared. Strong clinical story. Adoption still 18 months behind plan. The real barriers: surgeon training, OR economics, reprocessing, capital budget cycles.
Entering New Markets
International expansion, adjacent clinical applications, ASC transition. What does the sequencing actually look like when it works versus when it consumes capital and focus for two years?
Culture Under Pressure
How do you maintain culture through a restructuring, a missed quarter, a failed product launch, or a forced pivot? The one every CEO wants to talk about and no conference creates space for.
What this room
makes possible.
These are not rules. They are the conditions that allow the room to function at the level it does. Every one of them is something you cannot access anywhere else in the industry.
Chatham House Rule and a signed confidentiality pledge mean nothing said here can be attributed to you — ever. Say what you actually think.
No press, no competitors with recording apps, no junior staff. The room is only the people in it.
No sponsors on stage. No selling. Nobody in the room needs something from you. That changes every conversation.
Phones are checked at the door and available during breaks. It is the only event in the industry where every person you're talking to is actually there.
Foursomes and hiking pairs are curated. Table assignments are intentional. The connections made here are not accidental.
Twice-annual cadence means the conversation from November carries into April. The room deepens with each event.
Attendance is selective.
Applications are reviewed individually.
Attendance is capped at thirty CEOs. Selection is based on company stage and cohort fit — not first-come, first-served. Fees are communicated upon acceptance.
You may also nominate a CEO you believe would be a strong fit for the room. The organizing committee welcomes nominations from confirmed attendees and others familiar with the event.