After 2008, the newly installed presidency of Raúl Castro launched several initiatives to revamp the highly centralized form of socialism for which Cuba had been known. Though Cuba’s Actualización draws from other experiences of socialist reform, it appears to be a distinctive approach. The Cuba Project/Bildner Center colloquium puts the new approach in perspective and provides an update on the evolving policies and the structural and institutional changes in progress in 2012. The colloquium closes with a review of policy and research implications.