This is a summary of presentations for the Theory vs. Practice Forum at the 2004 American Control Conference. It presents an industrial view of the gap between theory and practice, and initiates a dialog to: 1) address the gap from practitioners’ perspectives; 2) help academic researchers better understand the issues in engineering practice and make their research more relevant; and 3) help practitioners gain a perspective of the potential impact of system and control theory to practice. Suggestions for the next steps in bridging the theory-practice gap are given.