By Andrew Firestone

Get ready folks, here comes a real event. For the last few years, the world-renowned Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) non-profit out of Long Beach and Palm Springs has allowed their method to spread, spawning the TEDx program. Somerville organizers successfully applied to have Somerville get its own TEDx and now a new conference to discuss the state of the American city is set to premiere on Sunday, March 4. Sure to be a discussion to remember, this TEDx will feature 25 speakers of the ‘Villen caste, along with five musical acts and 36 artists showing their work.

“The TEDx program, it’s a platform for people to connect to people their ideas and stories,” said Executive Director C. Todd Lombardo. “I think as Somerville goes through its continuous growth cycle, and experiences changes, this is one way of bringing a number of different communities together and connect people who otherwise may have not been connected and tell some stories that people may not have known.”

Lombardo, who previously organized two such conferences during a year and a half stay in Madrid, Spain, said this conference would feature everything from local health initiatives to technology companies and globalization concerns, all while connecting the vast sub-culture of Somerville to a larger audience.

“We’ve really been trying to capture the essence of Somerville: where Somerville came from, where it is now and where it’s heading and how cities like Somerville can help develop sustainably, and help encourage more creative economies,” said PR Manager Todd Van Hoosear.

The day will feature four different sessions of context: “protecting our past”, “embracing our present,” “solidifying the present” and “envisioning the future.” Each will feature the wide berth of Somerville speakers, including local entrepreneurs and non-profit organization activists.

The speaker list is astonishing in its breadth. Among the lecturers will be Prof. Sam Sommers of Tufts University discussing urban societal psychology, Planner Wig Zamore, an activist in economic development and public health, and Ezra Haber Glenn of the Somerville Community Corporation. The plan is to examine the whole breadth of what makes Somerville the diverse and dynamic community it is, keeping the nature of the melting-pot city at the forefront.

At heart will be an examination of the cultural clash between past and present Somerville, as well as the way forward.

“There are a lot of people in Somerville who aren’t too happy about the gentrification and aren’t too happy about housing prices going up,” said Van Hoosear.“So how do we bridge that gap? How do we bring those two camps together?”

Those who cannot attend will be able to watch via live-streaming. SCAT has teamed up with John Neely of Powderhouse Productions, and social media will be transmitted from the building through the “Aerva” platform.

A big draw, said Lombardo, would be the ability for TEDxSomerville to be featured on the TED website, viewed by over 500,000 people. In this way, Somerville could contribute to the avant-garde discussion of now.