Around the world, cities are growing at an exceptionally fast clip. As the oft-quoted statistic goes, by 2030, 6 out of every 10 people on the planet will live in a city. So how do we make sure our urban areas are filled with beauty, complexity and possibility rather than simply with overcrowding?

TED is pleased to announce TEDCity2.0, a one-day conference focused on the future of cities. Themed “Dream me. Build me. Make me real.,” TEDCity2.0 will be held on Friday, September 20, at The TimesCenter in New York City from 9am-5pm EST. The event will be hosted by Chris Anderson, Courtney Martin and John Cary.

TEDCity2.0 will go far beyond the average urban policy conversation, bringing unexpected thinkers with bold ideas — from a junkyard anthropologist to an architect who went blind midway through his career to a photographer who took the iconic aerial image of New York after Hurricane Sandy. Below, the speakers who will appear at TEDCity2.0.

Session 1: Redefining Citizen

• Poverty professor Ananya Roy, exploring the ingenuity of the world’s most vulnerable
• Peace strategist Mohamed Ali tackles terrorism with entrepreneurial verve
• Entrepreneur Eric Liu is reinventing citizenship for the 21st century
• Harassment avenger Emily May is reclaiming public safety for women and for all
• Mayor Kasim Reed is shaping the future of Atlanta, one of America’s most diverse cities
• Urban bard Felice Belle is a poetic voice of the city

Session 2: Reinventing Urban Experience

• Walkability advocate Jeff Speck, who fights against suburban sprawl and bad urban policy
• Aural artist Jason Sweeney, who is reinventing the urban experience through a crowd-sourced public art project
• Civic technologist Catherine Bracy is scaling “Code for America” internationally
• Radical professor Dennis Dalton, an Ivy Leaguer with a thing for street philosophers

Session 3: Reimagining the City

• Visionary architect Chris Downey, who lost his sight and gained new ways of seeing the world
• Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan is putting pedestrians at the forefront of transportation policy in New York City
• Robin Nagle, an anthropologist in residence at the NYC Department of Sanitation, talks trash
• Street performers John Pita and Avi Snow of City of the Sun are flamenco/blues/indie rockers
• Place maker Toni Griffin, an urban planner working to make cities more just
• Housing advocate Shaun Donovan, the U.S. Secretary of Housing & Urban Development
• Sustainability guru Lance Hosey, who’s on a mission to make green design beautiful

Session 4: Redrawing Geographies

• Transportation evangelist Enrique Peñalosa turned Bogota into an international model for pedestrian life
• Photographer Iwan Baan captures life in informal communities, including the world’s most notorious vertical slum
• Impact designer Alan Ricks believes the global south has something to teach the global north about beauty
• Burkina Faso architect Diébédo Francis Kéré creates elegance using local crafts and materials
• Writer Joshunda Sanders, who’s remapping the mental urban landscape with memoir