Emerge’s speakers, innovators and tastemakers hail from pretty much every imaginable corner of cultural endeavor. Generally speaking, you don’t see folks like David Putrino and Pony Zion—respectively a neuroscientist who crowd-sources technological solutions to humanitarian problems and a dancer who’s a master of art of “vogueing”—at the same parties, let alone the same conferences. But they both understand how rewarding and scary it is pushing ahead in new fields—and Emerge offers us dozens of similar risk-takers.

Take Madame Gandhi, the activist and electronic music artist who made an incredible statement about menstrual health during the running of a marathon. Or Matthew Maxey, CEO of DEAFinitely Dope, devoted to bringing hip-hop to folks who can’t hear it. There’s also Simon Adler, a producer for the innovative podcast Radiolab; Jena Friedman, a correspondent for National Geographic Explorer and an alumnus of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show; Christeene, a genderqueer performance artist who describes himself as a “drag terrorist”; Jamie DeWolf, a comic and circus performer who also happens to be L. Ron Hubbard’s great-grandson; Matt Pinfield, the erstwhile host of MTV’s legendary new music show 120 Minutes; and Crystal Zamora, aka B-Girl Smallz, who has devoted her life to three styles of dance: hip-hop, Flamenco and Aztec. That’s one hell of an interesting party.

EMERGE IMPACT + MUSIC April 6-8, times vary, $125-$250 full-fest pass, $20-$30 per show. Various venues, emergelv.com.