Can Palm Springs Beat The Heat?

Palm Springs is getting ready to talk about the heat, and it couldn't come at a more fitting time. As the Coachella Valley braces for temperatures pushing near 120 degrees this month, the city is opening registration for its first-ever Extreme Heat Summit, open to the public and set for Friday, September 18, at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Tickets run $28.52 through Eventbrite.

The full-day event, titled "Heat as Infrastructure: Designing Systems, Cities, and Services for Resilience," is being put on by the city's Department of Sustainability alongside its Office of Emergency Management. The idea is to get government leaders, doctors and public health workers, emergency managers, city planners, business owners, and nonprofit groups all in the same room to figure out how the valley protects people as extreme heat becomes more common and more dangerous, though the city has not yet announced who will be speaking.

After a welcome and keynote address, the day breaks into four sessions: "The Human Cost of Extreme Heat," "Systems Under Stress: Where People Go When Systems Fail," "Designing Cool Cities and Heat-Safe Places," and "Scaling Healthy and Climate-Resilient Communities." The summit closes with a session called "From Risk to Resilience: A Systemic Approach."

People who want to attend can register through Eventbrite. The Department of Sustainability is also looking for volunteers to help run the event, and organizations interested in sponsoring or speaking can reach out directly to the department.