Tonight, folks representing Birmingham’s future will invade the Birmingham Museum of Art for an evening of networking and learning. The second annual YP Expo starts at 5:30 p.m. and goes until 9 p.m., with organizers expecting this year’s attendee numbers to far exceed last year’s estimated total of 550.

More than 30 area organizations will share information about how our growing young professional population can become more involved in our community, though we’re thinking they’d love to see anyone who considers themselves young at heart this evening.

Listen to music, help kids. What could be easier? The Rock the House benefit concert at The Bottletree kicks off at 6 p.m. The bands — The Nathan Peek Band, City Of and Auburn Road — start taking the stage around 7. All proceeds go directly to Birmingham’s Ronald McDonald House and the party is being organized by the house’s Young Leadership Board.

Cost: Advance tickets are $10; they’ll be $12 at the door. Buy tickets online here.

Location:
The Bottletree
3719 3^rd Avenue South (directions)

The first networking event of the year for the Birmingham Urban League Young Professionals, a volunteer auxiliary of the Birmingham Urban League, consisting of males and females, ages 21-40. This event will kick off the 2008 A.G. Gaston Conference.

(FYI - the conference is hosted by the Birmingham Business Resource Center and Advanced Planning Services, LLC and it will be taking place on February 19 & 20 at the BJCC. Click here for more information.)

The event is sponsored by the Birmingham Change Fund and features food, fun great networking opportunities and information about upcoming activities at this year’s conference.

Cost: unknown

Location:
Innovation Depot
1500 1st Avenue North (directions)

The Birmingham Museum of Art’s curator, Dr. Graham Boettcher, will host an evening workshop entitled Secrets of Online Collecting Revealed. It will focus on “how to build a museum-quality collection on a budget using eBay and other online resources.”

We thought that might pique your interest…

Location:
Birmingham Museum of Art
2000 8th Avenue North (directions)

This event was originally scheduled to be held in the new Sojourns location on 20th Street North. The change in locations was due to the need to accomodate a larger crowd.

Birmingham’s “hip to be civic” organization is asking for folks to come out for great food from Franklin’s Homewood Gourmet, an extended happy hour, and music from Tekneek. They’ve also got some exciting announcements about changes in leadership and their board.

Sounds like a reason to party…

Cost: $0

Location:
Matthew’s Bar and Grill
2208 Morris Avenue (directions)

Straight from a great little blog, here’s a fun event — the Get Rhythm Experience — to be held in the atrium of the Birmingham Public Library’s Central location downtown. And what is the Get Rhythm Experience you ask? It is a collaboration of drummers, percussionists and dancers led by John Scalici. If you’ve ever seen a drum circle around town, you’ve seen John Scalici in action. The group will perform original compositions which blend urban voices and sounds with world-beat influenced rhythms from West Africa, the Middle East and Brazil. It’s part of the BPL@Night series.

Cost: Free

Seems like young professionals are on the minds of many as Larry Langford prepares to take his oath of office at noon today at Boutwell Auditorium. This morning’s Birmingham News article contains quotes from several prominent young professionals in our community about their desire to become more involved in The Magic City’s future.

While we figure that folks are tired of seeing this particular group being studied and analyzed, we did it anyway, providing results to our recent issues poll during the second half of last week ranking issues of concern to this demographic. Check it out as well as the comments submitted by participants if you get a chance today.

• What’s wrong?
• What’s right?
• What’s next?

Some of the comments may surprise you…