By Andy Meek - The Daily News -

Friday night will find Minglewood Hall packed with young professionals socializing, enjoying refreshments and live music and honoring peers for their civic, business and political achievements.

It’ll be a confab with some fun, light-hearted diversions like old-school prom photos. It also will be a meaningful gathering that represents the largest fundraising event for the nonprofit organization focused on young professionals and emerging leaders.

It’s time, in other words, for MPACT Memphis’ second annual Soul of the City Gala.

The event marks a follow-up to last year’s sell-out affair that will again honor the soul of Memphis in celebratory fashion, this time at Minglewood’s 1555 Madison Ave. digs.

“This is the big one,” said MPACT executive director Gwyn Fisher. “And it’s the kind of thing – unlike some other fundraising galas, where the people who purchase tickets are not generally recipients of the services for which you’re raising money, all the money raised for this goes right back into our MPACT events and programs.”

The organization stays busy throughout the year as a force for change – whether it’s through influencing the political process by educating more people about it, encouraging members to volunteer or promoting general participation in the community.

MPACT Memphis was founded in 2001 in an effort to tap the potential of the community’s young professionals. The organization’s vision is to be a driving force in the recruitment, retention and engagement of the creative generation of young professionals for the development of Memphis.

In one sense, Friday’s gala is a thank-you of sorts to the young leaders who make MPACT what it is. At the event, recipients of MPACT Maker Awards will be honored for everything from promoting the arts and culture to their political achievement and community involvement.

The Maker Award going to Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. will honor him as “Role Model of the Year.” (For a full list of award recipients, see box).

Tickets for the event, which can be purchased at www.mpactmemphis.org, will include prom photos for an attendee and date; free event parking; hors d’oeuvres; wine and beer; live music; and a wine-pull, where participants pay $20 to take home a “mystery bottle” of their choice.

“The great thing about this event that is so unique and so compelling is the level of diversity that we have attending,” said MPACT board chair Audra Bares. “You will see at our events, especially at this one, a cross-section of the community. People from all different racial backgrounds. People who live all over town, in Downtown, East Memphis, Germantown and Olive Branch all coming together because they’re drawn by the common theme of just wanting to do something positive in Memphis.

“For me, that’s basically the coolest thing – having all those people together in one room.”

Decision-makers in Memphis and Shelby County are slowly coming to a fuller appreciation of the importance of nurturing, attracting and retaining young professionals.

MPACT is one of 16 partner organizations involved with MemphisED, a multi-pronged economic development plan for the area.

Lynchpins of that plan include pursuing targeted industries like logistics and tourism and developing a culture of innovation – along with attracting and retaining the kinds of workers a group like MPACT focuses on.

Fisher also was a member of Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell’s transition team, which helped shape the priorities for Luttrell after he took office last year. Those priorities included a greater focus on young professionals.

“We have such a really large talent drain, and that has to be addressed if this city is going to take itself to the next level of economic development,” said Bares, in describing the mission of MPACT. “So when we talk about building new plants, building new businesses, that’s all great – but who’s going to work for them? And even if we do recruit these great people from outside the city, how are we going to keep them here?”

One way is through MPACT, with the spirit behind the gala serving as a reminder of why that’s important.

“We’re at a really exciting place right now,” Fisher said. “Our members are becoming more and more engaged in civic discourse and service. We cannot do this without community support.”