EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: 9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 23, 2016

PLACE: Michigan League

EVENT: Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, will kick off Entrepalooza 2016 with a keynote talk about his company’s innovative business practices and commitment to corporate social responsibility.

“Jerry will bring his business acumen and passion for creative and responsible business practices to life at the podium,” said Stewart Thornhill, executive director of the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Michigan Ross School of Business. “His talk will truly embody the great sense of fun that is the company’s hallmark.”

Entrepalooza is an annual event that brings entrepreneurial leaders together to share their insights and experiences with students, alumni, faculty and members of the broader business community.

Participants at this year’s event, “Creativity Through Entrepreneurship,” will explore the power of creative thinking—solving issues and challenges that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial members of larger companies face.

Following Greenfield’s talk—and free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for all attendees—the symposium will channel attendees’ creative energies into a series of workshops designed to help them explore new ways of creative thinking. The workshops will be led by members of the U-M entrepreneurial community:

• Jeremy Peters, music publishing director at Ghostly International, co-founder of Quite Scientific Records and lecturer at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, will lead a discussion of how to work the arts into your startup idea.
• Eric Fretz, U-M lecturer in psychology, education and entrepreneurship, will discuss the psychology of creativity as individual inspiration and as group innovation.
• Tom Frank, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and adjunct professor at the U-M College of Engineering, will cover strategies for fostering a collaborative team while establishing yourself as a leader.
• Debra Mexicotte, associate director of U-M’s ArtsEngine, will show how creativity is a process that can be learned and employed, not a character trait or event.
• Michelle Belbroad, BBA ’18, and Lakin Vitton, BBA ’18, co-founders of CHISL Design, will address the importance of branding but also something even more deserving of an entrepreneur’s attention than a logo.

SPONSORS: Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, Center for Entrepreneurship at the College of Engineering, School of Public Health’s Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship program, School of Information’s Entrepreneurship Program, School of Music, Theatre & Dance’s EXCEL Program, and Innovate Blue, the university’s campuswide entrepreneurship initiative.

INFORMATION: For full schedule or to register to attend, visit entrepalooza.umich.edu. To receive event updates or share thoughts from the symposium, use hashtag #epalooza on Twitter.