“Entrepalooza” might sound like a goofy nickname for an economic trend. But the University of Michigan takes it seriously.

The Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the U-M Ross School of Business is poised to host the annual Entrepalooza symposium on Friday. 

The university is also using the event as an opportunity to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the institute, whose inception coincided with a new focus on entrepreneurialism for the university that has since taken on new life.

"The part of the Michigan community that I live in is booming with new ideas, new businesses, new funds, people making investments," said Tom Kinnear, executive director of the Zell Lurie Institute.

The institute started 10 years ago, when Samuel Zell and Ann Lurie donated $10 million to endow the organization. The institute has encouraged a spirit of entrepreneurialism throughout the business school. 

Its efforts have involved starting two student-led venture capital funds, the Wolverine Venture Fund and Frankel Commercialization Fund, which have collectively invested $2.8 million in 23 companies.

The institute’s newest investment initiative, the Social Venture Fund, will focus on clean energy technology and environmental initiatives. Details regarding the Social Venture Fund are still being finalized.

“It’s an investment fund in the classic sense, but it’s targeted at very specific things that are deemed by some people to be social (good),” Kinnear said.

The Entrepalooza event features business executives providing advice from their experience in the entrepreneurial world.

The featured speakers are:

-Technology investor and U-M grad Ravi Mohan, co-founder and managing director of Shasta Ventures.

-Quest Management CEO and U-M grad Roger Frock, former general manager of FedEx, who steered the shipping company through troubling times in its early days.

“Somehow they survived, and it’s just a great story of a huge enterprise, of something that was almost destroyed in the early days because of all sorts of financial and business reasons,” Kinnear said.

Several people connected to the Ann Arbor business community are slated to speak. They include: tech entrepreneur and activist Dug Song; Adaptive Materials co-founder Michelle Crumm; and Amy Cell, Ann Arbor SPARK’s director of talent enhancement.

Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at nathanbomey@annarbor.com or (734) 623-2587 or follow him on Twitter.