On the Oval on Centennial Campus will host the Entrepalooza festival Thursday to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurship on campus. Hosted by the NC State Entrepreneurship Initiative, Entrepalooza is the first festival of its kind at NC State. 

“We want to give new and returning students the opportunity to have an inside look at what student entrepreneurs are working on and see what the entrepreneurial landscape looks like on campus,” said Megan Greer, director of communications and outreach for the NC State Entrepreneurship Initiative. 

Lasting from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., Entrepalooza consists of two parts. The first half of the festival will have free food, games and interactive demonstrations from the different entrepreneurship programs across campus in the Innovation Labs. 

Beginning at 7 p.m., the second half of Entrepalooza features the Minute to Win It pitch competition, where students representing various colleges across campus will have 60 seconds to convince the audience that their entrepreneurial idea is the best. The crowd will vote on the winner, who will receive a prize of $1,000 that they can put toward their idea.

Greer said the goal of Entrepalooza is to show the Wolfpack community that students from different academic disciplines can leverage each other’s talents and skills to create something even bigger than if you did it on your own.

“In the past, we’ve had some lectures, but with Entrepalooza we want to flip the script and give NC State student entrepreneurs the opportunity to be the main event, and to showcase their ideas and what they’re working on.”

The concept for Entrepalooza first came about after the Lulu eGames last April, and the Entrepreneurship Initiative team has been working hard throughout the summer to take it from an idea into reality. 

“We have a great team, and like all good entrepreneurs, you have to have a good team,” Greer said. It really is a group effort because we all bring different talents and skills to the table, we work in collaboration and we try to practice what we preach.”

To learn more and register to attend, visit ei.ncsu.edu/entrepalooza. The event is free and open to the public. The Entrepreneurship Initiative will run a free shuttle to Entrepalooza from the Talley Student Union. Pick-up starts at 5:15 p.m. and the last drop-off after the event is 8:15 p.m.