Michelle Hughes

First-time entrepreneur

Protea Events

AlwaysOn

Serendipitously fell into it...

I am originally from South Africa and am lucky enough to find myself living in Silicon Valley. My type-A personality makes event planning the perfect career choice for me. I get such a rush from running a well organized and executed event and making sure that every little detail is not over looked.

I started Protea Events in February 2010 and so far the experience has been very rewarding. I get to work with a variety of clients that really have a strong influence in the tech world and I get to meet interesting people.

Prior to starting Protea Events I was Director of Event Planning for AlwaysOn for 3 years. While at AlwaysOn it was my job to oversee all of the logistical aspects of their conferences. By the time I left them, we were doing ten large conferences per year plus a number of smaller meetings.