-Nelia

"It takes a village to plan an event, and I believe that being part of that village should be inspiring, collaborative, and fun."

I have presented at various inclusion disability related conferences, and have sat on our school district’s Inclusion Task Force.

When I am not working, you will find me spending time with my husband Ken and two daughters Sabrina and Alexa, my 3 dogs Flynn (who I adopted at an industry event!), Bowie and Theo. I enjoy reading, happy hours with friends, and traveling.

• I got featured in Pottery Barn’s International Women’s Day campaign!
• STYLE Folsom/EDH Magazine

Also visit me at The Culinary Travel Guide and Travel Northern California.

I enjoy helping other women discover their passions and creating resources to help them along the path of living their best lives.. 

I enjoy learning and growing as a professional. I am a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), and a CEM (Certified in Exhibition Management).

I believe in being actively involved in my community. I am a member of Cal-TASH (the California state chapter of TASH, the international leader in disability advocacy which advocates for human rights and inclusion for people with significant disabilities and support needs). 

I started my Event Management career in 2001, when I jumped right into planning logistics for a large (20k person) trade show, never having even attended a single trade show in my life.

Needless to say, I had no idea what I was getting into.

When the event came around, I was so overwhelmed on Day 1 of move-In that I hid in a bathroom stall (the only place where I didn't have people constantly asking me questions that I didn't know how to answer), put the toilet seat down, sat down with head in my hands, and told myself myself that I would quit my job right after the event was over.

Here I am, 24 years later, no longer hiding in bathroom stalls.

Since then I've been involved in managing events ranging from 50 to 30,000 attendees, and I provide other event managers the tools and resources that they need to produce successful events. And I absolutely love it.

You may be here because you too have a passion for events, or are looking for someone to partner with on our next event. As the owner of Blue Plaza Events, I help companies and associations produce high-quality tradeshows, conferences, and meetings. I bring 24 years of event management experience to companies such as Informa, Linux Foundation, Gainsight, and Freeman.

The freedom of my work fuels me. I often look forward to Mondays (crazy, I know) because I absolute love what I get to do, especially working with clients, business partners and vendors.

ABOUT ME

PCMA Collective City Leader