Paxahau beefs up employment for this year's Movement

It's May, and that means its time for the Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit. It also means that Paxahau is ramping up its hiring.

The Ferndale-based firm with strong ties to Detroit has run the region's pre-eminent electronic music festival (formerly DEMF) since 2006. Each year the music event management firm pumps up its staff from its usual 10 people and an intern to 250 people on the payroll, 32 interns and 200 volunteers to run Movement over Memorial Day weekend.

That small army makes the downtown music festival in Hart Plaza go smoothly. Last year it attracted 95,000 people. Paxahau's president & co-founder, Jason Huvaere, expects to surpass that number this year, the 12th edition of Movement, weather permitting.

"We're anticipating breaking 100,000 for sure," Huvaere says. "Our pre-sales are double what they were last year."

Paxahau has steadily grown over its 13 years as it has evolved into a full-service event management agency. It has hired one person over the last year, expanding its staff to six full-time and four part-time people, along with at least one intern. Huvaere points out that his company normally hires a new person each year, but says that it could be as many as 2-4 in 2012.

Source: Jason Huvaere, president & co-founder of Paxahau
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.