Beth Lockwood: Owner of Details NYC DMC & Events

Beth Lockwood is the Owner of Details NYC DMC & Events, one of New York City’s premiere destination management companies for nearly 20 years. Green Scene NYC Events is the sustainable division of Details NYC, born out of the passion for wanting to make a difference in the work they do. They specialize in Green, Sustainable events, Meetings and Community Service. Their mission is to minimize the environmental footprint, give back to the community they love so much and inspire others to do the same. 

More and more, companies and organizations seek to build good will in a given destination, including events and meetings with charitable or community-minded components. 

Their motto is “Leave Something Kind Behind.”

Hi Beth!  So nice to see you today.  What is the role of the Destination Management Company (DMC)?

Destination management companies are the boots-on-the-ground experts for the MICE (Meetings Incentives Conventions Events) market. We are event planners, but so much more. When a corporation wants to come to a destination, in our case New York City, we become their local partner, an extension of our clients, and pull together a program that creates their vision. That can include providing airport transportation with VIP meet and greet staff, hotels, dinners, tours, behind the scenes experiences, team building, entertainment, special events and so much more. And if they're coming in for a meeting, we do all the meeting management. We’re a one stop shop for our clients. We have all the local relationships and inside scoop on what’s happening around town, so we can expertly plan and execute a one day event to multi-day programs. 

It’s exciting that you started Green Scene NYC Events to include sustainable event management as part of your services.  Excited to hear more.

I’ve always had a strong passion for environmental sustainability, and I’m very focused on giving back to local communities. I lived in Cancun, Mexico and worked for a DMC there from 1994-1996. There  were a lot of impoverished areas around and I always felt the need to help, but wasn’t sure how at that time. After 2 amazing years living in Mexico I moved back to NYC, had various jobs in the industry and eventually started Details NYC in 2002. When I first started and was growing my business I also took on the role of running the first US Sales office for the same DMC in Mexico and continued to spend time there. I saw an opportunity for how a DMC can make a difference in the community and I created their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) department. We started doing a lot of work to improve and revitalize the schools, like painting the classrooms, buying new equipment, and repairing the buildings. Our clients loved these programs and seeing the looks on the children’s faces once they saw their new school just made it an incredible experience. 

I knew it was something I loved and wanted to do more of and that’s when I started Green Scene NYC Events. I wanted sustainability and CSR to be a big part of my company, but never had time to grow it until three or four years ago.  As we’ve become more active in that area, it’s been really rewarding, and I just want to continue.

So, working at a DMC in Cancún that had a positive impact on the community inspired you to do the same in New York City? 

Yes, we’ve been incorporating community service projects into our programming.  We’ve done some food pantry events where our clients put together bags of groceries, and write note cards.  The bags went to a local New York City food bank, and they helped families here in New York City. We also have programs that benefit children's hospitals and things of that nature. New York has given me so much in my personal and business life, that I really want to use my work to give back to the community that I love so much.

Have you done anything that was really unexpected?

I had a 40 person group from London, and we had dinner at Carmine’s in Times Square.  The food is served family style, and there's always leftovers. I hate to throw food out, but you can't donate food that’s already been put out. When the dinner was over, we had trays and trays that could have fed a whole other event. I asked the attendees if they wanted to bring it back to the hotel. They were mostly young guys that were going to go out drinking, and they didn't want to take it back. So I said, “Well, maybe we could give it to homeless people on the street.” My client loved the idea, and he engaged the whole group. And of course, he was the CEO, so they had to follow him. He's like, “Can we do that?” And I said, “Yeah, of course.” So we took the food, and the whole group followed me through Times Square. It was completely unplanned and spontaneous.  We walked through Times Square, and we just started handing out these trays of food to homeless people. And they thought that was great, and that became part of their incentive program. So I've always tried to encourage anything we can do, even in the moment.

When we started Green Scene NYC Events we were the chosen event company to plan the Launch Party of a Cruelty Free online Fashion Magazine, La Fashionista Compassionista. 150 friends and subscribers came out to celebrate the launch.  Over 60 sponsors and volunteers donated their time and talents to help prepare delicious vegan food, drinks, a rockin’ goodie bag, great music, and a raffle to raise money for TUFF TAILS Animal Rescue – The Rescue that Rocks!  It was a very successful event and we were very proud of the work we did and honored to be part of it. 

We also worked with a few corporations.  One of them was a health company, they weren't really interested in zero waste, but they wanted to have some green policies within the event. So, we started out with some vegan catering.  They didn’t want to be all vegan, but we were able to incorporate it, and spoke about why that matters with factory farming and the environment. We did composting, and we recycled the cutlery and plates, and things like that.

One of our favorites is when we volunteered our services to consult and implement the Catskill Animal Sanctuary 12th Annual Shindig, a Festival of Vegan Living. The sanctuary wanted to increase attendance, implement a ticketing system, bring on more vegan sponsors, vendors and speakers, coordinate live music, tours, cooking classes and educational sessions. Ultimately, these efforts helped the sanctuary raise money to help more neglected and abused farm animals.

We’re excited to continue to grow Green Scene NYC Events. We’ve recently changed our proposal formats to have written language about sustainability. Let's say we're putting some tour options together, I'll put a zero waste scavenger hunt as one of the options, and I'll explain in the proposal how this program has a positive impact.  

Are you seeing that the clients are choosing the sustainable options?

Everything depends on how receptive the clients are and where they're from. We have a lot of international clients. I find that some countries and cultures are very conscious and focused on the environment, and other countries not so much. But we always try to find ways to implement sustainable policies into programs.

Actually, I prefer to use the word “commitment” instead of “policy.”  Our commitment is to try to lessen the impact on the environment in the work that we do. Our commitment is to use our work as a catalyst to help the community. So, it's just committing to that, and committing to aligning ourselves with other partners who have the same vision and passion. 

Wherever I check out new places, if it's a hotel, or restaurant, or tour company, I ask if they have any kind of sustainable protocols put in place. I'm just trying to align more, and see what people are doing. And I'm finding that, for example, some hotels are really doing it. And other hotels are like, “No, we talk about it, we think about it, but we’re not doing it yet.” I have to know who's working on sustainability, because I'm putting all this together for the clients. 

The hotels and activity options that incorporate sustainability will have a competitive edge in the future. 

Absolutely. We have a ways to go here in New York City, but I’m seeing that the city is definitely, little by little, becoming more green.  Think about the wonderful Javits Center expansion, they're one of the leaders in exhibition centers for sustainability. And, we have quite a few rooftop gardens throughout the city. We did a beautiful event at the Brooklyn Grange Farm right before COVID hit. The client wasn’t looking for sustainability, but they were having a meeting in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  So we did the meeting, and then we walked them over to the Brooklyn Grange Farm, because that will lower the carbon footprint (instead of having to use transportation to go to a new location).  Plus, the Grange rooftop is very sustainable, their farm supplies a lot of restaurants with locally grown herbs and vegetables. We brought in all repurposed and recycled lounge furniture to decorate the event.  This is an example where the client wasn't asking for it, but she loved the idea in the end.

There’s a stunning view of lower Manhattan on that rooftop. 

And she never would have thought about Brooklyn Navy Yard, because it's very industrial. It's an area where, if you're not from here, you might not go there, right?  But that's why we're here.

What’s a dream that you have?  What are you excited about when it comes to sustainable events?

We're working towards being the greenest DMC in the northeast. I mean, we're really working on it. There's a lot to learn, and it's an exciting arena for us. And after being in this industry for 30+ years, and having my own business for 19 years, I feel like it's a rebirth.  I'm excited as if I just started a new company.  And I feel like we all can just do amazing things, and everyone who’s providing these types of services, we all can really make a big difference.

Details NYC: https://detailsnyc.com

Green Scene: https://detailsnyc.com/green-events

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