As a sixth-generation New Orleanian, Bonnie Boyd is no stranger to the old “Big Easy” adage, “Laissez les bon temps rouler,” and neither is her company, BBC Destination Management, where she is president and CEO.
Creating programs with themes like Mardi Gras, voodoo and Cajun fais do-do (a dance party complete with Cajun music and food), BBC prides itself on infusing fun local flavor into every event it plans and being a 24/7, service-oriented operation, according to Boyd, who is also a member of the international board of directors for SITE.
“We like to work with corporate and we recently did a glorious piece of work with Northrop Grumman [shipbuilders] for the christening of the USS New York and all of the big events surrounding the ceremony,” Boyd says. “It was a New York ship built by New Orleanians, so one event was an interface of the “Big Apple” and the “Big Easy,” with things like a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge and a New Orleans second line [brass band parade].”
Working with groups of from two people up to 10,000 and beyond, BBC, a member of Global Events Partners, is well known for customized programs such as a New Orleans jazz funeral, in which the clients “bury” the competition, and A Streetcar Named Desire, a unique mixer aboard a St. Charles Avenue streetcar, complete with costumed characters from the namesake Tennessee Williams play: Blanche, Stanley and Stella. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. As part of the program, the group also visits the Garden District home where Williams once lived and penned plays.
BBC is also a standout for culturally oriented group tour programs focusing on topics such as New Orleans’ architecture, music, literature and cuisine.
Additionally, the company offers unique cooking classes at places such as the new Southern Museum of Food and Beverage (SoFAB), dedicated to the discovery, understanding and celebration of the food, drink and related culture of the South, and The House on Bayou Road, a quaint bed-and-breakfast property.
“At SoFAB, which has everything to do with the slow-cooking movement that is so popular now, we do educational programs and cooking classes that focus on the origins of regional cuisine—Cajun, Creole and other influences such as Mediterranean,” Boyd says. “Then at The House on Bayou Road, we take fairly small meeting groups out to see a whole different architectural style—French West Indian, which is the original style of the French Quarter. We have chefs there, and the clients don aprons and learn how to make things like a Sazerac, the original New Orleans cocktail, and a roux without flour. Today, people are so interested in the historic side and the true roots of the cuisine.”
For more information, call (504) 523-9700 or visit www.bbcdmc.com.
