Conference Program Schedule
Wednesday, March 26
5:30 - 6 p.m.
First Timers' Reception
Just for our first-time attendees, a special reception where you can meet the ICCFA leadership and other first timers, as well as get a sneak peek at this year's Expo Hall. Welcome!
6 - 8 p.m.
Grand Opening Reception
All aboard as we embark on the most exciting and fun trade show in the cemetery, cremation and funeral service profession. No other association does it quite like the ICCFA ... and no other crowd brings quite the same energy! With 250+ booths and free food and drink service available throughout all Expo hours, this will be a cruise you won't soon forget!
Thursday, March 27
8 - 9 a.m.
ICCFA Annual Meeting of Members
Don't miss this once-a-year opportunity to participate in the future of your trade association! You'll have an opportunity to:
- cast your vote for the nominees to the Board of Directors
- hear reports on current ICCFA initiatives from the president, vice presidents and treasurer
- learn about the future direction of the organization
- participate in our annual Memorial Service, honoring members and their family who have died in the past year
9 - 10 a.m.
General Session
On Top and Still Climbing
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Barry "The Maverick" Wishner, ProFormance, Woodside, CA
Becoming Number 1 in business can be easier than staying Number 1. If you have reached the top of your market, where do you and your staff go from there?
Hear the story behind the story on how great leaders get to the top and stay there year after year. Discover how America's most admired business execs continuously innovate and avoid "psychoschlerosis" - hardening of the imagination! Barry's interviews of more than 2,000 business executives (including 350+ in the Fortune 500) reveal their behind-the-scenes secrets for continuing to grow and improve.
Like NASCAR Champions, great leaders focus on the next curve, not the last. Find out how to accelerate your company's success and leave your competitors even farther behind in the dust!
10 - 11 a.m.
General Session
Veterans Tributes: Delivering the Best
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Ernie Heffner, CFuE, Heffner Funeral Homes, York, PA
Those who have served our country deserve nothing less than the best our industry has to offer. In this moving General Session presentation, funeral director Ernie Heffner will share his insights and experiences on paying tribute to veterans. He will offer suggestions on how cemeteries, crematories and funeral homes can touch the lives of others by embracing the privilege, opportunity and duty to honor those who have served.
From receiving the initial notification of a veteran's death to visiting with the family after the service, topics to be covered will include:
- appreciating the significance of a veteran's tribute
- transferring a deceased veteran
- creating a meaningful service
- special recognition of pallbearers and family
- video tributes
- cortege recognition
- cemetery tributes and dedication ceremonies
- procurement of Presidential Citation
- protecting the dignity of services for a veteran
- flag-retirement program
11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Lunch at the Expo
Enjoy lunch and networking as you visit every booth. From memorials, monuments and maintenance equipment, to caskets, crematories and computer software, this is the only Expo in our profession where you'll find it all! Find out how the suppliers that provide so much support to this industry can support your company's efforts to offer more and better service to families.
2:10 - 5 p.m.
Breakout Sessions
2:10 - 3 p.m.
Private Estates: 8 Ways to Make the Sale
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Nancy Lohman, Daytona Memorial Park and Lohman Funeral Home, Ormond Beach, FL
Private estates are among the most prestigious memorialization options available to consumers and are a significant source of potential revenue. But too often cemeteries neglect to properly market and present this option.
How can you enhance your private estate garden? How should you market it to your community? Nancy Lohman will share eight key action plans, which-once put into motion-will successfully lead to private estate sales.
LaughterCare: Laugh for the Health of It!
Nancy Weil, The Laugh Academy and Mount Calvary Cemetery, Cheektowaga, New York
Who wouldn't benefit from the optimism, boost of energy and kindness brought on by therapeutic laughter? For those who face grief, loss and sorrow regularly, laughter can often be the best medicine, helping to reduce stress, improve the immune system, increase creativity and strengthen social relationships.
Therapeutic laughter is known to instill attitudes of tolerance, forgiveness and compassion and plays a key role in helping people heal from grief and tension. In this session, Nancy Weil, president of The Laugh Academy and the director of aftercare for Mount Calvary Cemetery, will highlight how that cemetery uses laughter to benefit staff and families. Find out how to put more laughter into your life as well as the lives of those you work with and the clients you serve.
Collaboration: The Key to Success
Derek Maher, KMI Columbaria, TaTa Creek, BC
Working together, cemeteries, crematories and funeral homes can do more than they can apart. In this session, Derek Maher brings his 25 years of experience working as a funeral director, a cemetery sales counselor, a cemetery business coordinator and other positions to bear in exploring the similarities today's funeral homes and cemeteries share and where each group is coming from when making decisions.
In this highly participatory session, you will collaborate with your colleagues to explore:
- examples of how cemeteries and funeral homes can work together to increase revenue through partnerships on products
- how industry groups can work together to further educate the public/clients, e.g., through joint seminars ensuring we are all speaking the same language and striving for the same goal.
- examples of how cemeteries can work hand in hand with funeral homes on-site
- examples of some frank language to use when speaking to clients
Providing Continuity of Care for the Bereft
Chuck Vaughn, Advocates for Grief Recovery, Champaign, IL
Studies show at least 30 percent of a decedent's next-of-kin experience either clinical depression or traumatic grief as a result of losing their loved one. Does your staff know the difference between these two conditions and how to appropriately assist bereaved individuals through aftercare services?
Traumatic grief, sometimes referred to as "complicated grief," predisposes the bereaved to a host of more life-threatening events than clinical depression. When not treated, traumatic grief forces the bereft to live in a constant state of grief. Since the funeral director is often a "gatekeeper," he or she can educate families to understand the symptoms of this condition and encourage them to seek assistance from their physician or health care provider. In this session, Funeral director and Advocates for Grief Recovery President Chuck Vaughn will introduce a program for providing this type of continuity of care.
2:10 - 4 p.m.
Government & Legal Review
Join moderator Irwin Shipper, CCE, and a panel of legal and regulatory specialists as they explore the latest laws, regulations and court decisions that can help or hurt your business. We're going interactive: Want to suggest a topic? Contact Bob Fells at rfells@iccfa.com. We'll have ample time for your questions, so try to stump the experts!
3:10 - 4 p.m.
Lemons into Lemonade: Turning Complainers into Advocates
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Jill Cody, clinical professional counselor, Frederick, Maryland
Our profession often faces customers who focus on all the things that can go wrong. The cemetery, crematory and funeral home make easy targets for criticism and complaints, resulting in a stressful environment for those personnel who must handle these individuals with tact and empathy.
In this session, Jill Cody will show you how to discern between those who have a valid criticism and those who just need to vent, and how to handle both. Discover specific approaches you can use to turn negative situations into positive outcomes.
Preneed Marketing: What They Didn't Teach You at Mortuary College
Dan Katz, LA Ads Marketing Services/Airway to Heaven, Northridge, CA
Consumers dislike advertising, and they particularly hate funeral advertising. Why? Because they don't want to think about death and they often think of funeral directors as making a living off others' grief.
In this session, Dan Katz will help you navigate through these promotional challenges and show you how to develop marketing initiatives that gain attention, create acceptance, build trust and generate new leads. He'll show how to integrate your message via multi-level marketing, using a variety of media including advertising, direct mail and the Web. You also will walk away with a Trust-Marketing Guide that allows you to evaluate your own marketing efforts by providing you with specific, actionable steps on how to create and build your brand.
Legal Pitfalls: Avoiding Cremation Liability
Harvey Lapin, Harvey I. Lapin, P.C., Northbrook, Illinois
According to Harv Lapin, "There are two kinds of crematories: those that have been sued and those that will be sued." What are some best operating practices to incorporate into your standard operating procedure? Where are the areas of greatest risk in the operation of a crematory? What can you do to minimize your exposure? This session will review areas of concern when dealing with the cremation customer and provide guidelines for avoiding liability, providing you with sound guidance you can use to minimize your risk.
The Evolution of Prepaid Funeral Funding
Mark L. Solverud and Bob Baculik, National Guardian Life Insurance Co., Madison, Wisconsin
Over time, products and programs available to funeral directors and consumers for funding prepaid funerals have changed and evolved. This presentation will offer you a perspective of the history of prepaid funeral funding along with some of the factors driving product evolution. Mark Solverud and Bob Baculik also will provide insight into possible concerns with current funding vehicles and how those concerns may impact the development of future product offerings.
4:10 - 5 p.m.
Creating or Expanding a Cemetery
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Robert Quist and Jim March, Singing Hills Memorial Park, San Diego, California
Whether you are thinking of developing a new cemetery or expanding an existing cemetery, you cannot afford to miss this presentation from two executives who have "been there, done that." Robert Quist and Jim March of the recently opened Singing Hills Memorial Park in San Diego will examine in depth the obstacles they faced, including:
- opposition from existing area cemeteries
- challenges in gaining community acceptance
- acquiring the money needed for a $3.2 million start-up price tag.
- difficult environmental issues they encountered at their location-which included wetlands, endangered species and archeological and historical site preservation efforts
The Balanced Score Card: Managing Cemetery and Funeral Home Growth
Nevin W. Mann, CCFE, West Laurel Hill Cemetery Companies, Bala Cynwd, Pennsylvania
Expand the way you evaluate your company's success beyond the traditional financial measures by adopting the Balanced Score Card (BSC) approach. This 7-step process was introduced in 1994 by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton in a Harvard Business Review article that has attained the "Best of HBR" status. Using the principles of the BSC approach, Nevin Mann will show how you can not only make sure you are doing things right, but that you are doing the right things.
Forms Management: Making Sense of the "Alphabet Soup"
Poul Lemasters, Rosenacker & Associates, Cincinnati, Ohio
GPL + CPL + OBCPL + SFGS = Cemetery, cremation and funeral forms alphabet soup! Do you need to sift through the ABCs of our industry's ever-growing mountain of forms? Come join Poul Lemasters as he shares his knowledge and insight pertaining to forms and records management. You'll learn how to maneuver the ocean of form requirements for everything from cremation authorizations, to viewing requirements, to details of special arrangements and more. Whether you have been in this business one day or 20 years, it is important to make sure you always have the right forms in place to keep all parties on the same page and to ensure your business is paid promptly for any services rendered.
Among the topics discussed:
- Creating an inventory of all necessary forms
- Avoiding the most common pitfalls when generating forms
- "Magic" language to include in your forms
At-Need Insurance Assignments: No More 'All You Can Eat' Buffet!
Ken Bohrer, Forethought Capital Funding, Batesville, Indiana
Funeral homes accepting at-need insurance assignments know firsthand that these programs are sometimes risky, present administrative hassles and may take months before resulting in payment. A better choice for many funeral homes is to work with third parties who provide fee-based at-need insurance assignment programs. Yet it is rare that these funeral homes pass on any service or administrative fees to the consumer. It's like a free coupon to the all-you-can-eat buffet!
In this presentation, participants will learn how to demonstrate the value that capital funding services offer to the end consumer and ways to charge for this highly beneficial service. Passing on costs to the family for processing and funding of insurance assignments may be a new concept, but it results in benefits for both you and your customers.
5 - 7 p.m.
IMSA Reception
Join your colleagues for a networking Expo Reception hosted by the International Memorialization Supply Association.
Friday, March 28
7:30 - 8:45 a.m.
Prayer Breakfast: Separation of Church and State: Has It Gone Too Far?
ICCFA President Paul Elvig will lead a lively discussion on this timely topic, so bring along your opinions and your experiences.(Ticket required.)
9 - 10 a.m.
General Session
Marketing & PR: Media Buzzing Made Easy
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Justin Zabor, Zabor Funeral Home Inc. &emp; Zabor Enterprises LLC, Cleveland, Ohio
Looking to generate some media buzz for your business? Want your community outreach efforts to dramatically impact your bottom line? In this multi-media presentation, funeral director Justin Zabor will share how to develop a dynamic plan that will have reporters and industry analysts reaching out to you. Learn how to use free publicity to establish your credibility, enhance your reputation, position yourself as an expert, sell more products and services, promote a favorite issue or cause and position your company as an employer of choice.
Topics covered will include:
- composing press releases for television, radio and the Web
- developing highly targeted PR events to generate visibility and brand awareness
- spreading the word about your business through community involvement
10 - 11 a.m.
General Session
State of the Profession 2008: Crisis or Crossroads?
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Alan Creedy, Creedy & Company, Raleigh, North Carolina
Don't miss this fascinating analysis of the top trends affecting cemeteries, crematories and funeral homes alike, including:
- consumer behaviors that are shaping your future and how you can improve your own fortune by adapting
- the difference between cost-generating and revenue-generating responses to market change, and how to refocus your efforts in ways that increase profitability rather than overhead
- the tradeoffs consumers make over three critical factors: function, emotion and price. (Most providers focus on either function or price, leaving the most important element-emotion-to chance.)
11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Lunch with Exhibitors
Don't miss this final opportunity to explore the Expo Hall. Be sure to visit every booth and pick up the literature and business cards you need so that you and your staff can make the right purchasing decisions when you get back to the office!
2:10 - 5 p.m.
Tour of Singing Hills Memorial Park
(Spanish-language guide will lead one of the buses)
Ticket required (No charge; available on your registration form.)
Sponsored by Singing Hills Memorial Park
Singing Hills Memorial Park is the only new cemetery established in San Diego County in almost 40 years. Don't miss this opportunity to view and experience this property's:
- dedicated 35 acres of burial, mausoleum and cremation property
- nearly 65 acres of beautiful Wildlife Preserve which surround the park
- one-of-a-kind setting offering peace and reflection
Each bus on the tour will be led by a member of Singing Hills' management team, who will offer an overview of the cemetery's history and development and answer questions. As part of the tour, you'll receive a free DVD with additional information and photographs and video of the property.singing
2:10 - 5 p.m.
Breakout Sesssions
2:10 - 3 p.m.
Reaching Out to the Value-Driven Consumer
John Greiwe, Batesville Casket Company, Batesville, Indiana
John Greiwe will spotlight consumer research regarding the perceptions, preferences and choices of today's value-driven consumers. Come learn about the latest data and how to tailor your presentations accordingly to effectively communicate value.
- understand what drives value perception
- learn how bonding facilitates communication
- identify the key elements of an effective explanation
- explore the impact of information and learning on consumer choices
- discover how to use printed, video and hands-on communications to enhance your presentations
2:10 - 3 p.m.
Web (Marketing) 2.0: The Future of the Internet
Robin Heppell, Heppell Funeral Planning, Victoria, BC
Web sites, email, online retail. That's all so ... today. But what does tomorrow hold? Join funeral director and futurist Rob Heppell to find out how wikis, folksonomies, blogs, podcasts and social networks are transforming the Internet and the world. Learn the latest statistics and practical applications for how you can use these tools and technologies to connect with your community and promote your services.
2:10 - 4 p.m.
Beyond You: Hiring the Right Staff
John Earle, John Earle Consultants, Toronto, Ontario
Hiring the right staff, from your receptionist to your sales counselors to your upper-level managers, results in better performance, happier clients and more revenue.
In this two-hour session, John Earle will share a turnkey approach that can greatly improve your hiring capabilities, including:
- systems for interviewing, selecting and hiring candidates
- five key planks for evaluating potential hires
- 25 interview questions that "dig deep"
- a sample temperament profile test
- coaching techniques that work
John Earle, a former senior vice president of Toronto-based Arbor Memorial Services, hired many of the key executives at that company who continue to lead the organization today, 15 years later. Discover his turnkey approach for hiring the right people for your company.
3:10 - 4 p.m.
Tech Talk: Increasing Your Productivity and Profitability
Laura Skow, SRS Computing Solutions, Wexford, Pennsylvania
The right technology can make all areas of your business more efficient, allowing you to better streamline your marketing efforts, administer sales leads, track customer service inquiries and manage staff. The end result? Reduced operational costs and an improved competitive edge.
Laura Skow will show you what technology -- both hardware and software -- your business can't afford to do without. Don't miss this highly informative session as Laura provides advice on pitfalls to avoid when purchasing software, how to make the best use of the software you currently have, how to integrate your marketing into the preneed sales process and how to use the Web to promote your services.
3:10 - 5 p.m.
Difficult Case Embalming: A Two-Part Seminar
Matt Smith, Frigid Fluid Co., Northlake, Illinois
Licensed funeral director and embalmer Matt Smith has experience embalming more than 7,200 bodies. In this two-part session, he will cover:
- Edema cases: Learn new techniques for removing severe edema and restoring a 100 percent natural look to the skin
- Facial expression: Discover professional techniques for creating a natural expression, including new ways to close the mouth and set features
4:10 - 5 p.m.
Cremation: Threat or Opportunity?
Jim Price, Keystone North America, Tampa, Florida
Jim Price will share with you a strategy for creating a shared vision for serving cremation families and preserving their memories. By educating the consumer- and the arranger-you can turn cremation from a threat to be feared into an opportunity to be embraced. Topics covered will include:
- "Cremation Economics 101," a look at the difference in ROI your staff can achieve when operating under the right vision
- how Keystone has brought its properties-217 funeral homes, 16 cemeteries and 25 crematories-on board to adopt this vision
- tools and resources for helping your staff embrace cremation and the possibilities it presents
- and more
4:10 - 5 p.m.
Ethical Practices for Today's e-World
Edith Churchman, Ph.D., James E. Churchman Jr. Funeral Home, Newark, New Jersey
While technology can make running your business more efficient, it also can present significant ethical challenges. For example, does your employee handbook address topics such as digital photography and online social networking sites? Do you know how to log on to Internet sites such as MySpace and Facebook to check for potential lapses in ethical judgment and behavior? In this session, funeral director Edith Churchman will uncover the many sticky ethical challenges in today's rapidly evolving electronic work place.
5 - 6:00 p.m.
Organizational Board Meeting
6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
ICCFA 2008 Awards Reception
Join us for a networking reception honoring the 2008 ICCFA Hall of Fame winner and the newest recipients of the association's certification awards.
Saturday, March 29
9 - 11:50 a.m.
Breakout Sessions
9 - 9:50 a.m.
Broadening Your Customer's Horizons - An Update
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Jeff Johnson, Carrier Mausoleums Construction Inc., Ville St. Laurent, Quebec
In this follow-up session to his 2007 presentation pm consumer preferences, Jeff Johnson will shed further light on consumer knowledge -- or lack thereof-about our industry. Through videotaped footage, you'll witness direct consumer feedback on what they expect from our industry and what we must offer to bring them to our doorsteps.
Come learn some of the top reasons existing clients have chosen specific services and products over others. Discover how to improve your success with your customers and prepare your business for the rapid change our industry regularly encounters.
9 - 10:50 a.m.
Avoiding the Litigation Bull's Eye
Mike Kubasak, Kubasak Associates, Inc., Mesquite, Nevada
Fact: Your funeral, cremation or cemetery is a walking litigation target.
Cause: Litigation, fueled by feelings of entitlement and the potential for huge settlements, is now a fact of life for everyone in our profession.
Solution: If you want to remove the "bull's eye" from your business, don't miss this highly informative two-hour session providing legal guidelines for:
- six methods of identification
- 10 best practices for developing ID policies
- using inspections (in-house and third-party) to strengthen a defense
- document retention
- and more
You'll discover how to shield your business from potential lawsuits by identifying three main areas of risk which, if not tended to effectively, will surely result in a litigation "direct hit"!
9 - 11:50 a.m.
'Going Green' Symposium
Darren Crouch, Passages International Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico; Michael P. Kelley, IIDA, LEED AP, KZF Design, Cincinnati, Ohio; Tim Rivera, Rivera-Hanlon Funeral Home, Taos, New Mexico; and Joe Sehee, Green Burial Council and Conservation Burial Partners LLC, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Our profession cannot afford to ignore the "green consumer." Today, more than 63 million people regularly purchase green goods and services. It should be no surprise, then, that these individuals would turn their environmental concerns toward the cemetery, cremation and funeral industry.
In this three-hour symposium led by four of the top experts in this arena, you'll learn how to attract the green consumer while at the same time saving money and helping protect the environment. Among the topics to be covered:
- how to identify "green consumers" and create green-friendly service and product packages that will meet their needs.
- five key considerations for creating sustainable and environmentally beneficial environments
- how to follow LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) principles during development, construction and renovation projects
- how traditional cemeteries, crematories and funeral homes can collaborate with non-traditional partners to better serve their communities
- how offering "green" options can encourage cremation customers to memorialize rather than scatter
10 - 10:50 a.m.
Pre-Need Sales: Real-Life Scenarios
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Howard Cohen, Insyte Consulting and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Community Mausoleum, Smithtown, NY
Discover the dynamics of cemetery in-ground burial and mausoleum preneed sales as well as the key skills and marketing techniques needed to succeed! In this highly interactive session, you'll learn how to employ specific sales techniques, illustrated through real-life scenarios. A special emphasis will be placed on applying these principles to community mausoleum preneed sales.
11 - 11:50 a.m.
Cremation Crash Course: Surviving State Inspections
Paul Elvig, Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home & Cemetery, Seattle, Washington
As a former state regulator who has inspected all of the crematories in Washington state, Paul Elvig knows what state inspectors are looking for in the area of cremation records and documentation. Whether your own your own crematory or contract with a third party, you can't afford to miss this inside view into cremation inspections.
11 - 11:50 a.m.
The Follow-Up: How to Increase Your Sales Effectiveness
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Dick Perl, Mobile Memorial Gardens, Mobile, Alabama
How can your family service counselors and funeral directors increase the effectiveness of your company's follow-up program? Dick Perl will show you some practical tools and techniques that result in boosted confidence, improved customer service opportunities and higher closings.
noon - 1:30 p.m.
Sixth Annual State Association Roundtable Luncheon
Ticket required.
Join the most unique roundtable in the cemetery, cremation and funeral industry as leaders from state associations around the nation discuss the topics and network on the issues that affect their members.
1:30 - 4:20 p.m.
Breakout Sessions
1:30 - 2:20 p.m.
CSI: Locating Unmarked Graves
Elizabeth Agin, FPM Geophysical & UXO Services, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Welcome to CSI (Cemetery Scene Investigation): Locating Unmarked Graves! Join Chief Investigator Elizabeth Agin as she uncovers various techniques for identifying unmarked graves. She will illustrate how techniques such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and 3-D Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) can be used to determine burial features of varying age and decomposition in diverse geographic regions.
1:30 - 2:20 p.m.
Trend Watch: Consumer Memorialization Preferences
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Mike Baklarz, Cold Spring Granite Memorial Group, Cold Spring, Minnesota
In 2003, Mike Baklarz presented the results of groundbreaking research on consumer preferences regarding memorials, ceremonies and prearrangement. The resulting data was classified according to age, income, religious affiliation, geographical region, gender and ethnicity.
Four years later, Cold Spring has conducted a comprehensive follow-up study. What has changed? What hasn't? And what does your company need to do to ensure you are at the front of the wave of today's trends? The answers may surprise you.
1:30 - 3:20 p.m.
Strength in Numbers: A Roundtable Session for Smaller Funeral Homes
Dennis McGee Jr., CFSP, CPC, Henry Funeral Home, Audubon, New Jersey
This two-hour roundtable session will allow owners and operators of funeral homes doing anywhere from one to 150 calls per year to power network and share ideas. Come prepared to discuss your experiences, challenges, successes and tips. Facilitator Dennis McGee will lead discussions on operational issues, personnel problems, technological solutions, customer relations and more.
2:30 - 3:20 p.m.
Pet Funerals, Cremation and Burial: The Why and the How
Tom Flynn, John Flynn and Roberta Knauf, Hillcrest Memorial Park, John Flynn Funeral Home & Crematory, Hillcrest-Flynn Pet Funeral Home & Crematory and Pet Service Advisors, Hermitage, Pennsylvania
Pets are big business in the United States today, and the demand for quality pet funeral, cremation and burial services is growing by leaps and bounds. In the first hour of this two-part session on pet funerals, cremations and burial, Tom and John Flynn and Roberta Knauf will share their successful initiatives to capture and serve the "high end" of the pet memorialization market.
2:30 - 3:20 p.m.
Avoid Tricky Contract Clauses and Other Buy/Sell Landmines
Frank Rosenacker, Rosenacker & Associates, Cincinnati, Ohio
Preparing to sell your business? Looking to expand and buy? This session could save you lots of time, money and heartache. Frank Rosenacker will examine contracts in general as well as the following topics:
- consideration, including non-competition covenants, management contracts and goodwill
- conditions
- warranties and representations
- stock and asset sales
- due diligence
- indemnification
- letters of intent
2:30 - 3:20 p.m.
Building Your Recruiting Program
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Todd Carlson, Funeral Directors Life Insurance Company, Abilene, Texas
Your preneed program is only as good as the people you have representing it. This session will provide concrete steps for recruiting and selecting high-quality agents who can effectively educate your community about the benefits of prearranging. Learn how to:
- identify key behaviors and experience in successful prospective hires.
- locate recruiting sources through referrals, customers' churches, senior centers, newspaper ads and job fairs
- create an effective recruiting package
- interview to separate the "wheat" from the "chaff"
3:30 - 4:20 p.m.
Pet Funerals, Cremation and Burial: To Market We Go
Coleen Ellis, Pet Angel Memorial Center, Carmel, Indiana
Today's pet parent wants to know what their options are when their furry family member dies. Marketing to this demographic group to be their preferred funeral, cremation and cemetery provider is both interesting and exciting. In the second hour of this two-part session on pets, you'll hear a variety of proven ways to appeal to this market.
3:30 - 4:20 p.m.
If Only We Had the Funds ...
John Bry, The Madden Company and William Howard Day Cemetery, Harrisburg, PA
Capital campaigns are an often overlooked source of potentially significant revenue for cemeteries both small and large. John Bry has brought a 20-year career in preservation, heritage tourism and revitalization to bear in developing numerous capital campaigns for cemeteries. In this session, he'll share his results-oriented solutions for the challenges facing today's cemeteries and memorial parks.
3:30 - 4:20 p.m.
The Folly of the Selection Room: Creating a Space That Works
(Simultaneous English-to-Spanish interpretation available for this session)
Marty Strohofer, Aurora Casket Company, Aurora, Indiana
The traditional casket selection room has gone the way of the buggy whip. Consumer preferences and trends have forced funeral professionals to consider a new approach to funeral arranging and merchandising, an approach which:
- puts the emphasis on funeral services and the role of the funeral professional
- creates a relaxing environment for planning remarkable celebrations
- provides the widest selection regardless of burial or cremation disposition
This session will offer real-world examples of how leading funeral homes have transformed their selection room into a space that works for all families, including inexpensive ideas you can implement immediately.
7 - 10:00 p.m.
Closing Reception and Dinner: Life's a Beach!
So, your brain's about to burst from all the new stuff you've learned this week? Time to Hang Ten at the ICCFA Beach Bash! Slip on your shades and some comfy sandals and get ready to have fun, fun, fun!
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