What's Your Strategy? A Hands-On Workshop
Robin Heppell
Strategic thinking is key in planning, adapting to change, securing market share, achieving operational efficiencies--in short, it is essential to everything we do.

In this two-hour workshop, funeral director and futurist Rob Heppell will share proven strategic analysis tools and processes that are taught in today's top MBA programs. Next, he'll examine how to apply those lessons to our industry, and finally, he'll put you to work drilling down to an analysis of your own company.

By the end of this class, you will have identified:

• your firm's strengths and how to use them as the foundation to distinguish yourself from the competition
• the three main attributes that separate you from your competition
• your firm's "elevator pitch," to succinctly and effectively communicate your distinguishing attributes
• your firm's weaknesses and how and when to address them
• potential threats to your firm and how you can reduce risk
• hidden opportunities in your market and how your firm can tap into them
• keys to making strategic decisions quickly and with confidence
• educational materials you can adapt to teach your client families to purchase from you and not your competitor
• Internet marketing techniques to put you ahead of the competition

Robin Heppell, CFSP, is founder of Heppell Funeral Planning Ltd., an independent funeral consulting company in Victoria, British Columbia. He is a licensed funeral director.

I Feel as Though I Know You
Marty L. Byars
Families trust us with something so near and dear to their hearts. How can we live up to that trust?

Having an empathetic heart and a servant's mentality is essential in our industry. We must find a way to put ourselves in our client families' shoes and understand their psyche. The tricky part is, that isn't the same for each family.

In this session, Marty Byars will share how he has grown his firm from its infancy five years ago to a successful company that today serves 240 families a year, all through personal, caring service and word-of-mouth referrals. Discover how to get to the point where you feel as though you truly know the family you are serving, including:

• reading non-verbal communication cues
• observing and meeting unspoken needs
• personalizing your approach
• spending their money as if it were your own
• taking their trust personally, not haphazardly

Marty Byars is president of Byars Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Cumming, Georgia. A member of the funeral service profession for more than 25 years, he has worked in every area, including cemetery, funeral home and preneed sales. He was "Mr. September" in the 2007 Men of Mortuaries calendar.

Community Relations: Going Beyond the Chamber of Commerce
Rick Miller, Stacie Schubert and Christopher Conroy
We can no longer simply attend our weekly service club meetings and monthly chamber of commerce functions and expect our businesses to flourish. Cemeterians and funeral directors today need to take a new, more expansive view of community relations programs and their potential for enhancing market position.

This session will provide multiple examples and "how to" techniques for broadening your company's community relations and new business development, from working with community and state organizations such as hospice, care centers and associations, to establishing business-to-business relationships and effective affinity programs.

Rick Miller is president of Olinger Mortuaries and Cemeteries in Denver, Colorado. He has more than 30 years experience in the cemetery, cremation and funeral service profession and is a member of the ICCFA Sales & Marketing Committee. Stacie Schubert is director of community relations and Christopher Conroy is director of business development at Olinger.

101 Best Practices to Boost Your Bottom Line
Kara Gray Ludlum and Dr. Marty Ludlum
Business times are difficult. Costs are rising, and competition is fierce. This seminar will focus on best practices for managing your bottom line, with a focus on products, buying decisions, managing big-ticket items and collecting accounts. You'll receive numerous handouts and checklists to take back and use at your location.

Kara Gray Ludlum is owner/manager of Lawton Ritter Gray Funeral Home and Sunset Memorial Gardens in Lawton, Oklahoma. She is a second-generation funeral home owner and is a licensed CPA. Marty Ludlum is an assistant professor of legal studies at the University of Central Oklahoma and a member of the Oklahoma Bar.

No More Herding Cats: How to Bring Your Team into the 21st Century
Alan Creedy
Most business owners know they need to change the way they do business, but they don't know how to get all of the stakeholders on board.

If you sometimes feel like you are rowing upstream and losing valuable time and energy doing it, this workshop and case study is for you. You'll learn six proven techniques used by a few of the leading cemetery and funeral home operators in the United States. Discover how to overcome resistance and change passive-aggressive behavior into positive behavior. Find out how to get natural enemies to work together as a team (and like it!).

Alan Creedy is president and a founder of Trust 100, operating in more than 20 states and Canada as a leading marketer of prepaid funerals. He was formerly president of Brown-Wynne Funeral Homes in Raleigh, North Carolina, and president of OGR Service Corporation.

Organizational Dynamics: Turning the Team You Have into the Team You Want
Robert Taylor
Consistently one of the highest rated speakers at the ICCFA University, University of Memphis Professor Bob Taylor will share the latest team-building and management principles being taught in today's college business programs. Among the topics to be covered:

• characteristics of high-performing teams
• how to build better team players within your organization
• reasons for team failures
• how to listen to your employees and improve your communication skills
• listening guides for display at the workplace

Personnel Management: Hiring and Motivating Your Staff
Robert Taylor
How do you find good people, and then how do you keep them motivated to perform? In this session, University of Memphis Professor Bob Taylor will discuss the Job Characteristic Model, including core job dimensions, critical psychological states and personal work and outcome. He'll show you how to reinforce the performance you want, including non-monetary ways to reward your best people.

Bob Taylor is an associate professor and is chairman of the Department of Management for the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee. He is director of the department's Ph.D. program. He teaches in the Executive MBA, International MBA and Ph.D. programs and conducts research in a leader-subordinate relationships, empowerment, organizational citizenship behavior and trust. He is a regular instructor at the ICCFA University.

Organizing and Developing an Effective Prep Room
Shun Newbern
A skilled, well trained embalming staff forms the basis of an effective prep room. In this session, Quality Control Supervising Embalmer Shun Newbern will share his expertise on how to hire and retain the best qualified embalmers, as well as how to avoid malpractice issues relating to identification procedures and thorough embalming of difficult cases. He'll cover:

• using full-time embalmers vs. trade (self-employed) embalmer
• transforming prep-room help into prep-room staff
• the hallmark of excellence--the paradigm embalmer
• how to establish quality control
• the power of delegation
• the power of effectiveness through planning

Shun Newbern, CFSP, is the quality control supervising embalmer for Rose Hills Mortuary in Whittier, California, where he supervises the activities of 32 embalmers, overseeing all aspects of decedent care and preparations; training apprentice embalmers; implementing local, state and federal regulations and guidelines; and acting as risk manager, preventive maintenance and safety liaison. He serves as an expert witness consultant for funeral service issues nationwide.

Protecting Your Business from Lawsuits in the Prep Room
Melissa Johnson Williams and Sharon L. Gee
With the recent rise in lawsuits over embalming malpractice, it is important to protect yourself, your staff and your business through best practices.

Expert witness Melissa Johnson Williams will highlight specific problem areas and share how the litigation process works, including techniques she sees frequently used by lawyers to win their cases. Next, Sharon Gee will cover best embalming practices to protect your firm from problems that can affect not only your bankbook but your reputation as well.

Melissa Johnson Williams, CFSP, is and embalmer/funeral director with Johnson-Williams Funeral Service in Forest Park, Illinois. She is the executive director of the American Society of Embalmers. Sharon Gee is an embalming instructor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and is manager of Pixley Funeral Home's Godhardt-Tomlinson Chapel in Keego Harbor, Michigan. She is president of the Michigan Embalmers Society and vice president of the American Society of Embalmers.

Planning and Design: The Flexible Cemetery
Jack Goodnoe
Consumers expect choices, and successful cemeteries must understand, plan for and accommodate that expectation in creative, respectful and economically appropriate ways.

Cemetery planning and design expert Jack Goodnoe will examine today's dominant trends, such as placing cremations and burials in garden or natural settings, personalization and ethnic influences. He will provide real solutions and examples of how to:

• plan for and design quality columbariums, particularly in "leftover"
• land areas within the cemetery
• gracefully incorporate upright monument burial into memorial park settings
• accommodate a diversity of modern burial forms while maintaining historic-style landscapes
• use your outdoor burial areas as "outdoor sales rooms"
• deal with the growing call for variations such as group-specific sections, pet sections and green sections within existing cemeteries

Seeing What Can't Be Seen--Maximizing Cemetery Revenue
Laura Clark and Steven DiBenedetto
Do you have lost revenue because of what you can't see? This session will show you how to maximize your cemetery's profitability, both for sections that are in pre-design and active status.

Discover how to use geophysical methods to non-intrusively map designated land areas for subsurface features such as depth of bedrock, water tables and interments, as well as man-made fill and other subsurface features that can affect your cemetery's viability. Geophysical assessment can provide verification for cemetery acquisition, design or litigation protection.

Laura Clark is director of the environmental division for Underground Imaging Technologies, responsible for developing and managing project efforts ranging from cemetery design and planning to brown field redevelopment, and specializing in coordinating geophysical solutions for cemeteries. Steve DiBenedetto is technical support team leader with Underground Imaging Technologies, responsible for oversight and management of the company's data collection, interpretation and visualization and mapping of single and multi-channel ground-penetrating radar and time-domain electromagnetic survey data.

Ever wondered, "Why isn't there a complete 'how to' system for selling preneed in our profession?" Do you sometimes ask yourself, "Isn't there a better way?"

These were questions Gary O'Sullivan and David Shipper have struggled with for years. In 2005 they made the decision to work together to create a system, field test it, revise it and find out once and for all: What Works!

So far, they have produced over 300 pages of what to do, and when and how to do it. In this session, they'll share with you some of their findings and show you some specific things you can do at your location--not theory, but rather, field tested-techniques based on failure and experience, including step-by-step instructions on how to implement their ideas the day you get back.

Click here to see a special sneak preview of What Works?

Gary O'Sullivan, CCFE, is president of the Gary O'Sullivan Company, a consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, development, management and leadership of operations in sales and marketing. He previously was a sales executive with Carriage Services. He was recognized as the Speaker of the Decade by the ICCFA in 2000.

David Shipper, past president of the ICCFA, is president and CEO of companies that own and operate 42 cemetery and funeral home locations serving more than 12,000 families per year. Previously, he served as a vice president and director of corporate development with Loewen Group International.

25 Ways to Close the Sale
Michael Miller

It's where all sales go to die: "We're going to think about it."

Why do sales counselors so often fail at the very place they desire to be--the close? Michael Miller will provide 25 closes on which he built his successful preneed sales career. And all are based on one concept: "He who serves best, profits most."

Don't miss this "how to" session, and be sure to save some extra room in your suitcase, as you'll take away a handbook with the 25 closes; 100 topics for your sales team meetings; and a package with hands-on information regarding prospecting, breaking a slump, team building and more.

Michael Miller is general manager of Rose Lawn Memorial Park in Tyler, Texas. Previously, he was a sales manager and a Circle of Diamonds winner with the Loewen Group Inc.

The World of Advertising is Changing
Tim Thompson
Advertising as we've known it is dead.

The new world of advertising requires a completely different approach than 10 and 20 years ago. From now on, radio audiences will be measured electronically using a system PPM (Portable People Meter) instead of the traditional diary. In the good old days, you could purchase time on ABC, NBC or CBS; now you have approximately 497 other choices. And The New York Times has more online readers than hard-copy readers.

So what does this mean for the cemetery, cremation and funeral industry? How do you rise above the clutter to deliver your value proposition? Is it the medium, the message or both?

This multi-media presentation will give you straight answers to real questions. Using a scorecard rating the pros and cons of each option, Tim Thompson will analyze the media choices available to you and examine which ones make sense for your business.

Next, he'll look at powerful and compelling ads from other industries as well as our own. Ultimately, it's what you say in your advertising that makes the difference between success and failure. Discover what to say as you develop your unique value proposition.

Tim Thompson is director of marketing and sales at Mount Royal Commemorative Services in Montreal, Quebec, where he has created and developed a highly successful educational advertising program that has generated thousands of leads. He previously worked as an on-air radio broadcaster with CKAP in Kapuskasing, Ontario, a television and radio sales manager and the vice president of sales and marketing for the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes.

What They Didn't Teach You About Marketing at Mortuary College
Dan Katz
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. You'll learn 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 steps on how to create and build your brand.

Dan Katz is president of LA Ads Marketing Services and Airway to Heaven. He has been an advertising copywriter and creative director for more than 25 years, creating successful campaigns for such diverse clients as Alpine Electronics, Infinity Systems, Sears Savings Bank, Kaufman and Broad and Twentieth Century-Fox. His broadcast and print work has garnered Elan, MAME, West Coast Show, IBA and Telly awards.

Preneed Case Study: Identifying Opportunities in Your Market
Graham Cook, Dean Lambert, Jerry Reichert, Marty Strohofer and Jon Roeder
Preneed sales is the lifeblood of our industry. Properly marketed and executed, it can have a tremendous impact on the future business performance and market share of your funeral home.

In this session, Graham Cook and Jerry Reichert will provide a framework for trying to determine what impact preneed will have on future business profitability.

Next, Dean Lambert and Marty Strohofer will offer advice on how to identify opportunities to maximize preneed sales performance and market share.

Finally, funeral director Jon Roeder will share a success story based on the actual tactics discussed.

You'll walk away with insights on the appropriate metrics to use in identifying opportunities as well as proven tactics for securing profitable business into the future.

Graham Cook is chief executive officer and Dean Lambert is vice president of marketing at Homesteaders Life Company in Des Moines, Iowa. Jerry Reichert is chief operating officer and Marty Strohofer is director of creative marketing for Aurora Casket Company in Aurora, Indiana. Jon Roeder is a funeral director with Roeder Mortuary in Omaha, Nebraska.

"I Knew I Was Buying a Casket, But Not a Vault"
Joseph Weigel
How many times have you heard that from families at the conclusion of the arrangement conference? Most families who make funeral arrangements know they will need to select a casket, but how many realize they will be choosing an outer burial container?

In this session, Joe Weigel will present several programs and techniques to help you make more effective vault presentations to families during the arrangement conference. You'll leave with the information and tools you need to achieve greater family satisfaction and increased revenues.

Joe Weigel is vice president of marketing for Wilbert Inc. in Forest Park, Illinois, where he is responsible for the development, management and merchandising of the company's vault and cremation product lines. Previously, he spent more than a decade as director of marketing and corporate communications at Batesville Casket Company.

Let's Play Ball
Richard F. Perl
In baseball, before the first batter can come to the plate, certain things must be in place--rules, a field to play on, equipment and of course, the players. You'll find that the game of selling is no different. And the objective is the same, as well--to win!

To win in prearrangement sales, you must cover all your bases, and in this session, Dick Perl will share his 30+ years of experience to show you what each base entails and how to make sure you have them covered.

Dick Perl is director of marketing and sales at Mobile Memorial Gardens in Mobile, Alabama. He began his career in the early 1970s selling preneed property and memorialization. He previously was a manager of a funeral home/cemetery combination as well as a cemetery owner in Florida.

Are You Priced Right for 2009?
Frank B. Rosenacker
How do you know if you're priced right? Do you solicit your competition and then decide what to charge? Do you know and understand what it really costs to perform your services? Do you know what you need to charge today in a preneed setting in order to make sure you'll have enough money to perform the service at need? Should your direct cremation charge be less than your basic services?

This seminar addresses these questions and pinpoints specific information regarding financials. Specifically, we will:

• review sample financial statements and detailed income and expense categories
• discuss profitability, including owner salaries and return on investment
• provide examples to allow you to incorporate these ideas into your own business

Frank Rosenacker owns and operates Rosenacker and Associates in Cincinnati, Ohio, an international consulting firm offering cemeteries, crematories and funeral homes a wide range of services such as business appraisals and evaluations, succession and estate planning, management and employee issues and legal services. A fourth-generation funeral director, he is secretary of his family's funeral home corporation, which owns four funeral homes. He also is a practicing attorney specializing in estate planning, probate and corporate business.

Research to Results: Conveying the Value of Your Products and Services
Chris Lowery
Some in funeral service are pondering whether the casket selection room is facing extinction. Batesville Casket Company recently undertook two consumer research projects, as well as focus group studies with industry-leading funeral directors, to examine how families perceive value when presented information within a simplified, structured format that addresses their buying behaviors.

Based on the combined findings from these studies, Chris Lowery will share concrete, tested recommendations as to how the display environment and the arrangement process are evolving and how to fully realize their combined power. You'll learn techniques and concepts that will help you improve family satisfaction and increase profitability.

Chris Lowery is director of merchandising systems for Batesville Casket Company. Previously, he served as director of human resources, director of product leadership and director of marketing and strategic planning for Options by Batesville. He has traveled extensively in North America and Europe for speaking engagements and training programs and has worked with numerous funeral homes to develop and test new concepts to address their changing market needs.

Internet Panel: Using Your Web Site to Generate Leads and Sales
David Johnson and Michael Turkiewicz
Many cemeteries, crematories and funeral homes today have Web sites, but most do not take full advantage of the opportunities their sites offer. This panel presentation by two of the leading Web providers in our industry will use real-life examples to demonstrate Internet tools that don't necessarily cost a lot but that can increase your visibility, lead generation and direct sales. Find out how your company can take its Web site to the next level through:

• improving traffic via key site features and higher search engine rankings
• creating designs and messages that appeal to your four primary
• audience types that come to your site
• developing effective e-commerce programs
• offering online forms and functions that can eliminate routine paperwork, leaving your arrangers with more time for quality planning processes
• transforming your site from a static info bulletin to a social medium via blogs, video, social networking tools and more

David Johnson is a partner in TheFuneralSite.com in Kent, Washington, and the Seattle Funeral Guide. He has 25 years of experience in the high-tech and publishing businesses, including extensive experience leading hands-on computer training seminars. He has been profiled in Forbes Magazine and local newspaper articles.

Michael Turkiewicz is president of FuneralNet in Portland, Oregon, a company he founded in 1996 as the first company to build Web sites for the cemetery, cremation and funeral service industry. FuneralNet has brought to the Web many programs and functions that have become industry standards, such as online obituaries and forms, flower programs and A-Z cremation Web sites.

Preneed Due Diligence:
Five Steps to Avoid Problems
Poul Lemasters
The word about preneed is getting out... but not in a good way. Today we are hearing more and more stories about preneed scandals involving everyone from cemeteries and funeral homes, to insurance agents and insurance companies, to state associations. And the allegations run the gamut, from bad investments to missing funds.

So what do you do? Preneed is an essential part of your business. It is not going away, but the laws are becoming stricter and you as an owner or manager are facing greater liability.

In this session, funeral director and attorney Poul Lemasters will help you evaluate your current preneed program and provide the action steps you need to protect the consumer and yourself. He will:

• examine the history of preneed, including recent issues causing concern
• explain the laws and procedures regarding preneed funding
• explain how to set up a due diligence program and protect your company

Poul Lemasters works for Rosenacker & Associates, a funeral profession consulting company. He graduated from the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science and from the Northern Kentucky University, Chase College of Law. He has worked in the funeral industry for more than 15 years and holds a funeral director's license and embalmer's license in Ohio and West Virginia. He has managed both small and large funeral homes and worked with both independent and corporate owned funeral homes. His law practice began in the area of civil defense and has served as corporate counsel for Alderwoods, advising on funeral home, cemetery, crematory and insurance issues.

Pet Funerals: From Service to Sales
Tom Flynn, John Flynn and Roberta Knauf
How can you make use of the full spectrum of your existing professional skills and services to help pet lovers pay proper tribute to their beloved animals?

For the last three years, the Convention sessions on pet funerals, cremation and burial have drawn packed rooms and rave reviews as attendees have tried to figure out how (and whether) to break into this market. This year's session will offer more details on the opportunities this service area represents, with an exploration of:

• the full range of pet service options and opportunities
• how offering these services can broaden your demographics by
• appealing to 63 percent of the homes (those with pets) in your marketplace and surrounding areas
• other entities currently serving the pet loss industry and those that are poised to enter it
• the importance of connecting with "pet parents" before the death of their pet
• how pet services can be transformed into "the best sales lead program ever"

Tom Flynn, CPA, is president of Hillcrest Memorial Park and its people and pet gardens. John Flynn is a licensed funeral director, oversees the Hillcrest-Flynn Pet Funeral Home & Crematory, and is supervisor and owner of the John Flynn Funeral Home & Crematory. Roberta Knauf is a pet industry specialist with 25+ years experience as a pet funeral director. She is an evaluator for the AKC Canine Good Citizen program, an instructor and certifier for Therapy Dog International, founder of the first Prison Puppy Program in Pennsylvania, and member of the American Pet Dog Trainers Association.

How to Value a Funeral Home or Cemetery: A Hands-on Workshop
Dan Isard
The days of assuming a business value can be computed on the back of a napkin are long gone. In this workshop-style session, you'll learn the whys and wherefores of valuing a cemetery and a funeral home.

You'll receive a summary of the methods of valuation and then actually go through and work as a group to value a cemetery and a funeral home. Next, you'll be able to test your results and take your analysis a step further, addressing matters such as synergistic value and other issues.

Dan Isard is president of The Foresight Companies in Phoenix, Arizona, and has served as a consultant to more than 1,000 funeral homes and 300 cemeteries on all aspects of operations. He has managed more than 20 funeral homes and 10 cemeteries, including their advance sales.

Your Professional Liability Insurance Policy: Does It Give You "Sleep" Insurance?
Michael Kubasak
Having the right kind of professional insurance can provide you with peace of mind.

In this session, we'll uncover "limiting factors" within typical professional liability insurance policies that most people are not aware of--until they are sued and denied coverage.

Mike Kubasak will clear up areas of common misunderstanding, examine the role of insurance in a proper business plan and prepare you to discuss your policy needs with your insurance carrier. Areas that will be covered include:

• when you should undertake an insurance review
• how much professional liability insurance is necessary
• common causes that lead to lawsuits claiming professional negligence
• "occurrence" insurance form policies vs. "claims-made" form policies
• how what you don't know about "umbrella" coverage can hurt you
• 13 critical questions to ask your insurance carrier

Mike Kubasak is president of Kubasak Associates in Mesquite, Nevada, and is co-author of "Traversing the Minefield: Best Practice: Reducing Risk in Funeral-Cremation Service."

Fiduciary Best Practices for Investment Stewards
Patrick Severo
Never has it been more important to understand and ensure prudent investment of your funds. In this session, Pat Severo brings to bear more than 20 years of experience as he explains fiduciary best practices. You'll learn:

• the seven standards of care required of a fiduciary
• the five-step investment management process
• how to create a "practices" matrix that combines those seven standards and five steps to ensure maximum accountability and performance

Severo will tailor his analysis specifically to today's economic situation, so be prepared to take lots of notes, and bring your questions!

Patrick Severo, CIMA, is senior vice president of RBC Wealth Management, Beverly Hills, California. In June 2007, The Los Angeles Business Journal ranked him 24th in its list of the city's Top 40 Leading Wealth Advisers. Severo holds the designations of Certified Investment Management Analyst from the Investment Management Consultants Association, Accredited Investment Fiduciary from the University of Pittsburgh and Accredited Wealth Manager from Michigan State University.

Top 10 Ways Your Trustee
Keeps You Out of Jail
Marcia Williams
Your trustee can be your best protection against landing in an orange jumpsuit! We'll explore:

• allowed and disallowed investments, and who decides
• what is principal, what is income and how is that determined
• private investments, loans and notes
• variations among state laws and the implications for each of these
• topics on the structure and operation of trusts to keep trustors,
• trustees and regulators all safe, free and happy

Marcia Williams is founder and president of Independence Trust Company in Franklin, Tennessee, which works with cemeteries and funeral homes as trustee and investment manager. A chartered financial analyst, she serves as supplier representative to the board of the Cemetery Association of Tennessee and is a member of the ICCFA Government and Legal Affairs Committee.

National Cemetery Administration Initiatives
Lindee Lenox
What does the National Cemetery Administration have to do with your cemetery, crematory or funeral home? Join Lindee Lenox as she explains numerous NCA initiatives that may directly affect your company and the veterans families you serve:

• the NCA Scheduling Center in St. Louis, established in 2007 as a centralized location for scheduling all burials at Veterans Administration national cemeteries across the United States.
• the status and locations of new national cemeteries
• the Internet application process for ordering government headstones and markers to be placed in private cemeteries, and when that service will be available to the public
• the NCA toll-free fax service, which is being used as an alternate means to submit applications for government headstones/markers
• Public Law 110-157 and the changes resulting from this law (i.e., the authority to provide government headstone and markers for already marked graves and the creation and rollout of a new product that can be affixed to a privately purchased headstone or marker to recognize the decedent's status as a veteran)
• the Presidential Memorial Certificate Program and how to apply for a certificate

Lindee Lenox is director of the National Cemetery Administration's Memorial Programs Service in Washington, DC, where she is responsible for administering two worldwide Veterans Administration burial benefit programs--the government headstone and marker program and the Presidential Memorial Certificate program. She is a Vietnam-era veteran.

Funeral and Interment in China
Jisheng Wang and Mark Krause, CFuE
Join Jisheng Wang for a brief video on "Funeral and Interment in China: A Brief History," which will offer insight into how the Chinese cemetery, cremation and funeral industry strives to connect and adapt to the changing needs of that society. Burials and tributes in China have developed into various forms based on the diverse population.

Next, ICCFA President Mark Krause will share his experiences from his 2008 trip to Shanghai, where he addressed the Cemetery Committee Forum of the China Funeral and Cemetery Association.

Jisheng Wang is general manager of Shanghai Fu Shou Yuan Industrial Development Co., Qingpu Area, Shanghai, China. He is also the director of the China Funeral and Cemetery Association and the president of the China Cemetery Committee for the China Funeral and Cemetery Association.

Mark Krause is president of Krause Funeral Homes and Cremation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is president of the ICCFA.

The Assassination and Funeral of Abraham Lincoln
Todd Van Beck
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln stands as one of the pivotal tragedies in U.S. history. The mere mention of Ford's Theatre or John Wilkes Booth immediately evokes the memory and tragic end of our 16th president.

Lincoln's death not only changed the course of history, it also changed the way we take care of our dead. His funeral set the pattern for funeral rituals and cultural mores that are observed to this very day. Don't miss this fascinating and well received presentation by one of our industry's most highly respected educators and speakers.

Todd Van Beck is director of family funeral care at A.S. Turner & Sons in Decatur, Georgia. He is dean of the ICCFA University College of Funeral Home Management and author of four books and more than 50 training manuals related to funeral service.

The Cremation Arranger Certification represents the cutting edge of cremation sales and service. Usually available only as part of the Cremation College curriculum at ICCFA University each summer, this instruction is being offered for the first time at a separate location. This is an ideal opportunity to learn these important skills as part of the overall ICCFA Convention experience.

Sign in yourself, and bring your front-line employees. This is one of the best investments you can make for your firm as the cremation rate continues to climb. The Cremation Arranger Certification program is included with your regular Convention registration: You do not need to pay a separate fee, you simply need to sign up on the Convention Registration Form and attend all six sessions on the final day.

The largest growth market in our industry today is cremation. The only question is, will the trend veer toward or away from tributes and memorialization? You and your staff have the power to influence the trend in your market, through the level of service you offer and the level of service you promote.

The only program of its kind, the ICCFA's Cremation Arranger Certification provides six hours of in-depth training on how to arrange and create meaningful cremation tributes, how to create unique options for memorialization and how best to communicate all of this with your client families.

Open to all owners, managers, funeral directors and counselors. Funeral directors can earn up to 6 CE credits, pending individual state approvals. "Walk ins" will be welcomed onsite on a space-available basis, but if you want to receive your certificate at the Convention, please be sure to pre-register. (Check the box on the Convention Registration Form to indicate you are participating in this program).

"I Don't Want a Funeral, I Want a Cremation"
Julie Burn
What do people expect from today's providers? What mistaken assumptions do providers make? Is there a psychological difference between burial clients and cremation clients? How can a provider effectively understand and relate to both? We'll take a look at products that people hate, products that people embrace and what makes the difference.

Some Spend More Money Than Others. Why?
Nectar Ramirez
What compels consumers to move from cremation without ceremony toward service and merchandise options? What tools and techniques do you need to educate consumers during cremation arrangements? Nectar Ramirez will explain the connection between product and service, marketing tools for the arrangement process, leave-behind material for families and selection displays.

Permanent Memorialization Options that People Embrace
Tim Lancaster, CCFE, and Bob Gordon, CCFE, CCrE, CSE
In a market with a cremation rate ranging from 55 to 68 percent, Tim Lancaster and Bob Gordon will explain how the team at Eternal Hills developed an approach that consistently results in permanent memorialization. While Eternal Hills offers urn gardens, glass-front niches, scattering gardens, etc., the real key and focus is not on product but rather on communication. Critically important is the attitude and approach of the arranger. This success story is not just theory but real how-to instruction on "why we do what we do" and "how we have applied these theories."

The Best of the Best Products and Processes
Dave Montgomery
What can you do with a little piece of space? Expect before and after pictures with real-world revenue stats to be shared in this session. If you're ready to go to the next level in exceeding customer expectations using meaningful cremation memorialization options, you won't want to miss this course.

Know Your Cremation Consumer
Doug Gober
Doug Gober is one of our industry's most informative speakers. He will share ground-breaking research on what today's cremation consumers are looking for and what you can do to meet and beat their expectations.

Walk the Talk--ICCFA Cremation Code of Ethics
Mark Krause, CFuE
What does it mean to be a first-class and consumer-friendly cremation provider? What makes cremation arrangements more complicated than burial arrangements? What is the attitude difference for the arranger and the customer? Also, how can you go above and beyond? Why might a retort have an oriental carpet in front of the unit? How are appointments like paintings, silk plants and comfortable furniture important around a crematory? What is the connection between food service and cremation service?

Questions, Objections... What Would You Do?
Julie Burn/Jim Starks
ICCFA Director of Cremation Services Julie Burn and ICCFAU College of Cremation Services Dean Jim Stark will address some of the top questions and objections from cremation clients. Attendees will be encouraged to participate during this fast-paced interactive session.

Wrap Up and Awarding of Certificates
Jim Starks, CFuE, CCrE
ICCFAU College of Cremation Services Dean Jim Starks will lead a summary discussion of the Cremation Arranger educational sessions and present participants with their official certificate (those who have pre-registered for the Cremation Arranger Certification will receive their certificates at the Convention; those who register onsite will receive them in the mail).

Second Annual "Going Green" Symposium
Susan Finkleman, Joe Cattarin, Cynthia Beal and Lane Ledbetter

At the 2008 Convention, you learned about the latest trends in green burial and environmentally conscious practices. In this year's two-hour breakout session, you'll learn how to introduce these techniques at your cemetery, crematory or funeral home. Among the topics to be covered:

• why sound and sustainable does not mean unprofitable
• natural and environmentally friendly alternatives for burials and cremations
• how to perform green burials, including techniques, pitfalls and pricing considerations
• solar panels
• integrated pest management
• xeriscaping through effective planting, irrigation and water management choices
• marketing and promotion

The panel will provide plenty of time for Q&A, so bring your questions!

Susan Finkleman is office manager of the Davis Cemetery in Davis, California, and is a retired school teacher and a published writer. Joe Cattarin is district superintendent with Davis, where he was hired as a groundsman more than 25 years ago. Cynthia Beal is owner of the Natural Burial Company in Portland, Oregon. Previously she was owner of Red Barn, a natural foods store. Lane Ledbetter is an associate at CPRA Studio, a cemetery planning and design firm based in Littleton, Colorado.

Awards Reception
Don't miss this opportunity to honor 2009 Hall of Fame winner Robert A. Gordon Sr., CCFE, as well as the newest recipients of the association's certification designations.

Women's Forum Luncheon (ticket required)
Join your colleagues for a fun and educational networking luncheon as members of the ICCFA Women's Forum--some of the top leaders in our industry--share their expertise and experiences and discuss ways to promote cemetery and funeral service as a profession to women, including ideas for recruiting and hiring in your community.

A luncheon raffle for fabulous prizes will benefit the ICCFA Women's Forum scholarship program.